Porter Creek began in 1978, when founder George R. Davis purchased the Estate. The property had young Pinot Noir vines, some of which are still producing today at 45 years old. George was a self-taught winemaker for the most part. As an avid reader, he studied every book he could find on subjects ranging from winemaking technical information to Burgundian winegrower’s philosophy. He had lots of conversations with other local winemakers and then ended up renting part of his winery to other winemakers and learning from them. 

George’s son Alex started working full time at Porter Creek in 1997. George eventually let go of the winemaking role and retained his management role in the vineyards while Alex continued with his father’s quest to produce delicate, nuanced wines, even though the trend was going towards richer, heavier wines. In the first year, Alex converted all of the fermentations to native yeast, and wanted to convert the vineyards to organic farming. Initially concerned about the extra cost that this would incur, George did his own research and had his own revelations. In the end he decided to go even further and convert the vineyards to Biodynamic Farming. By 2003 the estate vineyards were Certified Organic.

Alex ferments all of the wines using native yeast and malolactic cultures. The red wines are hand punched down and they use an older manually controlled wine press. They do, however, enjoy a few modern conveniences such as temperature control for fermentation tanks and tools to help pinpoint harvest dates, such as detailed weather forecasting and the ability to test for sugar, acidity, and pH.