Golden Cluster

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Golden Cluster

At Golden Cluster we believe in the magic of old vines. We are honored to work with the fruit from t Mr.

Charles Coury is one of the Northwest’s original wine pioneers, a man with amazing foresight who believed in the long-term potential of Oregon’s cool-climate regions. Coury purchased the abandoned Reuter Vineyard in the hills above Forest Grove in 1965 and began re-planting grape vines. This vineyard is one of the oldest in Oregon, with origins dating back to the 1880’s. Our grapes come from this

original vineyard block, making them some of the oldest in the Pacific Northwest. We hope you enjoy this unique piece of Oregon’s vinicultural history.

03/17/2025

Thank you, Nashville!! For 5 straight years you’ve consistently supported me and my band of oddities from Oregon.
Looking forward to visiting again soon and sharing more with you.
Special thanks to all of the wine shops, restaurants, and wine bars that continue to provide me with a platform.

12/14/2023

TOP 100 Wines (twice)
There’s not much time during harvest for anything other than harvest things. So, apologies for not posting about this earlier. Sometime in October I received some stunning news.
Turns out that I have received two TOP 100 wine accolades from Wine & Spirits magazine! TOP 100 WINE of 2023:
On Wine Hill 2019 ‘Reduction’ Chardonnay
TOP 100 BEST BUYS of 2023:
On Wine Hill 2021 ‘Millerandage’ Chardonnay
Both were the only Oregon wines honored in the Chardonnay category. This is a rare achievement and one that my grower and I are very proud of. I am mostly proud for two reasons… . 1. These wines were made from a rare clone of Chardonnay that is not widely planted or appreciated in Oregon. 2. To quote Frank Sinatra- “The best revenge is massive success.” Many years before these accolades, there were some early adopters and winemakers who inspired me to dip my foot in the pool of Oregon Chardonnay projects. The first person to really convince me that I had something special was my old pal and notable Chardonnay winemaker . He purchased a few cases to share with his harvest staff back in 2021. Two of my distributors and took large positions on a new wine brand from me and helped build an audience. Up in Seattle the savvy wine mind of Alexandra Stang at sold a good amount of this unknown Oregon producer off her exceptional wine list.
Lastly, I have always respected the focus of Oregon Chardonnay specialist and friend .  Special thanks to for just focusing on what was in the bottle(s).  . Personally, I think the 2020 version is the best I have made. That’s three vintages of excellent Chardonnay. Hardly a fluke.
To make great wine requires a lot of patience and delayed satisfaction. It took this wine four years to go from creation to appreciation. It helps to be reminded that “time” is always the best ingredient in wine. What is also important to remember is while you’re creating it’s important to block out the drama and stay focused. Great things CAN be made within the confines of chaos.

02/23/2023

Beginning with the last of my 2020 wines to be released, I started submitting my wines to the Wine Enthusiast. I had resisted it for years, mostly because I wasn’t really making much wine and I didn’t really like the POV of past reviewers. What got me to reconsider submitting was when I got word in October that Michael Alberty was going to be the new Canada/Oregon/Washington reviewer for the WE. In full disclosure, back in 2014, Michael was the first retailer to purchase my first wine, the 2013 Semillon. Things have progressed way beyond just Semillon, so I thought the timing was right, and bombard him with all of the new wines I’m making these days. The other key reason was that the WE tastes blind, so his reviews were going to be unbiased.
Unbeknownst to me, starting with their first issue in 2023, the WE was adding a new “Special Designation” for wines that are reviewed called “Hidden Gems”. Sometimes news hits you in the most opportune of times. Right around the middle of November at the tail end of the 2022 harvest, when I was near total exhaustion, a few people were tagging me in Facebook. Now, I don’t really ever use Facebook, so I was a bit alarmed at all the tagging of my personal account. When I read Michael’s public Facebook post, I was stunned, but happily so. Hidden Gems. A very powerful description of my wines/projects. With the 2023 “Water” February/March issue of the Wine Enthusiast, these wines were reviewed. ⭐️
93 Editors' Choice
On Wine Hill 2020 ‘Millerandage’
Chardonnay
Tualatin Hills AVA
💎
91 Hidden Gem
Vinous Obscura 2021 Merci, Andre Jacquinet Red Blend
Tualatin Hills AVA
💎
90 Hidden Gem
Vinous Obscura 2021 Kek Bika Red Blend Tualatin Hills AVA

02/06/2023

Very proud of this wine. This was the first time I’ve submitted my Chardonnay for review.
More to come.

