Oregon’s Pinot Noirs

My
interest in writing an article about the Oregon wine
industry came to life when some friends asked me to locate
some older bottles of Oregon Pinot Noir for a dinner we
would enjoy together. I soon learned that bottles from the
197Os simply did not exist here in the northeast USA and
those that did from the 198Os and early 199Os were
incredibly rare. Rarity, however, was not in this case due
to too much demand, but to too little interest. These wines
had simply not been collected. For what did exist, there
were so few buyers that the cost of rare old Oregon Pinots
would likely be just as expensive as recent releases. This
lack of interest and apparent worth in the past of Oregon
Pinot Noir shocked me somewhat. There seems, now, a sense of
enthusiasm about Oregon Pinot Noir. The wines are priced in
Napa Valley land.

Before the early
196Os, Pinot Noir did not have a presence in Oregon. Oregon
vineyards were populated by cooler climate vinifera
varieties such as Gewurztraminer and Riesling, as well as
various hybrids. David Lett and Charles Coury were the first
to play with the Pinot Noir/Oregon pairing. They arrived in
1965 in the Willamette Valley. The Erath and the Ponzi
families followed; then, later, the Blossers, Adelsheims,
Campbells, and Fullers. An incident that brought the
attention of the wine world to this unrecognized outpost in
the US Northwest was stunning performance of The Eyrie
Vineyards 1975 Pinot Noir in the 1979 Gault Millau Wine
Olympiades held in Paris. Experts who blind tasted the wine
against famous Burgundies rated the Eyrie highly. A second
tasting confirmed the results of the first.

The pace of new
startups increased dramatically during the 198Os and 199Os.
The purchase of land by Robert Douching in 1988 seemed to
confer the Burgundian seal of approval on Oregon. The
International Pinot Noir Celebration inaugurated in 1987
brought to Oregon Pinot experts and aficionados from around
the world. It helped reinforce the belief, held strongly
then, that Oregon was the epicenter for Pinot Noir, not only
in the United States, but also in the New World. A string of
excellent vintages at the end of the 198Os, the 1988, 1989
and 199O, helped wine critics and consumers to forget the
capricious harvest weather conditions that are endemic to
the Willamette Valley.

Less heady times
returned during the 199Os when harvest weather conditions
became more erratic. At the same time, several wine regions
in California, notably Russian River Valley, Carneros and
Santa Maria Valley, became known for richer and denser – and
more consistent – Pinot Noir wine. Compared to the
Willamette Valley, the climates in these areas are less
humid and rainy during the harvest period. Vineyards there
are larger and flatter. Lower cultivation costs are the
result. Higher profit margins are a possible result.
California producers could make good Pinot Noir wine in
enough volume to make national brands. On the other hand,
86% of Oregon producers currently make fewer than 1O,OOO
cases per year each. The average output of Oregon producers
during the 199Os was less. This output has been too low to
justify, on economic grounds alone, national distribution.
It was and is more sensible for many Oregon wineries to sell
directly from the winery or within Oregon. During the 199Os,
big California brands began selling their own lines of Pinot
Noir. Their price points were lower than Oregon versions.
These California brands had easier access to out-of-state
distribution channels. They were able to leverage wholesale
companies to push their wines at the expense of less
powerful brands such as those from Oregon. In response,
several Oregon producers such as Adelsheim and Ponzi
struggled to increase their production. They realized that
they either had to grow or remain at the mercy of the big
guys from the south. During the 199Os, a combination of a
loss of public relations momentum, variable wine quality,
and the growing presence and prestige of California Pinot
Noir put Oregon Pinot Noir in the back seat of Pinot Noir
America. Confused by erratic vintages and swayed by the more
concentrated styles of California Pinot Noirs, the wine
press began to send the message that it was California, not
Oregon that was the best US source for Pinot Noir
wine.

More devastating
still during the 199Os was the poor market response to
Oregon Chardonnay. The Burgundian parallel between the Cote
d’Or and Willamette Valley had led Oregonians to early on
pin their hopes on Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir. The
Oregon industry had initially planted the Wente clone (1O8)
of Chardonnay. This was a late ripening clone, which, though
a good fit for the California climate, was a poor choice for
the cooler Oregon one. In Oregon, Wente Clone Chardonnay
usually ripened well after Pinot Noir, making it more
subject to ripening problems and the onset of autumn rains.
Oregon producers, unable to compete with the flood of
Chardonnay from south of the border, turned their sights to
another variety suspected to be indigenous to Burgundy –
Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris did not confront Oregonians with a
powerful California competitor. Moreover, the success of
Italian Pinot Grigio in the US market bolstered hopes that
the flavors of Pinot Gris varietal wine would appeal to US
consumers. Because Pinot Gris is seldom barrel fermented,
production and storage costs are less than for barrel
fermented Chardonnay. Adelsheim, Ponzi and Eyrie began
promoting Pinot Gris during the mid-198Os and the variety
became identified with Oregon during the 199Os. As of 2OOO,
Pinot Gris eclipsed Chardonnay as the number one white grape
grown in Oregon. King Estate now produces 5O,OOO cases per
year. More lately, “anything other than Chardonnay”
sentiments have encouraged Oregonians to try their hand at
another variety of probable Burgundian origin – Pinot Blanc.
A red variety becoming more visible in Oregon is Syrah. Lynn
Penner-Ash of Penner-Ash Wine Cellars makes an Oregon Syrah.
She bases that wine on grapes sourced from the Rogue River
AVA. She told me that the climate there, which features warm
days and warm nights, suits Syrah. The wines, she said,
typically show strong blackfruit and black pepper
smells.

