Oregon by Nature,
Transcendent by Time.
A Sparkling
House for the
Curious
Born from a desire to push the boundaries of Oregon’s sparkling wine, Banke offers a new style that marries Oregon’s distinctive climate with the power of time. Time before —through the contribution of our reserve wine, and time after—through three years en tirage, minimum. Banke sparkling illuminates its inimitable Oregon terroir, delivering vibrant fruit, delicate florals, and nuanced minerality in a rush of radiant acidity.
Sparkling Brut
A steady stream of bubbles opens a world of flavors to explore, starting with cherry blossom, fresh oyster brine, and savory pâte à choux—French pastry dough. Next, confident notes of sweet, crisp opal apple, white peach, and velvety lemon poppet or custard emerge while also delicately expressing as velouté—a savory, velvety French sauce, and chawanmushi, a Japanese steamed egg custard with a subtle umami flavor from dashi, soy sauce, and mirin.
43% Pinot Noir
4% Pinot Meunier
Sparkling Blanc de Blancs
A sparkling that embodies white flour and white flower. It has the crisp flakiness of Lavash crackers and the fresh, clean intensity of Maldon sea salt. Yet, you’ll also find succulent and elegant notes of jasmine and magnolia flowers, along with Dien Pomelo, a Vietnamese pomelo variety known for its calming floral fragrance and pleasantly sweet flesh. Bright citrus notes of spruce tips—the tree’s tender green shoots in spring—meld with the tangy, sweet refreshment of a green apple HI-CHEW, while revealing pistachio macaron in the finale.
Fourth-dimension winemaking
There's always time before and time after, and you're keeping both in mind at all times. It’s fourth-dimension winemaking.
Reserve Wine
Our reserve wine is a testament to our investment in the passage of time. This blend of past vintages is the X factor that infuses our sparkling with breadth, depth, and amplitude. It ensures our wines are driven by our house style, rather than be beholden to the whims and vagaries of any single year.
Compartmentalized pressing
We seek exemplary clarity in our juice using the Champagne pressing method. Each variety is pressed individually and in whole clusters. The juice is then divided into four fractions—the heads, cuvée, tailles (“tails”), and hard press—and fermented separately. The cuvée, the most exquisite and pristine fraction, becomes the heart and soul of our sparkling wine.
Minimum 3 years en Tirage
True Champagne demands time, and we embrace this philosophy with fervor. While the standard aging requirement is 15 months, we go further. Each of our wines ages for a minimum of 36 months, developing structure and complexity. Time en tirage is tailored to each wine to ensure it awakens your senses the moment it meets your glass.
Alex Nichols
Winemaker
Sparkling wine taps into my love of building and creating. It requires immense patience and foresight to craft something that evolves meaningfully over four or more years. Unlike still wine, which reflects a moment in time and is savored by the glass, sparkling wine is about celebration and connection—meant to be shared, one bottle at a time. Through my travels to sparkling wine regions around the world, I’ve come to believe that Oregon’s cool-climate terroir and communal spirit make it uniquely suited to producing exceptionally high-quality sparkling wines. At Banke, my vision is to bring this to life and share Oregon’s brilliance with the world.
Region
Willamette Valley, Oregon
The Willamette Valley winds 150 miles from Portland to Eugene, tracing the path of the Willamette River. Cradled between the rugged Coast Range and the majestic Cascades, its maritime climate—cool, misty winters and sun-drenched, languid summers—creates a haven for winegrowing. Hillside vineyards planted in volcanic, marine sedimentary, and loess origins give rise to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and other varieties with a distinctive energy and freshness. Spanning over 3.4 million acres, the valley’s 11 nested AVAs reveal a tapestry of terroirs that share the requisite cool-climate foundation for world-class sparkling.
The quintessential Oregon experience is being in a vineyard at first light, the vines, fruit, and ground covered in dew. It’s definitely cold enough to see your breath (and your boots are probably wet already), the air is perfectly still, and you can see Douglas Firs in every direction.
Experience
Give into the pleasure of Oregon bubbles
Coming soon.
