Fuller, William

Epithet: servant to Hon. R Curzon

Epithet: of Hardwicke, county Cambridgeshire

Tualatin Estate Vineyard, established in 1973, is one of the oldest and most respected vineyard sites in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Wine grapes from this 145-acre vineyard have produced world-renowned wines for over 38 years. Tualatin is the only vineyard to have won the Best of Show for both the red and white categories at the London International Wine Competition in the same year. Tualatin’s Pinot Noir captured the Governor’s Trophy, Oregon’s most prestigious wine award, two years consecutively in 1994 and 1995. This is a feat unduplicated by any Oregon winery. Tualatin Estate Vineyard is proudly owned through a merger accomplished in 1997 with Willamette Valley Vineyards.

The name “Tualatin” originates from local indigenous people and means “gentle and easy flowing,” referring to the local Tualatin River that meanders on its way to the confluence with the Willamette River. The site is located in the coastal rain shadows near Forest Grove, Oregon. It is planted with sixty-five acres of Pinot Noir, fifteen acres of Chardonnay, twenty-nine acres of Riesling, six acres of Gewürztraminer, ten acres of Muscat, and nine acres of Pinot Blanc. Our most recent plantings reflect the site’s affinity to ripening Pinot Noir, with forty-five new acres planted to seven different French clones, all grafted onto phylloxera-resistant rootstock. The new plantings are spaced at twice the plant density of the original vineyard to improve vineyard ripening potential by limiting the crop on a per plant basis. This will yield wines that are more consistent from year to year as well as more complex structurally due to the clonal diversity.

The Oregon Wine Board (OWB) is a semi-independent agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon that promotes development of the wine industry within the state, and coordinates both domestic and export marketing efforts for the industry. OWB is supported financially by a tax on wine grapes produced in the state and the sale of Oregon wines in the state. The taxes are collected on its behalf by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) and receive administrative support from the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. OWB was formed in 2003 by the Oregon Legislative Assembly to replace the Oregon Wine Advisory Board (WAB) of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

William “Bill” Fuller, the donor of the William Fuller Papers, has been involved with the Oregon wine industry since the early 1970s. Fuller was co-owner of Tualatin Estate Vineyards, established in 1973. Since the creation of the Oregon Wine Advisory Board, Fuller has been involved with the evolution of the program.