Twenty-four acres. Nine blocks. Five wines that together offer the broadest view of Anahata to date — each one shaped by the same Van Duzer winds, the same shallow volcanic soils, and the same founding conviction that this corner of the Eola-Amity Hills was worth planting with exactly the right varieties, clones, and attention. The result gives voice to five distinct bottlings across the same blocks and clones at Anahata — three Chardonnays that explore the site’s brightness and texture from different angles, a Pinot Noir that draws on the full breadth of the vineyard’s blocks, and a single-block Pinot Noir that narrows the lens to reveal what one corner of Anahata is capable of on its own terms. The vineyard also contributes fruit to the Lytle-Barnett sparkling program, where its character finds expression in Method Oregon production. Each wine begins at the same site, shaped by the same Van Duzer winds, harvested from the same vines. What separates them is not place, but perspective.
Chardonnay at Anahata is a conversation between two blocks — Vreugde and Athas, Dutch and Irish, Dijon 76 and Dijon 95 — each one distinct in character, each one essential to the whole. Where the single-block bottlings narrow the focus to a single voice, the Anahata Vineyard Chardonnay lets both speak at once. The result is a wine of complementary tensions: the brightness and mineral precision of Block 4 woven together with the weight and textural depth of Block 9, softened through complete malolactic conversion and restrained by minimal new oak. It is the most complete introduction to what Anahata’s Chardonnay can be — and an argument that the two blocks were always meant to be heard together.
Athas is the Irish word for joy — a name drawn from the heritage of Andy’s mother, who carries both Dutch and Irish blood and the particular warmth of each. The Irish have a way of finding joy in what arrives unbidden: the flash of light on water, the first ripe cluster on the vine. Block 9, planted to Dijon 95, is that kind of discovery. Harvested lean and bright, its natural acidity held intact by the long reach of the Van Duzer, the wine is fermented with native yeasts and aged with a restrained hand on new oak — enough to lend texture, never enough to mask the fruit. Malolactic conversion softens its edges without erasing its precision. It is a Chardonnay that rewards patience. The Irish understood that joy, even the unbidden kind, comes only to those who give it time. Given enough, everything finds its way to something beautiful.
Vreugde — the Dutch word for joy — carries Andy’s mother’s spirit into every vine of Block 4. This block of Dijon 76 Chardonnay was planted with her in mind: the belief that what we grow should be rooted in something deeper than ambition. Dijon 76 is a clone of precision and tension — bright, mineral-driven, built for sites where the wind has something to say. At Anahata, it has plenty. Among the last of the Chardonnay to come in, the wine is fermented with native yeasts, aged with a light touch of new oak, and carried through malolactic conversion that rounds it while the corridor’s signature acidity stays taut. Vreugde is Chardonnay grown in quiet celebration. You can taste what it was planted for.
Four blocks, three clones — Dijon 667, Dijon 777, and Pommard — each drawn from the same rolling hill, each arriving at the blend with something distinct to say. The 667 brings aromatic lift and florality; the 777 adds structure and dark-fruit depth; the Pommard grounds it all in the earthy, mineral authority that defines Anahata’s character. Together they form a fuller portrait of this vineyard than any single block could offer. This is Anahata speaking in full sentences.
Every vineyard has a block that stops you. At Anahata, it’s Block 3 — a Pommard-and-777 planting on the east slope that consistently produces fruit of uncommon precision and quiet intensity. Joie is that block, undiminished: nothing added, nothing softened, nothing dressed up for the sake of accessibility. What you get is the Eola-Amity Hills at its most intense and most itself — dark cherry and bramble over wet stone, a mid-palate that tightens with purpose, and a finish that lingers the way a good thought does. Block 3 doesn’t ask to be liked. It arrives, every year, at something you’d only call joy.
Anahata gives to the Lytle-Barnett sparkling program with the same quiet generosity it brings to everything else. Both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the estate contribute to it, their concentration and precision translating naturally into the structure and finesse that Method Oregon demands. Method Oregon is a designation Lytle-Barnett co-founded alongside a growing community of Oregon producers committed to the rigor of traditional method sparkling wines made entirely from Oregon-grown fruit — the same labor-intensive process as Champagne, rooted in this place.
At Anahata, that contribution is not incidental. It is an extension of what the vineyard was always capable of — fruit of sufficient tension and acidity to find yet another dimension of expression in the hands of Director of Winemaking Andrew Davis and the Lytle-Barnett sparkling program. Grace, by definition, is what arrives without force. You recognize it when you taste it.