Sideways and then some - a visit to the Oregon wine country
Written: Jul 06 '05 (Updated Dec 28 '05)
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Pros: Convenient, scenic, low-key, and fun.
Cons: Rapidly growing, with prices and (occasional) attitudes to match.
The Bottom Line: Good fun if you enjoy wine and are visiting the Portland area. Great scenery guaranteed; wines are a bit more iffy.
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| sundogg99's Full Review: Oregon Wineries |
Among the highlights of my childhood were visits to the farm where my maternal grandparents lived. Located a couple of miles down a gravel road in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, the house where my mother grew up was nestled among plum and filbert orchards, surrounded by fields of alfalfa and wheat. My grandfather’s ancient barn blew down in a freak windstorm a few years back, but the farmhouse is still standing. On a nearby hilltop, a tiny pioneer cemetery holds the remains of six generations of my family -- about as deep as European roots go in this part of the country. Nursery stock has supplanted most of the wheat fields, but in general, things look pretty much unchanged.
Unchanged, that is, until you glance across the road, up to the orderly rows of vines that now line the hillsides. Grapes… lots of them. The rolling hills where generations of Scandinavian farmers quietly eked out a living have become the center of a vibrant and burgeoning wine-producing region that stretches south and west from the Portland suburbs along the broad shoulders of the Willamette Valley.
The modern Oregon wine industry began back in the 1960s with the pioneering efforts of David Lett and other visionaries, who believed that Oregon was a suitable home for Burgundian grape varietals. Lett’s Eyrie Vineyard, along with a handful of other now-familiar Oregon wine pioneers (including Erath, Ponzi, Oak Knoll, Sokol-Blosser, Elk Cove, Amity, and others) began producing wines in the early 1970s.
The watershed event for Oregon wines, however, came a few years later, in 1979. In that year, the influential Gault Millau restaurant guide sponsored a huge blind tasting of new world wines versus their French counterparts. Lett entered his 1975 South Block Reserve Pinot Noir, and in a stunning upset that left Francophiles gasping for air, placed third. At that time, it’s doubtful that any French producer could have pointed to Oregon on a map – in fact, very few California producers even knew that Oregon was in the wine game.
The famous Burgundian negociant family Drouhin immediately scheduled a rematch for the following year, and upped the ante by entering their very best wines rather than the lesser vintages judged in the Gault Millau tasting. In this tasting, conducted without Lett’s knowledge, the Eyrie placed second, falling just shy of Drouhin’s Grand Cru '59 Chambolle-Musigny. Far from setting the record straight in favor of French superiority, the Drouhin competition opened the floodgates: a horde of winemakers from around the globe descended on the Willamette Valley, convinced that they’d at last discovered a spot on the globe where Pinot Noir could be produced to rival its Burgundian ancestors.
In the intervening 25 years, Oregon wineries have partnered with French, Australian, and Californian interests. Robert Drouhin himself set up Domaine Drouhin in 1987, an almost literal stone’s throw from Eyrie. Still, compared to other famous winemaking regions around the world, the atmosphere in Oregon’s wine country is mostly laid-back. Winemakers here aren’t celebrities – they’re farmers.
I’ve had the good fortune to visit a number of Oregon wineries, some of them several times over several years. Following is an introduction to just a few of them.
Soter Vineyards
We first tasted Tony Soter's Oregon pinot at a local restaurant, and knew from the first sip that we'd found something very special. Soter gained fame among connoisseurs of Napa cabernet as the founder of Etude Wines, as well as for his consultation to cult favorites like Araujo, Spottswoode, Viader, and Dalle Valle. In the mid-1990s, Tony and his wife Michelle bought some property in the Yamhill-Carlton district and built a summer home adjacent to their flagship property, the Beacon Hill vineyard.
Memorial Day 2005 was the Soters’ first open house, and it was a smashing success. Instead of staging a formal tasting, the Soters hosted a casual and delightful party on the lawn of their attractive, expansive back yard: a few canvas pavilions, some delicious breads and cold cuts, and generous samples of their unique and youthful Rose of Pinot Noir, as well as three different pinot noir bottlings: the 2003 North Valley (Soter’s declassified wine which is emphatically not vin ordinaire), the wonderful 2002 Beacon Hill, and the still-evolving 2003 Beacon Hill vintage. We happily hung out for hours, chatting with the Soters and with associate winemaker James Cahill, who joined the Soters after honing his craft for several years at nearby Beaux Freres.