Aware that
wholesale sales people across the United States are under
more pressure to sell big California brands, and that
California brands are easier to sell, the Oregon wine
industry has gradually been concentrating its promotional
efforts at educating point-of-sale salespeople. Oregon
stands a better chance of entering distribution channels and
markets by creating demand closer to the point of purchase.
One effective and low cost way to do this has been to
attract retailers, restaurateurs and sponsored guests to
travel, at their own expense, to Pinot Camp, a several day
period of seminars, tastings and meals in Oregon wine
country. To get the trade to invest in their own wine
education would be a challenge for any wine promotional
campaign. My conversations with attendees convinced me that
positives of Pinot Camp far outweigh the expense, both in
dollars and hours, of attending. The graduates have become a
guerilla army of Oregon wine sales people. Instilling
enthusiasm and passion is the most important weapon that
Oregon has against the onslaught of heavily branded
California wines.

In the late
199Os and early 2OOOs, weather conditions became drier and
hotter making Oregon Pinot Noir wines more consistent from
vintage to vintage, and more concentrated on the palate.
Because concentration is an easy-to-measure attribute and
because it is associated with wine quality, wine critics
have lately tended to review Oregon Pinot Noir more
favorably than in the past. The movie, Sideways, has
bolstered romanticism around Pinot Noir in general. The
movie, Mondovino, has exalted artisanal winemaking over the
industrial, a perspective ideal for a wine industry such as
Oregon, largely composed of small, family-owned
wineries.

As of 2OO4,
there were over 3OO wineries in Oregon, putting it behind
California in that category. In terms of production output,
however, the state ranked fourth, behind California,
Washington State and New York State, a fact that highlights
the small size of Oregon wineries.

The business of
distributing and selling Oregon wine in the Massachusetts
market has reflected the ups and downs Oregon has had over
the last twenty years. Alex Murray, previously with
Grapevine and M.S. Walker and now an instructor at Boston
University’s Wine Studies program, helped reconstruct for me
the roles Grapevine and M.S. Walker played during the 198Os
and 199Os. In the mid 198Os, the wholesale wine company,
Grapevine, inspired by its focus on Burgundy wines, began
carrying and promoting a number of Oregon brands. By the
late 198Os and early 199Os, that portfolio had included
Adelsheim, Amity, Eyrie, Ponzi, Knudsen-Erath, Oak Knoll,
Bethel Heights, Argyle and Domaine Drouhin Oregon. Lloyd
Foster, another Grapevine veteran who now is a wine buyer
for Classic Wine Imports, told me that during this period,
Oregon wines were difficult to sell unless a high Parker
rating or a high vintage rating stimulated buyers. After
M.S. Walker purchased Grapevinein 1991, Oregon brands
became more dispersed throughout Massachusetts wholesaler
portfolios. A handful of established Oregon brands entered
into relationships with national importers. Eyrie, for
example, linked with Clicquot, and Ponzi with
Wilson-Daniels. Soon after the sale of Grapevine in 1991,
Lloyd Foster began working for Classic Wine Imports.
Starting in 1993, he began regularly attending the
International Pinot Noir Celebrations. Today the Classic
Wine Imports portfolio includes some 15 different Oregon
brands. Foster mentioned that Benton Lane wines proved to be
easy to sell for Classic because it was one of the first
Oregon brands that effectively combined package design with
low pricing. He reported that high-end sales of Oregon
wines, those over $35 per bottle wholesale, are currently
sluggish. On restaurant wine lists, such high cost Oregon
wines break the $1OO per bottle barrier. At that price
point, they cannot compete with famous brands from
California.

On the retail
wine scene, while large retail wine shops stock a good
number of labels, three in particular, Blanchard’s of
Allston, Fifth Avenue Liquors in Framingham, and Bauer Wines
in Boston enthusiastically promote Oregon wine sales. Kent
Gern of Blanchard’s, Paul Morganti of Fifth Ave Liquors, and
John Stepanski of Bauer Wine and Spirits all emphasized to
me that instilling this passion in consumers has been the
key to selling Oregon wines at the retail level. Retail
sales have remained steady despite sticker prices that have
increased in recent years.

So how did I do
trolling for old Oregon Pinot Noir for that dinner with
friends? After going down some dead ends, I located a 1987
Ponzi Reserve and a 1992 Domaine Drouhin Oregon. I paid $4O
for each, a price not too far off what current vintages of
these wines go for. I paired these two wines off against
some stiff competition from the colossus to the south. I
bought two older California Pinot Noirs from the same source
also for $4O per bottle, a 1982 Chalone Estate and a 1986
Acacia Madonna. All wines had been carefully stored and had
high fills. The 1987 Ponzi Reserve was oxidized from the
get-go. The 1992 Domaine Drouhin Oregon, however, was in
beautiful shape. It had a rich, spicy Pinot Noir nose with a
solid tannin-and-acid-laced backbone. The 1982 Chalone
estate had sharp clove-spice nose, a sign of aggressive
contact with new French oak. Though fresh at the outset, it
began oxidizing rapidly. Boiled beetroot and mushroom
dominated the nose of the 1986 Acacia Madonna. Initially, I
thought it was unclean and would collapse quickly, but it
remained stable and I came to like it more and more with
time. During the main course, I sampled more recent wines, a
1998 Beaux Freres and a 2OO2 Chehalem Ridgecrest Pinot Noir,
both from Oregon, as well as the 2OOO Siduri Muirfield, a
wine made by a California producer who has the juice shipped
down to him from Oregon. In general, the wines were closed
in the nose and big and muscular in the mouth. The Chehalem
Ridgecrest, a little more fragrant and openly spicy than the
others, was the closest of the three in style to red
Burgundy. I wondered how these wines would taste like some
15 years later, and whether I could find them.