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By Jim Gullo
Oregon winemakers are a unique bunch. About a year ago, in an article about Oregon's pinot noir and winemaking regions, the eminent wine writer Jancis Robinson paused to characterize Oregon winemakers, and by extension, the Oregon wine industry. "The typical Oregon wine operation," she wrote, "[is] manned by a highly educated loner who revels in the contrasts between his wine region and California."
Damn right, lady; give us a moment to scrape the mud off of our hiking boots, hitch up our jeans, pass the pinot noir and let's drink to that.
We wouldn't have it any other way. The truth is that collectively, Oregon wines, wineries and winemakers (not to mention its wine journalists) are their own animals, and trying to compare our wine scene to Napa and Sonoma – including that old chestnut, "Oregon is like California was fifty years ago" – is just plain wrong. This is an industry that began when a stubborn farmer named David Lett grew pinot grapes in a place where nobody thought wine grapes would grow, made his own wine and then blew everyone away when his 1975 Pinot Noir nearly won prestigious wine competitions in France in 1979, and again the following year. He put Oregon winemaking on the map.
Taking the Lett story a step further, it's instructive to note what came afterwards. David Lett didn't then become close buddies with Steven Spielberg or Barry Diller, sell his winery to an enormous conglomerate, build a palace of a winery with overseas investors' dollars, churn out a million cases of wine, or hold private concerts with Barbra Streisand headlining. He just continued to make small amounts of very good wines, shared it with friends and colleagues, and encouraged other winemakers to follow his lead. Eyrie Vineyards, Lett's operation, is still headquartered in a handsome, old wooden building in an industrial section of McMinnville. The business was handed down to his son Jason.
Oregon wine – and by extension, Oregonwine.com (we hope) – continues to be small, charming, friendly and focused on quality. People don't come here to make a fortune; they come to make wine that is good, and they come because they want to live here, raise families and enjoy a lifestyle that is centered around good food, great wine and hospitality. Pinot noir and pinot gris are justifiably the top dogs in most Oregon wineries, but winemakers here explore all kinds of ways to put their unique stamps on their products.
To that end, Oregon wine is embodied by winemakers like Dave and Deolinda Coelho, who left behind a business of raising crops in California to open their Coelho Winery in Amity, grow grapes in their own vineyard and raise their family. Besides making first-rate Pinots, the Coelho's create Portuguese-style ports in honor of their ancestors. Gino Cuneo, who left the fish wholesaling business in Seattle when he discovered that he could make really good wines some twenty years ago, created the Tre Nova brand to make wines that reflect his Italian heritage, including what may well be the only appassimento-style dry red wines made in the U.S. Gino's eyes light up when he recalls a visit from an Italian wine expert who barrel-sampled one of Cuneo's first experiments with domestically grown Nebbiolo grapes, cocked his head and said, "Barbaresco." Cuneo's top seller now is a delicious, Chianti-style wine made from sangiovese grapes that he calls Bonatello. Scott Wright of Scott Paul wines in Carlton is such a fan of French burgundies that he has become a distributor of small, family-run French brands, which he sells alongside his own excellent pinot noirs.
Oregon has attracted its share of international talent. In Dundee, the elegant Domaine Drouhin Oregon winery commands a sweeping view of the valley; its wines are made by Veronique Drouhin-Boss, the fourth-generation winemaker of Burgundy's Maison Joseph Drouhin, who splits her time between Oregon and Beaune. Veronique's older brother Philippe also comes to Oregon throughout the year to oversee the vineyards, and younger brother Fredric handles company business while father Robert enjoys a semi-retirement spent in both France and Oregon. In Salem, the new Evening Land winery is a joint venture of Burgundian star vintner Dominique Lafon, with Canadian winemaker Isabelle Meunier handling day-to-day operations. Isabelle Dutartre of DePonte Cellars liked Oregon so much that she moved her family from France to McMinnville and recently bottled her first vintage of her own label, 1789 Wines. Ray Walsh left New Zealand to make wine for King Estate, and liked it here so much that he launched Capitello Wines, which makes a Pinot Gris that has received top marks from New York Times writers.
Oregon wine is small and sustainable, and served in a modest tasting room where the winemaker is very likely to come out and chat with you about the wines you're sampling. Discovering them and savoring their differences on a road trip through the Willamette Valley, or the Columbia Gorge, or southern Oregon, is one of the great joys of being a wine lover. The towns along the way – Dundee, Lafayette, McMinnville, Hood River, Amity and dozens of others – are charming, welcoming and studded with excellent restaurants, wine bars and lodgings for wine tourists.
Napa and Sonoma should be so lucky.
Enjoy the journey and the wines, and let us know how it went with comments on our wine blog. Salud! And wipe the mud off your boots before leaving Oregon; that sort of thing is frowned upon down south.
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