Willamette Oregon Wine County

HOME of the BRAVE

BY CHRIS SAWYER

Much like Lewis and Clark braved the elements and uncharted waters as they headed west to find the Pacific Ocean from 1803 to 1805: Young wine pioneers and University of California Davis graduates David Lett, Dick Erath, and Charles Coury left the sunny conditions of the golden state and traveled north in the mid-1960s to plant the first Pinot Noir grapes in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a sweeping agricultural zone known for its wet winters, cool springs, unpredictable summers, and chilly afternoon maritime breezes.

The following decade, the first wave of free-spirited, wine lovers-turned-vintners with no previous wine industry experience arrived in this untested area, planted dream vineyards, and launched a series of new start-up labels like Ponzi Vineyards, Sokol Blosser, Oak Knoll Winery, Adelsheim Vineyards, Elk Cove Vineyards, and Amity Vineyards.

As time passed, this strong-willed group “ of new Oregonians banded together to hone their skills, share ideas, and develop a business plan for the region. Susan Sokol Blosser, whose family’s Sokol Blosser winery is celebrating its 50-year anniversary said, “When we got here, we found there were a handful of other couples thinking the exact same thing as us. It amazes me how you can think you are so unique just to find out you are a part of a big social movement. It really was the start of a worldwide phenomenon, and we were part of it in Oregon.”

TALKING CLONES

On a national level, the benefits of this group effort blossomed in the early 1980s. After receiving stellar reviews from Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate, a set of wines from the 1983 vintage were put in front of influential wine critics at the Burgundy Challenge, a blind tasting held in 1985 at the International Wine Center in New York. In the end, the top five Pinots selected were from Oregon instead of Burgundy, claiming the attention of sommeliers and critics from around the world, subsequently raising the bar for worldclass wines coming out of the region.

As the number of Willamette Valley producers doubled from 30 to 60 from 1980 to 1990, David Adelsheim of Adelsheim Vineyards played a vital role in the movement forward by working with local vintners to raise funds to launch the state’s first viticultural and enology program at Oregon State University and building a bond with vineyard experts at the University of Dijon in Burgundy providing growers with access to new plant material through the importation of the Pinot Noir clones 113, 114 and 115 in 1984 and additional clones 667 and 777 in 1988.

“I realized that if we were able to get those clones somehow, that might be capricious to the industry,” said Adelsheim, who worked the 1974 harvest in Burgundy before launching his family’s inaugural releases in 1978.

To create a signature wine that reflects the maturity of the vines and the character of the vintage over time, proprietor Dan Warnshuis of Utopia Winery in Newberg crafts his annual release of Estate Pinot Noir with twelve separate clones from vines planted at 500 feet on the southfacing slopes of Ribbon Ridge and includes the classic Wadenswil 2A and Pommard 4 and 5 selections developed in the 1960s. The dramatic, high-elevation slopes are also home to a series of special clonal blocks developed by well-respected brands like Beaux Freres, Bergstrom Wines, Brick House, Trisaetum, and Ribbon Ridge Winery. “When I designed this vineyard, I wanted to have tools as a winemaker and give myself a lot of diversity given the variability of the growing seasons,” said Warnshuis, who farms all his estate properties organically.

Dan Warnshuis of Utopia Winery

Although the fancy “Dijon” clones are now widely planted in Oregon and California, one of the fans of the old vine heirloom clones is Adam Campbell, the second-generation winemaker at Elk Cove, a medium-sized winery that has been making a unique series of vineyard-designate wines near Gaston since 1978.

“To me, Pommard is more Oregonian. There’s always that great balance between sweet fruit, complex flavors, and freshness rather than earthiness. I very rarely taste an Oregon wine that has a cooked-fruit character, and even the dark-fruited wines tend to have a lot of fresh black cherry fruit,” said Campbell.

Adam Campbell of Elk Cove Vineyards

It really was the start of a worldwide phenomenon, and we were part of it in Oregon.

– Susan Sokol Blosser

DEFINING THE FLAVORS AND SUB-AVAS

Named after the Willamette River, Willamette Valley was designated as an official AVA in 1983. In the exciting period between 2005 to 2006, the boundaries of the first six sub-AVAs of Dundee Hills, Chehalem Mountains, Eola-Amity Hills, McMinnville, Ribbon Ridge, and Yamhill- Carlton were defined based on climate conditions, topography, and the unique selection of soils found in each area. Since 2019, the Van Duzer Corridor, Tualatin Hills, and Laurelwood District have been added to the list of AVAs as well.

