Southern Oregon is the Real Deal Randy Caparoso
Many of Oregon’s best wines have neither “Willamette” nor “Pinot” on their labels
When wine professionals hear “Oregon,” most of us probably still think of Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris from the Willamette Valley, and for good reason. But is the Willamette Valley currently the source of Oregon’s finest wines? Based on my own recent experience, I would not be too quick to make that statement, especially considering that some of the Willamette’s most acclaimed winemakers, including Ken Wright and Lynn Penner-Ash, are now crafting Southern Oregon wines good enough to make discriminating sommeliers sit up and take notice.
Ironically, until the early 1970s, most of the Vitis vinifera grapes in the state were grown in Southern Oregon’s Umpqua Valley, which received American Viticultural Area (AVA) status in 1984. The oldest commercial winery on the West Coast isn’t Sonoma’s Buena Vista (founded in 1857) or the former D’Agostini Winery in Plymouth, Calif. (1856), but Valley View Winery, established in 1852 in what is now Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley. The Rogue earned AVA recognition in 2000 along with its subappellation, the Applegate Valley.
Unlike the California wine industry, Oregon’s was completely shut down by Prohibition, not to be reawakened until 1959 with the founding of Hillcrest Vineyard in the Umpqua Valley. The late David Lett didn’t plant his first grapes in the Dundee Hills of the Willamette Valley until 1966; in 1970, there were only five bonded wineries in the entire state, with a total of 35 acres of wine grapes planted. Of course, the international splash made by Lett’s 1975 Eyrie Pinot Noir in the 1979 “Wine Olympics” changed that situation fairly quickly. As of 2008, there were 13,314 acres of Vitis vinifera planted in the Willamette, making up 76% of Oregon’s production. By comparison, 2,813 acres had been planted in the Umpqua and Rogue valleys, accounting for another 16% of Oregon’s total, with the balance in the Columbia Gorge and Walla Walla Valley AVAs east of Portland. It’s noteworthy, however, that Southern Oregon wine production increased by nearly 20% per year between 2005 and 2007.
Following in the footsteps of Lett, who was trying to find the American equivalent of Beaune, Earl Jones landed in Oregon in the early 1990s, driven by a lifelong obsession with Tempranillo. After more than three years and thousands of hours spent researching National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, Jones concluded that the best latitudinal, climatic, and seasonal approximation of Rioja and Ribera del Duero in the world is in the Umpqua Valley, so he bought up land and established Abacela Vineyards at the AVA’s southern end. In 2004, Jones and his son, Dr. Gregory Jones, a Southern Oregon University climatologist, authored a successful petition for an all-encompassing Southern Oregon AVA to more clearly differentiate the Umpqua, Rogue, and Applegate valleys from the Willamette Valley to the north.
SOUTHERN OREGON'S KEY FEATURES
Although the evidence now indicates that Syrah—which Jones also planted, along with 17 other varieties—may be the grape that Southern Oregon is likely to hang its hat on, rather than Tempranillo, it is clear that Jones and his colleagues have found a region with its own distinct attributes and potential for making world-class wine. These factors include:
GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY
The Umpqua Valley, comprising the northern section of the Southern Oregon AVA, begins 25 miles south of Eugene, just touching the southernmost tip of the Willamette Valley AVA. The Southern Oregon AVA stretches another 125 miles south to the California state line, where it reaches its widest point at the 60-mile-wide Rogue Valley. Southern Oregon is a mountainous appellation made up of literally hundreds of high-elevation, intermountain subvalleys, with vineyards planted on valley lowlands, stream terraces or benches, footslopes of alluvial fans, and isolated hills and ridges. This topographic diversity is derived from the region’s origin as a tumultuous collision of Oregon’s Coast Range to the west, the southern coastal mountains (primarily the Klamaths) to the southwest, and the Cascades to the east and north. Most of the AVA’s vineyards are planted above 1,000 feet in the Umpqua and between 1,200 and 2,000 feet in the Rogue. By contrast, Willamette Valley plantings are on slopes only a few hundred feet above sea level.
