Sokol Blosser Winery’s new Tasting Room, an architectural achievement by internationally renowned Allied Works Architecture, opens July 1, 2013 and will inspire an unforgettable wine adventure in Oregons Willamette Valley. The much anticipated building sets new standards in service, hospitality, and design for Oregon wine country.
Co-Presidents and siblings Alex and Alison Sokol Blosser create another family legacy as their founding parents did when they built Oregons first tasting room in 1978. With increasing foot traffic to the winery over the years, Sokol Blosser recognized the need to expand the capacity of the tasting room to meet demand as well as evolve the communal wine tasting experience for both current and next generation wine country visitors. The decision to offer personalized experiences inspired the creation of eight different tasting areas, each with unique design characteristics, for visitors to choose from tailored wine flights to wine and food pairings to private events. The winery sees bespoke wine tourism as critical to its success and the future of the Oregon wine country experience.
Our goal was to again raise the caliber of the wine experience in Oregon to meet the new demand of the increasingly savvy wine and design visitors, said Alison. She describes the building as a work of art, inside and out.
The new Tasting Room features 5,000 square feet of space to taste wine. Both pleasing and provocative, it frames views and vistas of the vineyard and rich, viticulture-focused landscape from all sides. A feat in contemporary architecture, the low profile structure hugs the landscape and offers distinct areas for enjoying Sokol Blossers acclaimed Pinot Noirs, other fine wines and food pairings, while taking in the panoramas of Willamette Valleys Dundee Hills.
The most striking feature of the new Tasting Room is its exterior and interior walls, which consist of striated wooden cladding made with Tight Knot Cedar, Douglas Fir, and Hickory. The unique form of the building, and placement of windows and skylights, allows the sun to create dynamic geometric patterns that move with the earth inside and outside on the terraces. Visitors will feel immersed in the earths natural elements throughout the building.
As guests enter the Tasting Room, they are greeted by a warm double-sided fireplace that faces both the entry foyer and The Main Room, where they can enjoy wine flights at a wood-sculpted bar, by the fireplace or around bistro tables. Additional spaces include:
- The Library, an intimate room for learning wine history with flights from the Sokol Blosser wine cellar;
- The Kitchen, a room for gathering much like a kitchen at home for enjoying food and wine pairings around a butcher block table; and,
- The Terrace, an exclusive outdoor space reserved for Cellar Club members, Sokol Blossers loyalty wine club, to relax with table side service.
Four other areas The Front Porch, The Farm Table, The Cellar Lounge, and The Secret Garden bring even more options for guests to build their wine experiences with each creating a different, unique feel. Whether their desire is for an experience that is luxurious or casual, indoor or outdoor, and intimate or open, the new Tasting Room offers guests variety and versatility. Pricing for wine experiences begin at $15.
True to Sokol Blossers leadership in sustainability, the new Tasting Room is the first winery in the U.S. to pursue the Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification. The LBC is an internationally-recognized green building standard that sets a vision for buildings, sites and communities that are built and operate in harmony with the environment and are ultimately restorative for the planet. As it measures the holistic impact of the building, the new Tasting Rooms performance will be tracked through the first year of operation with certification anticipated in July 2014.
Brad Cloepfil, founder of Allied Works Architecture and lead architect on the project, had an especially personal connection to building in the region in which he was born and raised. This new Tasting Room at Sokol Blosser echoes his own sentiments about architecture as an act of offering. He states, If the visitor to Sokol Blosser experiences insight, a deeper perception of the area and is moved to ponder and wonder, then this building will have succeeded in all of the ways in which it was intended.
About Sokol Blosser Winery
For more than 40 years, before there was an Oregon wine industry, the Sokol Blosser family has been growing grapes and creating exemplary wines. Located on a certified organic 120-acre property in Oregons Dundee Hills sub appellation, Sokol Blosser has consistently captured the terroir of the region as expressed through the brilliance of its estate fruit. This resolute quest for excellence is also inherent in its environmentally-sensitive winemaking techniques, a core value for Sokol Blosser since the planting of its very first vines 1971. The winery produces Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and small quantities of Single Block Pinot Noirs under its Sokol Blosser brand name. It also produces a white blend and red blend under the Evolution brand name.
We feel a sense of social responsibility in conducting our business and our lives the way we do. This is the only way we could imagine doing it, notes Susan Sokol Blosser, the winerys Co-Founder. Not only are our methods healthier for the soil, the vines, and those of us who work in the vineyard, they also lead to better wines.
The Oregon pioneering winery, now in its second generation of management, is under the care of sister and brother co-presidents, Alison and Alex Sokol Blosser. Sokol Blosser Winery is entering a new millennium of winemaking, tasting and hospitality with The New Tasting Room expected to foster new, meaningful relationships and experiences for wine enthusiasts on its Willamette Valley estate. Please visit https://www.sokolblosser.com to shop online, for New Tasting Room hours and more information about this award-winning vineyard and winery.
