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by Lisa Shara Hall
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Oregon Identity
The wine country of Oregon spans the state, rising up and falling over the rolling hills and gentle valleys that are home to more than 4,858 hectares (12,000 acres) – and growing – of Vitis vinifera plantings.
Very Early label, pre-prohibition for Henry's Wine
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The largest wineries of Oregon seem small in comparison to those in California: the biggest producer only makes 125,000 cases per year. A great proportion of the nearly 170 wineries in Oregon (a number that increases each year) produce fewer than 35,000 cases of wine annually, and many wineries make only 2–5,000 cases each year. Most wine producers own and tend their own vineyards, some supplementing their needs with purchased grapes from contracted vineyards. Even those who buy grapes take an active role in overseeing the production of their contracted rows. Production facilities range from small garage-based, simple operations to technologically advanced, modern gravity-fed wineries. With few exceptions, the wineries look purely functional: not the mega-châteaux of Bordeaux, or Napa in California, but more like the farms and utilitarian facilities of Burgundy, or Sonoma in California. Vineyards Predominantly in Willamette Valley Oregon’s vineyards lie primarily in the temperate Willamette Valley, between the Coast and Cascade Mountain Ranges; the smaller regions of the warmer southern Umpqua, Applegate, and Rogue Valleys lie in the river valleys bisecting a series of forested hills and mountains, just north of the Klamath Mountains. They are less sheltered by the Coast and Cascade Ranges, but offer their own moderated mesoclimates. Warm days and cool nights make the Willamette Valley ideal for both Burgundian and Alsatian varieties. The weather pattern in the Willamette Valley, however, varies considerably from Alsace or Burgundy: Oregon’s rainfall occurs most abundantly in the spring and autumn (and, of course, through the winter), with drier, drought conditions prevailing mid-July through August, sometimes causing fermentation and ageing problems for white wines in particular. In the warmer and considerably drier southern Valleys, as well as the eastern Columbia and Walla Walla Valleys of the state,smaller quantities of the Bordeaux (and now Rhône-style) thick-skinned varieties can be grown with increasing success.
Generally, the Willamette Valley can be viewed as the most marginal of the West Coast wine-producing regions. Some claim the weather patterns compromise quality, but others maintain that grapes that ripen in cool temperatures at the end of the growing season achieve greater complexity. With only forty years of modern experience, there is no long-term, consistent record of weather or winemaking techniques. Nor are there many obvious differences in taste according to place; but an argument can still be made that it might be from the Northwest’s cooler reaches that the best wines of the United States will ultimately emerge. And they are now emerging. With a trio of spectacular vintages – 1998, 1999, and 2000 – following a string of weather compromised years, the state is finally poised for greater international attention. Oregon can be characterized as a young (but passionate) wine-producing region, one that is finally reaching a maturity promised by its early stellar achievements of the 1970s. Pinot noir Reigns as Major Grape Varietal
Oregon’s first vines, of course, were selfrooted. The faster growing strain of phylloxera that wiped out California vineyards has not appeared further north. The shorter, cooler aspects of the growing season in Oregon lessens the generational growth of the louse, but does not prevent its occurrence. In Oregon, the affected sites – at least thirty-eight confirmed vineyards out of a total of 500 – are still isolated from each other, which also greatly slows the spread of phylloxera.
Robert Drouhin knew better. When the Burgundian purchased land in Oregon and planted his Dundee vineyards in 1988, his experience told him that phylloxera would come. Domaine Drouhin Oregon (pictured at right, viewed from Sokol Blosser) ) was the first large-scale vineyard to be planted with grafted vines. By 2000, more than thirty-seven per cent of all vines in Oregon were on grafted rootstocks. Most of the rootstock-clonal plantings in Oregon were done after 1992, by newer, better-financed operations. Besides trying to prevent phylloxera, producers had been searching for a way to add depth and complexity to their wines. Their major focus has been concentrated on yields and clonal selections, with the resulting advantage of earlier ripening fruit. Oregon producers were the first champions in the United States of the imported French clones, working with the French government and Oregon State University in the mid-1980s to guarantee healthy propagation. The now abundantly planted Dijon clones promise potentially more complex Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. Farmers not Celebrities Even with Oregon’s nationally recognized leadership in the area of clonal development, and the quality image and enthusiastic reception with which the wines have been met, Oregon has yet to produce a large attention-grabbing champion like those of Mondavi, Kendall-Jackson, or Gallo in California, or even a Chateau Ste Michelle in Washington.