Soter is not open to the public at this time; however, they have a tasting facility under construction and due to open in mid-2006.
http://www.sotervineyards.com/
Domaine Drouhin
No visit to the Oregon wine country is complete without a stop at Domaine Drouhin Oregon (DDO), where European-style wines of great sophistication and finesse are produced under the guidance of Véronique Drouhin-Boss, the fourth generation of Drouhins in the business. This gorgeous gravity-fed winery has a tasting room which is open year-round for visitors, Wednesday through Sunday from 11-4.
Last time we visited, we were seduced by the astounding finish from the 2001 Pinot Noir Laurène... or rather, my wife was. I was suffering from a cold and try as I might, couldn't taste a damn thing. I have faith in my wife's instincts, however - she's got a far better palate than I do when it comes to wine. The Laurène is produced in very limited quantities by selecting grape clusters from 32 distinct vineyard blocks, putting them up in barrels for one year, then combining the most promising selections together and aging for another 20 months or so. For a wine I haven't technically tasted, it sure sounds good.
http://www.domainedrouhin.com/home.cfm
Beaux Freres
Semi-famous brother-in-law Mike Etzel (his sister’s husband is influential wine critic Robert Parker, who is a partner in this operation) produced the first Beaux Freres bottling in 1991. The highly-regarded winery has produced fantastic pinots for over a decade now, mostly from grapes grown on two plots (the Beaux Freres and Upper Terrace vineyards) totaling less than 35 acres. The winery’s second label, Belles Soeurs, is made from purchased as well as estate-grown fruit.
This winery is not normally open to the public, and their tasting room is not an imposing one - in fact, it appears to do double duty as a warehouse. The wine, however, speaks for itself, and during the Thanksgiving and Memorial Day weekends, Beaux Freres and many other operations open their doors to visitors. This leads to gridlock and bigtime highway patrol presence in the most popular areas, but is nevertheless an opportunity for visitors to drop in on smaller wineries. To avoid crowds, visit early (most places open at 10 or 11) and stay away from the most popular locations, such as the Dundee Hills area.
In May 2005 we tasted the 2000 and 2003 vintages, as well as barrel samples from the 2004 vintage. We were slightly disappointed in the current 2003 release and, as always, dizzied by the prices - at $75 per, this is about as rarefied as a bottle of wine gets in Oregon. Tasting fee at Beaux Freres was a reasonable $10 per person and included an entry-level Riedel glass. For an additional $10, you can get one of those monstrous balloon glasses that look really cool but which are next to impossible to store in a cupboard. High rollers got significantly larger tastes, I noticed.
http://www.beauxfreres.com/
Argyle
The small town of Dundee is at the epicenter of the Willamette Valley wine country, and Argyle is smack in the center of Dundee. The tasting room, located in a restored Victorian-style farmhouse on the main street of town, is a place to try Argyle’s selection of still and sparkling wines. They are open from 11-5 daily.
I’m not personally a fan of Argyle’s sparklers – they always seem too acidic and flinty to me. I’m in the minority, however; the wines seem to get good reviews from a lot of sources.
Argyle is among the forefront of wineries moving away from the problems of TCA-infected corks. In 2003, they abandoned cork altogether in favor of screwtop bottles – a risky move to reject the ritual and ceremony of the traditional cork, but a potentially wise one. With at least 5% of wines contaminated by TCA, such a move means the salvage of one out of every 20 bottles – and at $25+ per bottle, that’s a significant savings.
http://www.argylewinery.com/
Cooper Mountain Vineyards
Located on top of an extinct volcanic cone, not far from the suburban sprawl of the bedroom community of Beaverton, Cooper Mountain Vineyards is an aberration in the ever-more-glitzy wine industry – a funky throwback to co-op grocery stores, Birkenstocks, and communal living. It’s one of several certified organic wineries in the region, and utilizes something called Biodynamic farming methods.
Whatever. Cooper Mountain wines are affordably priced and tasty too. Their unfiltered, sulfite-free pinots sell for $10-15 and are pleasant, if not extraordinary examples of the grape. The 2002 vintage (which was almost uniformly good across the region) pinots garnered Wine Spectator scores in the high 80s, and represent very good value for the money. Likewise, Cooper Mountain’s Reserve and Old Vines Pinot Gris see no oak and are truly exemplary of this local specialty grape.
