Willamette Valley Sequence, No. 4 -- Benton-Lane Winery

A focus on pinot noir, with one chardonnay.

Steve Girard founded Willamette Valley’s Benton-Lane Winery in 1988, but his history in wine went back to the mid-1970s in Napa Valley, when he established Girard Winery near Calistoga. The winery built a reputation for excellent cabernet sauvignon-based wines from mountainside vineyards. In 1988, the Girard family moved to the southern Willamette Valley, near Eugene, and launched Benton-Lane, named for the two counties the property straddles. The Girards sold their eponymous winery in Napa Valley in 1996 to Leslie Rudd, the food and wine entrepreneur who owned Rudd Oakville Estate and Vintage Wine Estates, among other ventures. Benton-Lane became part of VWE, which went bankrupt in 2018, the year Rudd died. The winery was then purchased by the Huneeus Family, owners of Quintessa, Flowers, Faust and other high-end producers.