As a bi-cultural family, the story of Luis & Janice begins from their separate family heritage and cultural backgrounds. Luis was born and raised in Mexico. He spent his early years helping his father growing vegetables and tending to the family livestock. He spent several years working near their family home, by the time he was 14 he ventured further seeking better opportunities and eventually found himself living in Oregon. Janice grew up in northern Idaho and had a normal small town upbringing. In the spring of 1979, while visiting family in Oregon, Janice and Luis met. By 1981 Luis and Janice were married and by 1985 had welcomed two baby girls to the family! Life sped by, but Luis still had a need to get back to his roots of farming.

In 1988 they purchased their first piece of property, a small 9 acre parcel which became the family home and later the original site of the family vineyard.  Early in 1997, the neighboring property came available, they decided to take the chance and put down more roots into the Southern Willamette Valley. Early in the winter of 1999 they planted their first Pinot noir and Pinot gris vines. Now these many years later the vineyard is a mature 94 acres, with Pinot noir, Pinot gris and Chardonnay planted on mostly Nekia clay soils and elevations ranging from 400 to 850 feet.

Currently the whole family is involved in what makes Coria Estates an exciting and thriving vineyard and winery.  Luis and Janice manage the vineyard and administrative side of the business, and their youngest daughter, Aurora, is Winemaker.  The eldest daughter Elizabeth helps with tasting room sales on the side of her professional job as a Speech Language Pathologist.

The vineyard consists of roughly 94 acres, all of which were planted in various years.  The oldest part of the vineyard is also the largest, which consists of about 55 acres and was planted in the spring of 1999. This planting was done by hand by Coria’s very own family and crew.  It is roughly 50% Pinot noir and 50% Pinot Gris. There are three different clones of Pinot noir in the vineyard, Pommard, 777 and 115 Dijon Clones.  

The second planting is 25 acres and consisted primarily of 115 clone of Pinot noir, which was planted in 2008. The third planting went in during the spring of 2015 and is about 14 acres, including a bit more Pinot Gris and a section of Chardonnay.

First planted: 1999
Varietals: Pinot gris, Pinot noir, Chardonnay
Soil type: Nekia
Acres: 94
Elevation: 400–850 ft.
Lat. Long. 44.83632-123.050947
44° 50' 10.752'' N  123° 3' 3.4092'' W

The vineyard is planted on silty clay loam soil, most of which is Nekia clay, and small lots presenting Jory, McAlpine and Abiqua silty clay loam. Many of the surrounding soils consist of Jory, which having much of our vines growing in Nekia soil, presents a unique characteristic of our vineyard. The elevation also varies, the lowest ground sitting around 300 feet, and the highest peak at 850.  

Additionally, the vineyard consists of about 17 blocks, all of which are unique unto themselves, contributing different flavors and aromas that are decipherable between the various blocks.