Washington Wineries Abeja Wine Ambrosia By Kristy Andrake Cellars Andrew Will Apex Winery Arbor Crest Badger Mountain Barnard Griffin Betz Family Winery Bookwalter Bridgman Cellars Cadence Winery Camaraderie Cellars Canoe Ridge Cascade Cliffs Caterina Winery Cayuse Ch Ste Michelle Chinook Wines Col Solare Colvin Columbia Crest Covey Run DeLille Cellars Di Stefano Dunham Winery Fidelitas Forgeron Cellars Gordon Brothers Harlequin Wine Cellars Hedges Cellars Hells Canyon Winery Hightower Hogue Cellars/Genesis Hood River Isenhower Cellars Januik Wines Kestrel Vintners Kiona Winery Knipprath Cellars L'Ecole No 41 Leonetti Cellar Lost Mountain Matthews Cellars McCrea Nelms Road Northstar Merlot Owen Roe Winery Patit Creek Patrick M Paul Winery Pepper Bridge Portteus Winery Powers Winery Preston Winery Quilceda Creek Reininger Russell Creek Ryan Patrick Vineyards Sagelands Winery Seven Hills Winery Siduri Sky River Mead Snoqualamie Vineyards Soos Creek Winery Spring Valley Tamarack Cellars Tefft Cellars Three Rivers Winery Townshend Cellar Vierra Vineyards Walla Walla Vintners Washington Hills Waterbrook Winery Whitman Cellars Wilridge Winery Woodward Canyon

Oregon Wineries A to Z Winery Abacela Academy Adea Adelsheim Airlie Amity Vineyards Andrew Rich Ankeny Vineyard Antica Terra Archery Summit Argyle Beaux Freres Bellepente Benton Lane Beran Bergstrom Winery Bethel Heights Brick House Bridgeview Briggs Hill Broadley Brooks Cameron Carabella Carlo & Julian Chateau Benoit Chehalem Coleman Vineyard Cristom Croft Bailey Vineyards Cuneo Cellars David Hill Winery Del Rio Vineyard Dobbes Family Wines Domaine Coteau Domaine Drouhin Domain Lemoyne Domaine Meriwether Domaine Serene Duckpond Dundee Springs Elemental Cellars Elk Cove Elvenglade Eola Hills Erath Eugene Wine Cellars Evesham Wood Eyrie Vineyards Fiddlehead Foris Vineyards Freja Granville Griffin Creek Hamacher Cellars Hauer of the Dauen Helvetia Highpass Hinman Hip Chicks Do Wine Holloran Honeywood Hood River J Christopher Joe Dobbes Ken Wright King Estate La Bete Wines Lange Laurel Ridge Lavelle Lion Valley Maysara Mckinlay Medici Mystic Mountain Mystic Winery Oreilly's Owen Roe Winery Panther Creek Paschal Winery Patricia Green Cellars Patton Valley Penner Ash Phantom Hill Winery Ponzi Raptor Ridge Rex Hill Rivers Edge RockBlock Syrah R Stuart & Co Sass Winery Secret House Serendipity Seven Hills Shea Wine Cellars Siduri Wines Silvan Ridge Sineann Sokol Blosser Solena Soter Vineyards Springhill Stafford Hill Stag Hollow Stevenson Barrie St Innocent Stonecroft Stone Wolf Table Rock Thomas Tualatin Tyee Tyrus Evan Van Duzer Viento Wines Walnut City Wineworks Westrey Willakenzie Willamette Valley Winters Hill Winery Witness Tree Yamhill Youngberg Hill Zelko Winery

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Dick Erath is another Oregon fan of Dolcetto. He planted 280 Dolcetto vines in 1993 on a dead south slope at 550 feet of elevation. The clone is UCD 3, but he is now trying to find different ones. Erath added another 420 vines by grafting over in 2000. Ripening hasn't been a problem, as long as he thins the huge clusters.

Erath said, "It took a while to figure out the winemaking, especially the yeast and time of pressing. Our first release was with the 1996. Over-extraction is a problem; with normal yeast we found that we had to press between 11 and 13 brix. With Barolo yeast we've been able to go to 8 to 10 brix; this improves the fruit profile and keeps the tannins subdued."

On Red Mountain in Washington, the very fine Klipsun Vineyard grows Nebbiolo; Seattle-based Wilridge Winery produces the wine.

Patricia Gelles, owner of Klipsun (photo at left) said, "Nebbiolo is not easy to grow--it grows like a weed and would produce 15 tons to the acre if left alone, but then there would be no color or flavor. We do heavy pruning and different trellising. We are going to more Italian trellising, whatever that is! Nebbiolo is more susceptible to sunburn in our warm site so we make sure that there is plenty of leaf growth on the west side for protection. We have less than one acre and have actually replanted to one clone, the Lampeii clone."

At this time Wilridge is getting all of the fruit, but Gelles hopes to sell some to Lou Facelli (Facelli Winery in Woodinville) this next harvest.

Paul Beveridge of Wilridge has been taking Klipsun's Nebbiolo since 1998. It has been a very popular for him and always sells out quickly; the 2000 vintage shows good varietal identity and structure. After a trip to Italy last year, Beveridge also decided to plant Washington State's first Sagrantino, at the Lodmell Vineyards.

He said, "Sagrantino is my favorite Italian variety. I think of it as a wine that combines the best of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. I am very excited to see how it works in Washington."

Nebbiolo has also been the passion for John Paul of Cameron Winery in Dundee, Oregon. Nebbiolo in the cool Willamette Valley, home of Pinot Noir? Paul has been carrying out a test plot of Nebbiolo for a number of years, which he has now expanded to around one-half acre on tight spacing (around 2,200 vines per acre). Oregon State University provided two clones, which Paul believes they got from Davis. His conversations with a number of winemakers in Piedmont lead him to believe that there are not as many different clones with Nebbiolo as with Pinot Noir.

