Griffin Creek Winery

Serendipitous Beginnings; Forceful Focus
They hadn't originally planned to become vignerons; they hadn't originally planned to stay in Oregon!

Back in 1989, the Moores were on a kayak trip on the Klamath River. They had decided to take a few more days to drive to the Olympic peninsula when their car was broken into. Unexpectedly delayed in Ashland while repair parts were delivered from Portland, they decided to spend some of the time looking at property.

Neither Traute nor Don, who was a professor of medicine at USC for 35 years and had a practice in Pasadena, California, were strangers to the kind of agricultural land they saw in the Rogue Valley. In Southern California they had just sold an Orange orchard they had farmed as a second occupation.

The realtor who was taking them around asked if they were interested in seeing a small vineyard. Don said that they had no interest in growing grapes. Traute said: "What could it hurt to look?"

Apparently, it could hurt to the tune of 12-acres, the size of the initial property the Moores purchased.

From the start of their Quail Run Vineyards, the Moores approached their growing with a clear vision to develop the highest quality grapes and cultivate the strongest possible market. In the service of that goal, they've gone far afield to get expertise from leading viticulturalists, and have innovated in both the vineyard and the management of their business.

"We began by keeping crop levels down and watering down," says Don - a practice that even today isn't as commonplace in Southern Oregon as one would suppose. Aiming for an average yield of 3-3.5 tons in a warm climate region where crops can easily get as high as 15-tons an acre, the Moores rigorously drop fruit in order to get the highest quality yield-not the greatest volume.

Likewise, the Moores have joined other innovative growers in changing the "textbook" recipe for irrigation. "If you look at the last edition of Winkler," explains Don*, "it tells you to stop watering at veraison. We've learned that just the opposite is true here: you don't put any water on until veraison, and then you do it very sparingly, just enough to keep the plant from shutting down."

Similarly, the Moores have adopted so-called "quad" trellis systems in all their vineyards to maximize sun exposure, rather than simply adopt the easier and less expensive vertical trellises common in California.

These systems (the Moores use the Scott Henry trellis developed here in Oregon, and the Smart-Dyson developed in California with help from Australia) double the canopy by having two upward- and two downward-turning spurs per vine. "But the yield doesn't double," says Don, "and you have twice as much carbohydrate being produced. Plus, leaf-pulling is easier and you get lots of air circulation-we never have botrytis problems."

"Over the years we've made so many different changes to get better fruit," says Don. "We're always learning from the winemakers we work with, from the international experts that our local winegrowers' association brings in, and from our own experiments in everything from leaf-pulling to vine spacing."

Quality and Savvy Lead to Growth

By paying attention to quality, Quail Run Vineyard quickly found a ready market for their grapes. "We decided early on that the best marketing strategy for our business was to sell to the best winemakers," recalls Don, "which means we had to have the best grapes."

By 1993 Quail Run was supplying grapes to a stable of 8 or 9 winemakers in both the Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon. But the Moores, looking for an economic incentive that encouraged quality winegrowing, added a new twist to the typical grape supplying contract-one that benefited the winemaker, the grower, and the consumer.

The Moores proposed that when the grapes a winemaker purchased went into a reserve-designated bottling, the grower should be rewarded for their quality by an appropriate bonus.

"When grapes go into a reserve wine," explains Don, "the winemaker is going to make much more than on a vin oridinare. If they pay the grower a premium on those grapes of, say, $400, then the winemaker is giving back to their grower about $0.39 a bottle.

On a $25 bottle of wine, we've never had a winemaker who doesn't think this is a good deal."

The end result is that the grower is rewarded for investing in quality, the winemaker gets better grapes to work with, and the consumer can purchase a finer end product wine.

One of the winemakers the Moores were working with in the early 1990s was Joe Dobbes, who at the time was working with Hinman Vineyards outside of Eugene.

Joe had been purchasing Quail Run grapes for a new premium label at Hinman called Silvan Ridge. When Joe later moved to Willamette Valley Vineyards, he continued working with the Moores.

"Joe was making great wine from our grapes," says Traute, "and we had become great friends."

At his new home, Joe proposed developing a new brand for Southern Oregon wines, using grapes from Quail Run Vineyards. The Moores liked the idea, and so did Willamette Valley's president Jim Berneau (see sidebar story).

The resulting Griffin Creek label, made exclusively from grapes supplied by Quail Run Vineyards, is a partnership between the Moores and Willamette Valley Vineyards.

Since their first release in 1996, the Griffin Creek label has grown into the largest ultra-premium brand in Southern Oregon-and made the resulting Quail Run-Griffin Creek Vineyards the most recognizable grower in the region.

From their original 12-acre vineyard, Quail Run-Griffin Creek has grown to encompass 180 producing acres on six different vineyard sites (plus a seventh demonstration vineyard at their tasting room-see sidebar story).

Each of the Moores' vineyards offers a different elevation and aspect, providing a variable palette for their grapes. Indeed, they've taken unusual advantage of their vineyards. After having planted Syrah at one vineyard, they discovered the production wasn't as consistent as they'd like, so they pulled out the producing plants and re-planted them at a warmer site-and foregoing a year of production.

"I've never heard of anyone doing that," comments Joe Dobbes!

Total vineyard yield depends somewhat on the vintage, but averages around 540 tons for all vineyards.

Building for the Future

Convinced by their own experience of the potential for fine winegrowing in Southern Oregon, the Moores have embarked on a clonal research program they hope will result in better grapes to grow.
For instance, after doing much research, Don Moore found that the predominant clone of Cabernet sauvignon that had been used in Southern Oregon had been essentially "abandoned" by UC Davis, and wasn't the best clone to be using. Working with California nurseryman and grower John Caldwell, the Moores have helped bring into Oregon-and were the first in the Northwest to plant-new certified clones of Cabernet sauvignon and Merlot.

"These clones offer different ripening and flavor characteristics, and have great potential for improving the quality of the wines we produce throughout the region," says Don, "much like the Dijon clones have done for Pinot noir and Chardonnay."

Going further, the Moores have established with the aid of a grant from the Oregon Winegrowers Association an experimental vineyard. Here they have planted many different varietals and clones in order to monitor how they grow in the area's climate.

"What we've learned is that we can grow a great variety of grapes that taste substantially different from the regions they are normally grown in." Such potential excites the Moores.

"We have a long ripening September and October, with greater diurnal temperature range than you get in Napa," says Don, "so our grapes get a wonderful intensity of flavor."

Rather than relying on Southern Oregon's mainstay Merlot, the Moore's were the first to plant Syrah in the region. They've also become leading growers of Viognier, Cabernet sauvignon, and Pinot gris in the area.

"We're very excited about the potential for other grapes, and we especially like the wines were beginning to make from our Cabernet franc and Malbec," says Don.

They've also planted Tempranillo (using cuttings from Abacela Vineyards & Winery in Roseburg), Petit verdot, Grenache, and Sangiovese.

"We may never grow some of these varieties in quantity," says Don, "but I do want to demonstrate to other growers what can be grown well here."

One of the joys of winegrowing, comments Traute, is that it is always changing-each year poses different challenges. So far, Quail Run-Griffin Creek Vineyards has been unusually successful in setting a high viticultural standard for Southern Oregon. "If you ask me what Southern Oregon will be growing twenty years from now," concludes Don, "I'd say that I have no idea-the future is unlimited here!"

*General Viticulture, by A.J. Winkler, et. al., published by the University of California Press, revised and enlarged edition, 1974 (a new version is being prepared-what will it say about irrigation?)