Wine from the Wild Side of Permaculture

Nate Ready did not grow up farming. He began his wine career as a sommelier in some of America's most prestigious restaurants, including Thomas Keller's legendary French Laundry in Napa Valley. [^185^] That classical training — tasting the world's greatest wines, understanding terroir from the glass rather than the field — gave him a foundation that most winemakers never acquire. But it also gave him a hunger for something more radical, more experimental, more connected to the land.

China Tresemer, Hiyu's co-founder and agriculturalist, brought her own vision — a background in farming, illustration, and a deep commitment to regenerative agriculture. [^185^] She creates all of Hiyu's labels, hand-drawn artworks that capture the spirit of each cuvée and each parcel. Together, they found a property in the Hood River Valley — a place where the Columbia River cuts through the Cascade Range, creating a dramatic alpine valley with volcanic soils, dramatic weather from Mount Hood, and a sense of wildness that is rare in American viticulture.

The name "Hiyu" comes from Chinook Jargon, the trade language of the Pacific Northwest, where it means "abundance," "plenty," or "big party of people." [^185^] It refers to the convivial power of food and wine — the gathering, the celebration, the abundance that comes from working with nature rather than against it. The property is not just a vineyard. It is a mixed farm with pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, and geese living among the vines during different parts of the year. [^185^] There is a small market garden, food forests being established, and a wine tavern where the farm's produce is served alongside the wines.

The original vineyard was planted in the late 1990s to Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. But Nate and China had a different vision. Beginning in 2015, they started regrafting the original vines onto no less than 80 different varieties and about twice as many clones — transforming the estate into a field blend wonderland. [^185^] The property is now divided into half-acre blocks, each planted to a different field blend inspired by a place or moment in the genetic history of the grapevine. "I'm curious about all the grapes and their diversity," Nate says. [^185^]

Hiyu's cellar is a study in simplicity and patience. When a given plot is harvested — all varieties together — the whole grapes are gently foot-stomped, fed into a big basket press, and pressed directly into old neutral oak barrels of different sizes (for the whites). [^185^] For rosés and reds, the grapes are left alone as whole clusters for up to two weeks, then gently stomped and left on skins for anywhere from a couple of days to as long as 70 days, depending on the wine, before pressing on an old ratchet press. [^185^]

The wines ferment quite slowly with indigenous yeasts only — some stopping in winter and finishing the next summer, a typical Hiyu pattern. [^185^] Some wines, named "Spring Ephemeral," are bottled after just a couple of months, capturing CO2 and freshness. But many wines — even ones from the same plot and grapes — receive an élevage that lasts up to 10 years. [^185^] There are usually only 2–3 barrels of each wine, making every cuvée a rare, limited expression.

The Tzum range — "to mark" or "to locate" in Chinook Jargon — represents single-vineyard "meditations on a particular place." [^185^] Moon Hill Farm, Scorched Earth, Lunasa, Atavus, Feis, Elder, Aedín, and others — each named for the parcel and each expressing a specific terroir. The Atavus solera, for example, is a multi-vintage wine from a 1960s-planted vineyard of Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir that mutates back toward Savagnin — aged in a solera system reminiscent of Palo Cortado or Oloroso Sherry. [^185^]

Sulfur is used minimally — previously around 5 ppm, but since the Winter '22 release, no sulfur at all for some wines. [^185^] The wines are bottled by hand, unfined, unfiltered, using gravity. The result is wine that is alive, evolving, and deeply connected to its place — "a distillation of alpine stream as wine," as Nate describes the Moon Hill Farm Chardonnay. [^185^]

Hiyu also produces cider — Floréal and Germinal — and wild multi-fruit wines like Espina, a solera-style blend of Pinot Gris grapes, heirloom pears, plums, blackberries, elderberries, and rosehips, all wild-grown and unsprayed on the farm. [^185^] The Smockshop Band range explores multi-vintage blends and cellar experiments, often containing over 50 different varieties in a single bottle. [^185^]