Cooper Mountain's tasting room is open daily from noon until five. Not surprisingly, it's a laid-back, casual place with a distinctly down-home vibe and great views. In nice weather, you can enjoy picnic tables and the occasional sleepy dog scattered around the property.
http://www.coopermountainwine.com/
Domaine Serene
My least-favorite winery, ever.
http://www.domaineserene.com/
Elk Cove Vineyards
Located on what is arguably the most scenic location of any Oregon winery I've visited, Elk Cove is a bit off the beaten path, near the small town of Gaston on the way towards Forest Grove. A family-run operation that began producing in 1974, Elk Cove is situated on top of a north-south ridgetop with views of forests, vineyards, and the distant Coast Range - sunsets are spectacular.
The tasting room is open 10-5 daily except for a few holidays. Facilities at the winery include a large banquet hall with a huge deck, an outdoor gazebo, catering services, and some very beautiful, prototypically Northwestern grounds. The only thing lacking, in my opinion, is the wine: I've never found one I particularly enjoyed. Still, tastes vary, and the view alone makes this place worth a visit.
http://www.elkcove.com/
Patricia Green
Open by appointment only, except on the aforementioned holiday weekends, this 52 acre estate is located in the tony Ribbon Ridge appellation, near Beaux Freres and other high-end producers. She also produces wines made from purchased grapes, including (heresy!) some from California.
Patricia Green epitomizes the small Oregon wine producer, with a low-key facility, a notable absence of hauteur, and fairly-priced wines which typically sell out quickly. Last time we visited there, we chatted briefly with the soon-to-be-infamous Neil Goldschmidt, who owns a highly-regarded block of grapes on Ribbon Ridge. You just never know who you'll run into...
http://patriciagreencellars.com/
Sokol Blosser
One of the most venerable wineries in Oregon, opened in 1971, Sokol Blossor produces everything from pinot noir to a nice un-oaked pinot gris to a riesling-based dessert wine. I’ve never found their wines particularly compelling, but their tasting room is attractive and the people are charming and friendly.
The winery is located just off Highway 99 in Dundee, and is open for tasting 11-5 daily.
http://www.sokolblosser.com/
The Carlton Winemakers Studio
Your chance to latch onto the Next Big Thing in Oregon wines... this pleasant tasting room (constructed from lots of recycled materials) features the products from several local micro-wineries, including Penner-Ash, Andrew Rich, and Ribbon Ridge, all at prices well below those charged by larger operations.
Although the producers are small, the Studio's menu is large, offering substantially more than you'll find at most of the wineries around here. It features such intriguing choices as "Homemade Tartlet of Baby Artichokes, Pancetta and Leeks with Olive Oil Poached Tomatoes" and "Chevre Cheesecake with Roasted Pears". However, when we last visited, my wife managed to snare us a plate of figs - quite possibly the least appealing fruit on the planet. We scored several interesting bottles of wine, however, which somewhat compensated for the seeds in our teeth.
http://www.winemakersstudio.com/
Willakenzie Estate
Willakenzie (named for the soils in which their vines are planted) is another premium winery taking the unprecedented step of putting up some of their best wines in screwtop bottles. Their numerous estate-bottled “cork-free” and traditional pinots are big, earthy wines with ample terroir. Willakenzie also produces pinot gris and sparkling wines, neither of which I’ve tried.
The tasting room at Willakenzie is attractive, if rather generic, and we found the serving staff rather less friendly than in some other wineries; admittedly, we might have caught them on a bad day.
Don't let the hired help scare you away, though - you'll find that the wines are far more welcoming: last night we opened a 2000 Willakenzie Pinot Noir - Kiana which turned out to be a delightfully approachable, yet subtle wine with lots of refined cherry and berry flavors along with scents of cola and earth. It was ideal with our summer barbecue dinner.
http://www.willakenzie.com/
Conclusion:
From its inception in the 1970s, Oregon's Willamette Valley wine country has evolved from an off-the-map hideout for a handful of iconoclasts to a recognized and respected viticultural region. Consistent with its relative youth, the industry continues to grow and mature - Oregon wines are still a mixed bag in terms of value: while some world-class wines exist, there are far too many high-priced, ho-hum bottles produced here. Some of that is inevitable in the high-stakes poker game that is pinot noir, but in order to gain greater acceptance in the global marketplace, producers need to impose more discipline in terms of the wines they release and the prices they command.
While the industry continues to evolve, the rolling hills of my childhood remain essentially unchanged - bucolic and peaceful, home to pheasants, red-tailed hawks, and deer, dotted with oak and fir trees and laced with clear streams. Even if you can't find a wine to enjoy, you'll certainly appreciate the landscape.
© 2005 Sundogg99
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Friends
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov
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