Division Wine, Willamette Valley

For readers looking for unadorned and precise Pinot Noir, this is an address to know.
        —Josh Raynolds, Vinous Media, February 2022

Midwestern boy Tom meets Kate, born in Bahrain to a father from England and a mother from Madagascar, and so begins a story…

They drank a bottle of Oregon Pinot when they first met. Subsequently they tasted wines all over California and in 2009 moved to France where Kate translated and where an enologist friend of a friend gave them an intensive, hands-on winemaking education in Beaujolais. When they weren’t learning how to make wine in Beaujolais, they went south to taste in the northern Rhône, and north to taste along the Côte d’Or.

Then they lived for a while in Kate’s family house in the Loire, where they made wine and explored all manner of local, juicy, low-alc vin de soif made of Gamay or Cab Franc, or various Pinots, Sauvignons, Chenins, Chards (the Loire has it all, even Malbec or Cot, a grape that by all reckoning ought to be a failure so far north and, indeed, usually was back in the day but now it’s better; now, sometimes, it’s really good, even when it grabs you by the throat).

Tom is from St Louis and is an avid fan of rock bands, live music, and skiing, the latter helping to explain why he went to business school in the Bay Area. That in turn helps explain why he wrote a business plan for a winery in Oregon. After B school, he ended up taking a disappointing job with a big bank.

Kate is from England, Switzerland, France, and America. She had been all over the world and ended up in college in upstate New York before heading west, where she developed a taste for wine and an eye for design (check out those nifty labels).

From the Bay Area, they moved to NYC, and Tom continued with the suit and tie in corporate finance. One day, pretty early on in NYC, Kate said, What’s with the big bank? Tom shrugged, and in his heart of hearts he totally agreed, so he quit the big bank. They got themselves a black dog and took off to France (with the dog) to learn to make wine. After all was said and done, they landed on Oregon as the place to be, and Kate got a job managing affairs for Penner-Ash Cellars while Tom landed a job working alongside the winemaker at the Methven Family Vineyards.

In 2011 Tom went back to France to help out with a couple of harvests, most notably with Domaine Nudant in Corton; afterward, he raced back to Oregon to do the same. Shortly thereafter, he wrote another business plan. Kate and he put together some cash, and in 2012 they founded the SE Wine Collective in Portland. They built a winery in a warehouse, enticed three other brands to invest and make wine and share ideas and expenses under the same roof. In addition, they got a retail license to sell their wine on site, plus a bar license to serve their wine on site. All of this allowed them to pay their bills while making the wines they wanted to make. A bevy of wine in small batches followed, making Division quite a name for delicious, approachable Pinot Noir, Gamay and Chenin at stellar price/quality ratios. From the beginning, they concentrated on vineyards farmed with the best environmental practices, and they’ve always favored spontaneous ferments over inoculated ferments.

Then the pandemic took hold. Once the dust began to settle, the landlord decided to jack up the rent, so Tom and Kate moved Division in 2021 and the SE Wine Collective ceased to exist. Division is now housed near the Willamette River, two miles west of its original location, in a building it owns.

Back in 2012, Kate and Tom began life with two tiers: Division and Division-Villages. Division is the flagship, reserved for the more “serious” or age-worthy wines; Villages is for those wines inspired by the vibrant vins de soif of the Loire.

In subsequent years, they added two ranges: Gamine, for wines Kate makes; and Nightshade, for wines (mainly Nebbiolo) Tom makes. In 2024, they added Ouest (west, both literally and in pronunciation) to concentrate on lesser-known varieties grown predominantly in organically-farmed sites in Washington and fermented spontaneously.

Overall production averages 8,000 cases. The hallmark of all of their wines is their lovely, pure aromatics, plus their sheer drinkability and ease, for these wines are nothing if not comfortable in their own skin.