Located about 30 minutes southwest of Portland, in Sherwood, Oregon, our 50-acre property is nestled within the Chehalem Mountains of Willamette Valley Wine Country. Hawks View’s sustainably-farmed vineyards produce exceptional Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. With the breathtaking views and inviting tasting rooms, guests can gather, connect, and relax while enjoying world-class wine.
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The Ponte family traces its roots to the Friuli region of Italy before emigrating to Venezuela and eventually settling in San Diego. Claudio Ponte and his family co-own and manage multiple wineries and a hotel in California. Since 1984, Claudio has been overseeing his vineyard in California. With a deep appreciation for Oregon, he spent several years searching for the right winery and vineyard in the region. Here is his story, in his own words:
We are currently pouring 16 different wines in our Tasting Rooms. We are always adding to our collection so be sure to follow our social media channels to stay updated on all of our new releases!
All wines made with our Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay are exclusively estate grown. For our big reds, we source our grapes from the most esteemed vineyards from the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley and the Rogue Valley, OR.
Our estate is incredibly well suited to grow the queen of grapes, Pinot Noir, and other cold-weather varieties such as Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. A warmer climate is required to grow heartier Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah, which is why we source Oregon-grown fruit from the Walla Walla Valley and Rogue Valley for our Hawk Attack and 100% Syrah.
We grow the following Pinot Noir clones: 115, Dijon, Wädensville, Pommard, 667, 777, Hanzell, and Coury. We also grow Chardonnay clones: Eden and 76.
Pinot Noir is extremely difficult to grow properly and requires an incredible amount of hand labor. Production yields are very low compared to Cabernet and Merlot, sometimes less than half. Suitable barrels are $1,000 each and the winemaking talent required to ferment, age, and blend the wine is also very pricey. We are confident that our wines are fairly priced given their quality.
We harvest mid-September, depending on the weather conditions and ripeness of the fruit.
All of our wines are fermented in steel, with white wines and rosés being bottled right away. Red wines are moved to oak barrels for aging. We also will make certain wines using concrete fermenters which add minerality and character to delicate reds like Pinot Noir.
We age our Pinots an average of 12 months in the barrel and 3-12 months in the bottle. Further barrel aging would not be beneficial for our target flavor profile. These wines age well in the bottle and we look forward to enjoying them in the years to come!
How old are they? We use mostly French oak barrels with a few American oak barrels thrown in for flavor. Most of our vintages are aged in 20% new barrels, with the remaining 80% in 2-5-year-old barrels.
After about 5 or so years when they stop contributing oak goodness to the wine, we occasionally sell our neutral barrels. Please inquire with the Winery Supervisor for availability
The Hawks View Vineyard sold grapes from 1991 to 2007, when the Tasting Room was opened. In the past, Hawks View has sourced grapes from Washington and coastal Central California. After the Ponte family purchased Hawks View in 2017, we focused exclusively on Oregon grapes. We sell any surplus grapes to high-end Pinot producers and we also purchase a small number of grapes from Oregon vineyards to produce bolder reds.
We do not distribute our wines. They are only available at the winery, online, and through our Wine Club
About half of our vines are “own rooted” and the other half are grafted on resistant rootstock. The own rooted vines may eventually succumb to root-borne diseases and will have to be replanted. The grafted vines will live longer. In the decades to come, we expect that our whole vineyard will be grafted onto resistant rootstock.
Yes! Some of our wines are occasionally bottled in Magnum size (capacity of 2 regular bottles) and we can also bottle up to Imperial size (capacity of 6 regular bottles) by special request. The larger bottle can be engraved and should be opened after several years of aging to celebrate a very special occasion!
We are a boutique winery, and we currently produce about 10,000 cases per season
In 2020, we revealed our Members Indoor Tasting Room, Members Rooftop Terrace, and expanded the Members Lawn. In 2022, we completed construction on a new storage building to age our wines for a longer period here at the winery
The Ponte Winery is a medium direct-to-consumer winery producing 25,000 cases per year, placing it amongst the smaller wineries in California. We grow grapes on 200 acres compared to 50 acres here at Hawks View. At Ponte, we own and operate a 100% estate and 100% Italian variety winery called Bottaia Winery.
We do not sell our California wines here at Hawks View, but you can buy them directly at pontewinery.com and bottaiawinery.com. Hawks View Wine Club Members enjoy reciprocal benefits including discounts and complimentary tastings. Email wineclub@hawksviewwinery.comfor more information.
The Kemp family, who bought the vineyards and built the winery, owned the house until it was sold to a local family. This home is no longer part of the Hawks View Winery property. Thank you for respecting their privacy!