Oregon’s demeanour and persona continue to lack true celebrity; the state’s producers still regard themselves as farmers, reinforcing a cultivated image of rustic charm and simple hominess in contrast to the more glamorous marketeers of California. That image is given support by the nature of Oregon’s growth in general. Land grants in the nineteenth century deeded properties to a maximum size of sixty-five hectares (160 acres). This has kept property scale in Oregon smaller than in its neighbouring states. The home-spun demeanour is certainly no act; it took little capital to create Oregon’s early wineries and the properties here attracted a more selfsufficient, independent spirit. Most wineries lack fancy tasting rooms and showy visitor centres. A visitor is just as likely to meet the winemaker him or herself pouring wine in the tasting room as to have extreme difficulty locating the winery due to inadequate signage (occasionally by design). But that modest, underfunded image has been changing: outside interests – from California, France, and Australia – have brought money and sophistication to the region. With them have come higher prices for the better wines. This seems to have limited the region’s ability to export its wines with the degree of success expected of such quality. In 2000, bottle pricing upwards of $40 retail means the wines could hardly stay competitive, with the added import taxes, international shipping, and VAT placed on top of that. Of course, the small number of bottles produced means that Oregon wines can never be exported in great quantities, anyway. But the pricing trend is problematic within the United States; as good as the wines can be, with prices exceeding those of Premier Cru Burgundy from top domaines, one has to wonder about value. If consumers are willing to pay the high prices, good for the producer. But where will they stop?
Styles also vary considerably, from simple unoaked whites to heavily extracted, oak-wrapped monsters. Lower yields, averaging between 28–42 hectolitres per hectare (2–3 tons per acre) are the norm for the top wines.Vintage certainly influences wine in Oregon, but more and more so does oak and concentration, consistent with the international trend. As with most wine-producing regions around the world, agricultural production also plays a strong role within the appellations of Oregon. Throughout the wineproducing areas of the state, nut trees, apple and pear orchards, and berry vines can be seen on property that is not planted with grapes. Cows still graze lazily in pastoral settings. The rich availability of prized wild mushrooms has spurred an active mycological industry and a related culinary following marked by great enthusiasm. Salmon is as much a part of the Oregon identity as Pinot Noir. It seems natural that all these native foods marry well with wines, especially with the character of Pinot Noir.
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This article is excerpted from Wines of
the Pacific Northwest,
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Rain
in the Willamette Valley, where the greatest proportion
of vines are planted, has given this region a false bad image.
Indeed, rain in autumn is an annual threat, but no more than
in many other cool-climate wineproducing regions around the world.
The annual race begins at veraison (the intermediate
stage of grape development when the grapes change from hard green
berries to their softer, coloured state) to ripen the grapes
before bad weather sets in. Oregon typically sees an average
of 5–8cm (2–3in) of rain in the Willamette Valley
in September to October, but the hope is that the fruit will
ripen by early October and the deluge will commence after 15
October. Unfortunately for Oregon, three particularly wet autumns – 1995,
1996, and 1997 – compromised quality. And those years,
sadly, were assumed to be the norm for the state; unfortunately
it coincided with another wave of serious attention from the
wine press.
Pinot
Noir continues as the state’s signature varietal, representing
thirty-six per cent of all wine produced and almost fifty per cent
of all vineyard plantings. The discrepancy between grapes grown
and wine produced is due in part to the increased vineyard plantings
each year (and those vines not yet bearing viable fruit), and also
to the lower yields that Oregon producers consider essential for
quality production of Pinot Noir.
Phylloxera was
first documented in Oregon in 1990, at four sites throughout the
state. Until then, virtually all vineyards were planted with own-rooted
vines, upon the belief that since Oregon hadn’t yet seen
any evidence of the problem, they could wait until it was discovered
and only then replant. Most Oregon wineries before the 1990s faced
financial constraints, and pulling or grafting productive plants
would not have been financially feasible.
A
great interest in sustainable agriculture in this environmentally
aware state has also exerted an influence on the grapeproducing
industry. Only a few vineyards can claim true organic certification
(and Cooper Mountain Vineyard is currently trying in earnest for
biodynamic status). However, the winemakers and viticulturists
who founded a new program called LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture
and Enology) have attempted to make earth-friendly grape
growing and winemaking the standard practice in Oregon. They hope
one day to see the concept and program succeed outside the state
as well, as an overall standard and widely accepted mark of quality
in wine and respect for our world.
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