10/30/2022

IT’S BACK!
New Release!
Vinous Obscura 2021 ‘Grand Bazaar’ skin contact white grape field blend….
11 months in Acacia wood, 12 days on skins (till dry)…
Explosive aromatics of tangerines, saffron, cashews, apricots, and mystery.
Tualatin Hills AVA
Single Vineyard
Laurelwood soils
Northern Willamette Valley

08/16/2022

Vinous Obscura 2021 ‘Kek Bika’ (Blue Bull) Austro-Hungarian Grape Field Blend.
Tualatin Valley AVA
NEW RELEASE
🔵🐮🍷:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; “The Willamette Valley is overly-planted to Pinot Noir.” For such a young wine region, this lack of diversity is agriculturally ignorant. Monoculture rarely survives.
The Willamette Valley has agreeable soils and climates to plant to a WIDE variety of wine grapes. Up here in the Northern Willamette Valley our soil type is dominated by loess sub-types. These are VERY different from the rest of the Willamette Valley. These wind swept soils are a huge advantage for our grape growing and winemaking pursuits.
Loess soils also dominate many of the wine regions of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. It stands to reason then, to match soils/climate to historically planted grape(s). We set out 9 years ago to plant a few of these Central and Eastern European grapes. Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch), Zweigelt, Agria (Teran), and Rondo are all planted in the hills behind Forest Grove. So far, we LOVE these early results. The 2021 vintage has revealed another level of possibilities.
In typical Vinous Obscura fashion, we co-fermented all these grapes together as a further nod to a style of red wine that was common during the Habsburg dynasty. But since the horrors of WWI, WWII, and the Soviet Union, this style of wine was almost forgotten. We’ve resurrected it here in Oregon.
Dark, inky, and intensely blue-fruited, this wine is sure to impress. If you’ve not had a red wine from Austria 🇦🇹 , Czech Republic 🇨🇿, Hungary 🇭🇺, or Slovakia 🇸🇰, then give this wine a try. This is what they can taste like. More importantly, it’s also a window into the future of the Willamette Valley.
This is one of our first red wine releases from the amazing 2021 vintage. Get it while you can…
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08/08/2022

Vinous Obscura 2021 ‘Merci, André Jacquinet’ Garanoir & Regent
NEW ALPINE 🌲🍷 WINE:
The Willamette Valley is overly-planted to Pinot Noir. For such a young wine region, this lack of diversity is agriculturally ignorant. The Willamette Valley has agreeable soils and climates to plant a WIDE variety of wine grapes. Especially, LESS fragile wine grapes. This new release highlights two wine grapes with extreme potential.
With the realization that a changing climate is here, we must begin to consider additional options to protect the future of our wine industry. In addition, we should be looking at grapes that are resilient to our extreme vintage differences. Garanoir and Regent are both small clustered and think skinned. They ripen on the early side and yet have incredible color, natural acidity, and freshness. Garanoir has Gamay parentage, while Regent has Chambourcin parentage. Both provide incredible disease resistance, especially to powdery mildew….they also top out at 22 brix and do not loose their natural acidity. They can hold up to an end-of-season rainstorm (unlike Pinot Noir) and you can pick them first or last without much quality difference. We see growing these grapes as a “no brainer”.
Do you like Gamay? Do you like Mondeuse? What about a Swiss Syrah? Teroldego anyone? If you are familiar with these wines, then our 2021 Vinous Obscura ‘Merci, André Jacquinet” is for you. If not, this is what the future of the Willamette Valley can taste like.
This is one of our first red wine releases from the amazing 2021 vintage.