CLIMATE AND TEMPERATURE
What attracted wine pioneers like Jones to Southern Oregon was its climate, which is warmer than the Willamette’s, but marginally cool for such grapes as Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier—varieties that fail to ripen in the Willamette Valley. In terms of the University of California-Davis heat summation model, the Umpqua Valley averages around 2,300 degree days, placing it just within Region I—cooler than Napa Valley and Bordeaux, but warmer than the Côte d’Or, Loire, Rheingau, and most of the Willamette Valley (which averages closer to 2,000 degree days). The Rogue Valley ranges from 2,000 to 3,100 degree days, with the average falling around the Region II level—comparable to Bordeaux, the Northern Rhône, and the lower half of Napa Valley. So while Southern Oregon does quite well with grapes unsuited to the northern part of the state, there are cooler pockets in both the Umpqua and Rogue AVAs that are perfectly amenable to Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. Furthermore, the annual rainfall in most of Southern Oregon (12-30 inches) is significantly lower than that of the Willamette Valley (around 45 inches)—a consideration that becomes particularly important in October, when many a Willamette Valley harvest is triggered by storm forecasts.
SITES AND SOILS
Complex folding, faulting, crushing, and metamorphosing of the 200-million-year-old Klamath Mountains have created a wide variety of soil types in the Southern Oregon AVA, from heavy valley-floor clays to alluvial silt on hillsides and benches, providing the drainage, moisture retention, and marginal fertility that are essential for growing the highest-quality grapes. The Willamette Valley’s geological history is much more recent, dating back some 25 million years; its vineyard sites were formed by volcanic flows and alluvial sediment of oceanic origin.
A DIFFERENT PINOT NOIR
Southern Oregon’s 40 or so working wineries (out of 393 in the entire state) produce more than 20 varieties, including Zinfandel, Riesling, Albariño, and all the white and red grapes associated with Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhône. But since Pinot Noir and Merlot still total about 38% of the AVA’s production, and since Pinot Noir is what Southern Oregon has in common with the Willamette Valley, it is useful to look at examples of this variety when comparing the terroirs of the two regions. Here are three recent bottlings that illustrate the Southern Oregon style:
2003 Henry Estate Winery Pinot Noir Barrel Select, Umpqua Valley: A fully matured wine at only 5 years old, representing Henry’s reserve-quality cuvée. This family estate, founded in 1972, is known far more for its viticultural contributions (the Scott Henry vertical trellis system has been adopted all over the world) than for its wines. But with plantings on one of the lower-elevation floors of the Umpqua Valley (400 feet), Henry Estate produces a soft, accessible, lush style of Pinot Noir, with sweetly ripened cherry aromas marked by pepperminty varietal spice.
2006 Foris Pinot Noir, Rogue Valley: Founded by Ted Gerber and his late wife, Meri, in 1969, Foris has produced a consistent string of plump, forward, easy-textured Pinot Noirs from its high-elevation (1,600-1,700 feet), cool-climate vineyard on the western edge of the Rogue, just 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean on the back side of the coastal ranges, and 8 miles north of the California border. The “regular” Foris bottling has always made an ideal restaurant pour, and the ’06 fits that mold: attractively priced, with aromas of crushed, ripe berries and crisp acidity amplifying a bouncy fruit flavor and finish.
2005 Foris Pinot Noir Maple Ranch, Rogue Valley: This subtly oaked bottling more intensely expresses the ripe, lush, forward, distinctively sweet Pinot characteristics derived from the area’s warm daytime temperatures (compared to the Willamette’s) and cool nights (from marine influences). The vineyard’s clay loam yields somewhat earthy, minerally notes of terroir, and the zesty acidity combines with round tannins and mildly herbal, green-pea-like nuances to punctuate the plush, velvety, wild-berry varietal fruitiness.
SYRAH, THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE
It was Lynn Penner-Ash, who used to produce one or two barrels of Syrah a year in the late ’90s while she was still the winemaker at Rex Hill, who first turned me on to Southern Oregon Syrah. There is nothing like it on the West Coast, mainly because of its strikingly Rhône-like, earthy, lavender, and anise notes, combined with the blueberry and wild-berry qualities that are very much Oregonian (as opposed to, say, Walla Walla or California Central Coast).
The renowned Ken Wright, who has recently followed suit by producing Syrahs under his Tyrus Evan label, goes so far as to say that Rogue Valley Syrah is “more Old World than New World, a delineated Syrah—graphite, cedar, blueberries, raspberries, and very balanced, never over the top.”
