There are many things that attracted the Chos to their 77 acre home for Cho Vineyards after a decade long search. For starters, it sits on Bald Peak, the highest peak in the Willamette Valley Viticultural Area (AVA). In the Chehalem Mountains sub-AVA nestled between Ribbon Ridge AVA and Laurelwood District AVA.

After a series of fortuitous events, they stumbled upon this property late one night during the pandemic while scrolling online. It had belonged to one family for 150 years. They had farmed wheat, grazed cattle and planted Christmas trees. However, for the last four decades, the land had been largely uncultivated.

Early soil testing by soil scientist Andy Gallagher showed a rainbow of diverse soil types. The higher elevation sites have basalt, jory-like soil as found in the Dundee Hills (Jory, MacDunn, Saum soil series) and the lower elevation with marine sedimentary soil characteristics of Ribbon Ridge (Cottrell, Dupee, Hazelair). The Chos are excited to experiment with less common varieties on this diverse soil prism. Elevation ranges from 650 to 1150 feet on southwest facing slope.

First plantings at Cho Vineyards went in the ground on November 3 & 4, 2022. They have planted a total of 8.5 acres of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. Each Founders Club member has a vine planted in their name at the Founders Block.