Paul has the Nebbiolo planted at the winery site at low elevation, south-facing, with warm, early-ripening conditions. The Red Hills of Dundee in the Willamette Valley are not generally regarded as warm enough.

Even Paul said, "I do not believe that this variety will do very well anywhere else in the Willamette Valley. But I should note that my attraction to the notion was provided early on by Aldo Vaca (of Produttori del Barbaresco) who said that the Red Hills reminded him in many ways of the area around Alba (not the least, of course, being the hazelnut orchards).

"The vines grow tall with few laterals and are a pain in the ass to manage and typically much fruit has to be dropped on the ground. But when it ripens, it is unbelievably good. The birds go crazy for this grape like no other grape in the vineyard. It ripens late (as in the mother country), distressingly late, like late October or early November, but often the weather holds here until then--and the last few years it has." Oregon has seen a string of warmer, dryer vintages for Pinot Noir as well.

Paul also said, "The test wines that I have made (there has not been enough for commercial production yet) show incredible promise with deep color, brilliant cherry aromas and great texture. In 2001 my vines broke bud just before I left for a trip to Italy. When I got to Barolo a couple of days later the vines were just breaking bud. In the fall of 2001 we harvested the same week as in Barolo in late October. I therefore assume that I am on the right track."

Paul thinks that he may have enough fruit from the 2003 vintage to release a Nebbiolo wine--if the rains don't come before he harvests.

So What is Italian Anyway

Nancy Ponzi mused, "It occurs to me that Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc can be viewed as Italian, and there are those who strongly feel our labels should reflect that sexy aspect. The history is we in Oregon were producing Pinot Gris long before most people had heard of Pinot Grigio or would have bought an Italian wine anyway. And, as far as our Oregon industry is/was concerned, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc were the correct varietal names. Like White Riesling. This has to do with the pure/idealistic origins of the Oregon industry."

Paul at Cameron agrees, to a point. He said, "At Cameron with several grape varieties, whether we call them ‘Italian' or ‘French' depends on what we plan to do with them during the processing phase. Thus grapes that others in the Oregon wine industry call Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris, I prefer to refer to as Bianco and Grigio. Unfortunately, certain now-faded powers in the Oregon wine business decreed on the whole that we would be Francophiles and managed to get codified onerous rules tying our hands with regard to marketing these two varietals. Only now as California wine producers march ahead with Pinot Grigio in markets that Oregon used to dominate, are some producers beginning to question the wisdom of this narrow definition of varietal names."

With respect to the processing of these two varietals, Paul thinks that there is sometimes a notable difference between the French and Italian expressions--that while Alsatian renditions typically retain some residual sugar, usually in the range of one percent, the Italians (more specifically Friuli and Alto Adige) finish their wines dry. This may be as much due to climatic and soil nutritive influences as anything. Sugar showed up in Alsace most noticeably in the very, very ripe 1997 vintage, when sugar was hard to control. Additionally, the Italians bottle their wines much earlier to retain freshness. Paul said that the attitude on the part of the Italians is that these wines are to be consumed while young and fresh, generally during the course of the year following the vintage. For example, at Vinitaly this year, Paul saw predominately Pinot Biancos and Grigios from the 2002 vintage, but Americans are still selling 2001s. Traditional Italian whites also never see oak barrels, though in recent years as they have marketed to an American audience this has been changing.

Paul said, "At Cameron, I follow the Italian model in producing my Pinot Bianco, and the 2002 rendition is already in the bottle."

Paul continued, "My favorite Italian white wines, however, are not of a varietal sort but rather carefully constructed blends of several varieties; witness Jermann's ‘Vintage Tunina.' To this end I am planting other varieties and starting to use them in my more expensive blends. To date I have planted Tocai Friulano and Moscato. My ‘Giuliano' consists of stainless steel fermented Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Auxerrois and Moscato. Though several of these varietals would be called ‘French,' the manner in which the wine is put together is decidedly ‘Italian.' And in Alto Adige and Friuli all of these varieties are to be found in spite of their lineage. Ah, it is more complicated than one might at first assume."

The Growing Number of Producers

Many other Northwest producers are making wines from Italian varieties as well. The list is long. In Washington, Woodward Canyon in Walla Walla and Columbia Winery (from the Otis or Alder Ridge Vineyards in the Columbia Valley) each produce very good Barbera and Sangiovese. Sangiovese is also produced by Facelli Winery, Arbor Crest in Spokane, Kiona on Red Mountain, Thurston Wolfe and Yakima Cellars in the Yakima Valley, and Yellow Hawk, Russell Creek and Walla Walla Vintners in Walla Walla. Cavattapi in Seattle has long made a Nebbiolo from the noted Red Willow Vineyard in the Yakima Valley.

As the hunt for the best varieties in the best sites continued in the young Pacific Northwest, more and more producers will experiment with new varieties. This Italian focus will not just be a passing fancy. France is not the only Mother Country for wine.

About Author Lisa Shara Hall

Lisa Shara Hall is the author of Wines of the Pacific Northwest (Mitchell Beazley 2001) and the co-author of The Food Lover’s Companion to Portland (Chronicle Books 1996). She serves as Senior Editor for Wine Business Communications (Wine Business Monthly, Wine Business Insider and Winebusiness.com) and writes for numerous publications including the annual Hugh Johnson Pocket Guide to Wine, The Oxford Companion to Wine, The Hugh Johnson/Jancis Robinson World Atlas of Wine , and Decanter.

Lisa is an active member of the Society of Wine Educators and the British-based Circle of Wine Writers. She is a frequent lecturer and educator, as well as the first candidate in Oregon for the Master of Wine qualification.-------------

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