lexème story

Monja Hudson-Desmeules came to Oregon in 2006 where she discovered the vast availability of land with high-end wine grape growing potential. Prior to her travelling to Oregon, she started in 2002 with acquiring winemaking and viticulture experience in the French side of Switzerland, where she grew up. Her interest in winemaking came mainly from scouting through wineries in Burgundy and barrel tasting with her parents as a child, and also from practicing blind tastings of French and Swiss wines every Sunday with her family. Monja eventually graduated with a Enology and Viticulture Engineering degree from the University of Applied Sciences of Changins, Switzerland; curriculum which brought her to study and experience winemaking and vineyard practices around Europe: Piacenza in Italy, Priorato in Spain and Bordeaux in France, to mention a few.
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Christopher Hudson grew up in Redmond, Central Oregon. The cowboy country man has always been fascinated by wine, and decided to diverge from his studies in Chemical Engineering to winemaking. He did graduate from OSU in fermentation sciences in 2006. He, then started on his winemaking internship, that happened to be at King Estate winery, where Monja was also an intern for 6 months on an international program. They worked together and soon realized their mutual real passion for high-end, straight forward and truthful wines.

They decided to spend the rest of their lives together, found a family and build their dream together: a high quality grape producing vineyard started from bare land, and the winery that they have enjoyed dreaming about as they worked on its design.

It took them many years to find the land of their dreams, where they eventually started the plantation of some acreage of Pinot Noir and Gamay, in 2012.  The vineyard site is located south of Elkton Oregon; with south facing rolling hills overlooking the main Umpqua River. 

In 2015, Monja and Christopher created the brand Lexème (which means "root of a word" in french) and the production of wines that reflects their dedicated team work and passion for truthful wines. 

In the years prior, Christopher and Monja have made wine in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, then Christopher worked as a winemaker at Left Coast Cellars, and then back to King Estate where he worked as a winemaker for 5 years. 

Monja and Christopher are now in the process of building their winery and tasting room on their vineyard site.  They are looking forward to opening their new tasting room location, where their customers will be able to enjoy the wines of exception that they both strive to produce.
Santé!