In the following tasting of eight Southern Oregon Syrahs, I was struck by the deft touch shown by both Penner-Ash and Wright, but equally impressed by the intrinsic qualities of the other wines:
2005 Penner-Ash Syrah, Oregon: It is precisely because I enjoy Penner-Ash’s Syrah more than I do her Pinot Noir—surely one of Oregon’s most exquisitely crafted—that I’ve come to the conclusion that Southern Oregon grows some of the finest Syrah in the world. Sourced primarily from the Rogue (with 20% from the Columbia Gorge), this wine is big, thick, meaty, and concentrated—violet, black-pepper, and lavender perfumes penetrate the nostrils—yet feels light, almost ethereally balanced, polished with French oak to a brilliantly fine finish. Whether this is great terroir or great winemaking, the quality is stirring.
2006 Tyrus Evan Syrah Del Rio Vineyard, Rogue Valley: It’s curious that Ken Wright, who produces perhaps the most subtle, refined Pinot Noirs in the Willamette Valley, can make one of the biggest, blackest, burliest, spiciest Syrahs on the West Coast. The beauty of it is, of course, that this wine is not without refinement—the purple-plum and lingonberry-jam flavors flow in velvety smooth layers, and the thickly hewn texture is as svelte as it is muscular—displaying a compacted concentration and almost effortless sense of proportion.
2004 Soléna Syrah Del Rio Vineyard, Rogue Valley: This wine, from owners Laurent and Danielle Andrus Montalieu, formerly of WillaKenzie and Archery Summit, respectively, is sourced from the same vineyard—sitting at an elevation of 1,000 feet on south-facing slopes and 20 feet of essentially river-rock soil—utilized by Penner-Ash and Wright. Soléna’s rendering is ripe, perfumed, plummy, and lip-smacking. The luscious flavors are infused with pungent, toasty, vanillin oak and strapping leather, actually finishing with a more aggressive, youthful brusqueness than the younger bottlings by Penner-Ash and Wright.
2005 Rockblock Syrah Del Rio Vineyard, Rogue Valley: Rockblock is the Southern Oregon label of Domaine Serene, and in keeping with the house style, this is a big, broad, brooding interpretation of Del Rio Syrah. Aggressively toasty, almost pine-needle-like oak and dark, roasted-coffee tones enhance the concentrated plum and blueberry aromas. Lively acidity amplifies, but slightly hard tannins compete with, the sweet fruitiness in a long, emphatic finish.
2004 Del Rio Vineyards Syrah, Rogue Valley: Del Rio has been supplying Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Pinot varieties to more than two dozen winery clients each year while revving up its own production. This bottling hits the Southern Oregon style right on the mark: soft tannins embedded in a thick, meaty texture; blueberry perfume tinged with roasted meat, fennel, and peppery spices; and a silky polish and lithe sense of balance.
2005 Weisinger’s of Ashland Syrah, Rogue Valley: Comparison to the other Rogue Syrahs is really a matter of preference, but if you like an impenetrably black-purplish Syrah with an almost crazy-wild, viscous, thick, fleshy concentration of blueberry and sausage-spiced fruitiness, the Weisinger’s of Ashland version would probably top your list. A vanillin-oak veneer adds worldly polish to a round, balanced mouthfeel.
2006 Volcano Syrah Fortmiller Vineyard, Southern Oregon (Rogue Valley): In 2001, Scott and Liz Ratcliff, who were waiting tables in San Francisco, moved to Southern Oregon, called Randall Grahm on a lark for some advice on “possibly” getting into winemaking, and suddenly found themselves deep into the life. This is a huge, exhilarating wine, appropriately co-fermented with 2% Viognier, that ekes everything possible out of the grape and terroir. Toasted anise, lavender, blueberry, and framboise on the nose and a thick, plump, broad, velvety, expansive texture are marred only slightly by rough tannins on the finish. If you don’t object to that kind of ending, this is the Syrah for you.
2005 Abacela Syrah Estate, Southern Oregon (Umpqua Valley): This is an old Old World style of Syrah—naturalistic, direct, and rough around the edges—with its tight, animalistic nose shooting out sensations of violet and sweet red plums. Toasty oak fills out the nose and a round, fleshy, soft, leather-textured palate.