Mae's Vineyard
Applegate Valley
We know of few people who work harder than Herb Quady, one of the cornerstone growers on whom we rely to provide us with the best raw materials for our wines. He grows several varietals on his ranch in southern Oregon. The beautiful Mae's vineyard is a gently rounded hillside arcing from southeast to south-southwest and framed by the rugged, conifer-covered slopes of the Siskiyou mountains. The soils are mostly granitic bedrock and decomposed basalt dotted with, of all things, chunks of quartz!
This is idyllic, rural wine country, the hills and valleys speckled with small farms here and there, interspersed with winding little rivers and bubbling creeks. The foliage is aromatic with evergreen, eucalyptus, and madrone trees breaking up the pastures and becoming more dense near the tops of the mountains. Ground elevation is about 1,200 - 1,600 feet. So even as the days are hot, the nights always cool off, usually under clear, starry skies in the summer.