(SFGate) - Judy Jordan, who sold her Sonoma-based company J Vineyards & Winery to E. & J. Gallo last March, has purchased Chehalem Mountain Vineyard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

“I’m excited about Oregon, because I of course have a passion for Pinot Noir,” Jordan told Inside Scoop. “Chehalem Mountain is very exciting geologically.”

Planted in 1968 by Dick Erath, one of Oregon Pinot Noir’s early advocates, Chehalem Mountain Vineyard consists of about 49 acres divided into two parcels, of which 29 are planted, to Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. Its owner at the time of sale was George Hillberry, who owns and operates a number of other Oregon vineyards, including La Colina in the Dundee Hills. The parties did not disclose the terms of sale, but the asking price had been listed at $1.25 million.

Jordan’s purchase of this historic property is the latest in a series of recent investments by California vintners in Oregon vineyard land.

Jackson Family Wines purchased four Willamette Valley properties in 2013. Evening Land, whose original site is on the Sonoma Coast, now owns Seven Springs Vineyard in Eola-Amity Hills. Foley Family Wines purchased Four Graces winery in 2014. (To say nothing of acquisitions from Burgundy: Domaine Drouhin and Louis Jadot.)

Jordan founded J in 1986 and built its reputation as a high-quality producer of sparkling wine, as well as Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. (Her younger brother John owns Jordan Winery in Healdsburg.) Gallo’s acquisition of J–especially when followed by the purchase of Talbott, in August–seemed to signal a strategic shift for the world’s biggest wine company into the premium sphere.

The decision to sell her brand and its 300 acres of vineyards to Gallo, Jordan said, was in part because J’s success had forced her into a role more focused on business operations than on winegrowing.

“I miss J so much,” she said. “However, the winery kept getting bigger and bigger, and it was more and more pressure with operations, and I was getting further and further away from what I particularly love, which is geology, terroir and the vineyard–because I was running a big company.”