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07/06/2022

NEW RELEASE 🚨
ON WINE HILL 2020
‘Millerandage’
100% Chardonnay
(clone 548)
Single Vineyard
Tualatin Hills AVA
NEW LABEL 🏷
In previous vintages, this was bottled as ‘Noburg, Oregon’. But, it needed a makeover. Many didn’t really get the fanciful name or the point of view of the wine.
We decided on ’Millerandage’ as clone 548 is prone to “hens & chicks”. The label is an artistic representation of the large, medium, and tiny berries that these clusters tend to produce.
This is our final release from the 2020 vintage.
It was bottled unfined and unfiltered and aged in bottle for 10 months before it was released.
Our chardonnay comes from a single vineyard in the hills behind Forest Grove. Dry farmed and grown in deep loess soils, this vintage shows off the power and balance of this unique clone.
For lovers of the Macon and Meursault.
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07/03/2022

NEW RELEASE 🚨:
DIONYSTIC 2021 ‘Albus’ 100% Alvarinho, Willamette Valley, Oregon
We are back with one of our most popular wines…
2020 didn’t yield enough fruit from either source to even make a single barrel! In 2021 the vines produced enough for 2 barrels.
Picked 4 days apart, the first tranche was de-stemmed and left soaking on their skins. Once the second tranche was received we pressed all of the fruit together…slowly…for many, many hours..
This ‘Albus’ is a texture bomb, with incredible mouthfeel, and a long and lingering finish. Fruit is late developing as is the natural acidity…you should decant this one…or cellar it…it was built with the future in mind. Just like Albus would.
Get it before it’s gone.

06/30/2022

Vinous Obscura 2021 ‘Fenice’ Skin Contact Muscat(s)
NEW ORANGE 🍊 WINE:
The Muscat family of grapes is ancient and vast. You can find it in nearly every wine growing country and also in countries who do not allow for the production of alcohol. This is because the Muscat grape is one of the rare wine grapes that can also be considered a table grape. These grapes make aromatic wines but are delicious to eat straight off the vine too!
We’ve been waiting patiently for our block of mixed Muscats to yield enough fruit to make a few barrels of wine. Finally, in 2021 we had a bumper crop, so a new wine for Vinous Obscura was born.
We harvested Orange Muscat, Moscato Giallo, Muscat de Alexandria, Muscat Ottonel, and Muscat Petit Grains all on the same day, de-stemmed, and soaked them on their skins till the wine fermented almost dry. We left about 100lbs of fruit on the vine and picked it 9 days later once the fermentation was half way through. By hand, we cut each individual berry off the cluster, keeping part of the stem connected to the berry. These berries with attached stem were dropped into the fermenting wine in acacia barrels to continue a light carbonic fermentation and extended skin contact. These berries were left in the acacia barrel for the full 9 months.
The new wine is named ‘Fenice’ (Phoenix in Italian)…it is an ode to resurrection…when one one thing dies it can be turned into something equally beautiful and new. The label is an artistic rendition of the underside of the wing of a Phoenix.
This is our first release from the amazing 2021 vintage.
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06/25/2022

EVENT ALERT 🚨:
Alt Wine 2022
July 17th, 2022
I’m very excited to be asked back to this important local event.
I’ll be pouring 4 x new releases…(stay tuned for those announcements in the coming days)
Get your 🎟 ASAP! 30+ producers and no Pinot Noir…
Come and taste dynamic Oregon.

05/14/2022

Let the games begin…
Oregon Saperavi making its first unavailing…
Pouring for Georgians and the folks in upstate New York…
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Address

6433 SE Lake Road
Milwaukie, OR
97222

Telephone

(503) 539-7549

Website

https://www.goldencluster.com/about

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Our Story

Charles Coury is an important figure in the modern era of Oregon wine, a man with amazing foresight who believed in the long-term potential of Oregon’s cool-climate regions. Mr. Coury purchased the abandoned Reuter Vineyard in the hills above Forest Grove in 1965 and began re-planting grape vines. This vineyard is one of the oldest in Oregon, with origins dating back to the 1880’s. Our grapes come from this original vineyard block, making them some of the oldest in the Pacific Northwest. We hope you enjoy this unique piece of Oregon’s vinicultural history.