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As I write this, I can still smell the salt air of Astoria, Oregon—the place where my unlikely love story with the Pacific Northwest began. I was a high-school junior when my parents decided to “teach me a lesson” by shipping me off to work a summer at the Bumble Bee Salmon Cannery. My prison, as I called it then, sat on the waterfront at the end of a pier. Its cheery motto, “Work is our Joy,” struck me as a bad joke—eerily close to something you’d see at the gates of a concentration camp.
Despite the grim first impression, those three months turned out to be unforgettable. I worked from 7 to 3 in the cold, slimy cannery, then spent long afternoons exploring the coast with a band of older kids. We fished, snuck a few beers, and cruised through endless forests of evergreens. Having grown up in the tropics, the vastness of it all stunned me. When the telegram came from my mother ordering me home for school, I sold my $200 jalopy, said goodbye to the ladies on the gutting line, and left Oregon behind—certain I’d never be back.
Fast-forward 45 years. After a career that took me from college to California vineyards and beyond, I found myself longing for Oregon again. By then, like many wine lovers in their forties and fifties, I’d fallen hard for Burgundian-style wines. The solution seemed obvious: find a small winery in the Willamette Valley. Two years later, I discovered Hawks View—and it was love at first sight.
Even now, I smile at the look on visitors’ faces when they first see the estate, with Mt. Hood towering on the horizon. “Jaw-dropping” barely covers it. Every drive through Yamhill, Carlton, and Amity still feels like a pilgrimage, punctuated with friendly tastings and the quiet reminder of how lucky we are. Yet I’ve realized that many locals don’t fully appreciate what’s in their backyard. Outside the wine world, few understand just how special the Willamette really is. Ironically, a “cork dork” in Minneapolis might know more about our vineyards than a waiter in Portland. The French certainly do—they’re buying up properties like Beaux Frères for good reason.
Our mission at Hawks View is to share that sense of discovery—to help more people understand what makes the Chehalem Mountains so extraordinary. This ridge of Laurelwood soil over volcanic basalt produces wines of bright red fruit, earthy nuance, and crisp acidity—elegant as a string of pearls and perfect with fine food. No “chin-scratcher” wines here, thank you very much.
We owe this legacy to Jack Kemp, whose vision and passion built Hawks View from the ground up, and to his family—Willie and AJ—who carried it forward after his untimely passing. It’s now our turn, with your support, to continue this love story.
Cheers,
Claudio Ponte
Claudio has a love of elegant wines and a passion for local community and sustainability. He is proud to curate the Hawks View Winery experience following the founding family’s vision. A graduate of UCLA business school, Claudio has served on the boards of Winegrowers of California, California Association of Wine Grape Growers, the Wine Institute and the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association. He values authenticity from vineyard to glass and creating a welcoming, inviting guest experience. When asked about his favorite wine, he’s been heard to say “wines are like our children – we love them all equally, but not always at the same time.”
Juliet started “working” in the wine industry when she was a mere 8 years old, greeting guests as they walked through the door at Ponte Winery. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in Communication and Business and took on the position of Tasting Room Supervisor at one of our sister wineries, BOTTAIA Winery. A natural businesswoman with a strong aptitude for management, Juliet has moved into an operations role as the Winery Supervisor at Hawks View. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new breweries and restaurants in Portland, playing golf, and skiing Mt. Bachelor when she can get away.
After over a decade of experience in bridal, retail, and retail management, Chelsea was thrilled to pursue a new career as Wine Club & Online Store Manager in March 2022. With a degree in Global Development Studies from Seattle Pacific University, Chelsea brings a big-picture mindset to the Hawks View Wine Club. Her retail background provides a customer-first focus to her work, and she has been enjoying getting to know our Wine Club members. After work hours, she enjoys a glass of orange wine, soaking in hot springs, and checking out new cocktail bars and restaurants in Portland.
With a degree in viticulture from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and over a decade of experience across a wide range of winemaking styles, Kevin brings a creative and exploratory approach to defining what quality wine means in the Willamette Valley. As Winemaker, he is dedicated to using his expertise and resources to craft wines that appeal to every palate. An artist and nature enthusiast at heart, Kevin enjoys foraging outdoors and painting indoors.
Becca started working at Hawks View Winery as a server in early 2021. After years of building strong relationships with our guests and Members, we were thrilled to promote her to Tasting Room Supervisor in 2025. Becca is an effective and positive leader, both in her community and in the Tasting Room. In her free time, Becca loves to snuggle her yellow lab, Wrigley, and attend music festivals.
Coming soon!
In his own words, Don is a “scientist by training and a passionate winemaker.” After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in Biochemistry and Food Science, he discovered his love of wine – specifically, Oregon’s phenomenal Pinot Noir. With more than 20 years of experience in the winemaking world, Don considers winemaking to be an art, each wine a culmination & an expression of the place in which it was grown.