An excellent site expression within an appellation is the Lenné Estate ‘South Slope’ Pinot Noir from the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, a deep, dense wine made with Pommard and Dijon 115 clones. Before starting this boutique brand with his wife Karen in 1999, proprietor Steve Lutz graduated from the University of Oregon in 1979 and fell in love with Pinot Noir while working for Robert Mondavi at Napa Valley’s Vichon Vineyards in the 1980s. To him, the character of this small 16.5- acre south-facing hillside vineyard starts with black fruits on the nose. This vintage comes through as dark cherry and plum mixed with hints of licorice, lavender, wild mushrooms, fresh thyme, and mineral.

“Today, I’m happy to say there are still a lot of us that are still mom and pop types that take this hands-on approach very seriously,” smiled Lutz, who worked the first six years for local brands Chateau Benoit and Anne Amie Vineyards while he developed the Lenné brand.

Steve Lutz of Lenné Estate Photo courtesy of Lenné Estate

Passing the torch to the next generation, the Purple Hands Winery and Urban Tasting Room in Dundee is owned by Cody Wright, whose dad Ken Wright has become one of the most respected winemakers in Oregon. To pay tribute to the distinctive Willamette Valley AVAs, Cody bottles limited release wines from the famed Shea Vineyard in Yamhill-Carlton; Freedom Hill (a famous Willamette Valley site, west of Eugene), West Wind Vineyard on Ribbon Ridge, and four different sites in the Dundee Hills.

“There’s always something here to learn if you want to,” said Wright.

Claire Jarreau from Brooks Estate // Photo by Carolyn Wells Kramer

WHITE WINE FOCUS

In the white wine category, the success of Pinot Gris in Oregon has been helped along by the popular large-scale of the big brands like King Estate and Willamette Valley Vineyards, which produce annual bottlings that are widely available across the nation. But for travelers who visit the region, delicious examples of these crisp, elegant wines with floral aromas and ripe, fruity flavors can be found at wineries like Coeur de Terre, Sokol Blosser, Fox Farm Vineyards, and The Eyrie Vineyards.

After investing in the Ridgecrest Vineyards and Chehalem labels in the 1990s, Willamette Valleynative, Bill Stoller purchased his family’s turkey farm located near the historic town of Dayton. Today, this lovely hillside property is home to Stoller Family Estate, which has gained a stellar reputation for Pinot Noir, as well as sevendistinctive styles of Chardonnay with fruit from the 60-acres of vines planted on the rising slopes.

As a grand departure from the buttery, oaky styles that were all the rage 15 years ago, talented winemaker Katie Payne- Brown uses a mixture of stainless-steel tanks, concrete vessels, and a plethora of neutral to new oak barrels to showcase the different expressions of the estate-grown Chardonnay grapes in each new release. In addition, a couple of years ago, a 2015 Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine was released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first Chardonnay plantings on the property.

“To me, Chardonnay really showcases what it was fermented in,” said Katie. “It’s an incredible grape to work with because you have a golden opportunity to help define its identity.”

Before the Pinot Noir boom in the mid- 1990s, the aromatic white grape variety Riesling represented nearly a quarter of the vineyard acreage planted in the state. To make sure the investments of the pioneer families are not lost, the team at Brooks Winery in Amity Hills makes its popular “ARA” Riesling and a series of limitedreleases series of bottlings with 20 to 25 separate lots of old vine fruit from the estate or sourced from respected vineyards in the Dundee Hills and Yamhill-Carlton AVAs.

“We like to call the stylistic differences our Rieslings flavorful strokes for different folks,” laughed Claire Jarreau, the assistant winemaker and grower liaison at Brooks. “In each case, our goal is to capture the fresh fruit flavors, tangy acidity, and personality of the vineyard inside each bottle we make.”

Other delicious examples of dazzling white wine gems from the region worth noting include the Ponzi Pinot Blanc, Aram Cara Nicholas Estate Dry Riesling, and the Hyland Estates Gewürztraminer made with fruit from old vines planted in 1971.

Brooks Estate Vineyard Garden Photo by Andrea Johnson