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more photosDomaine Drouhin's vineyards flow down
the southeast-facing slopes of the basaltic Dundee Hills. The Burgundy-based Drouhin family bought the Oregon land in the late 1980s because they regarded its soil and climate as perfect for the production of French-style pinot noir wines.
Photos by John Gottberg Anderson / For The Bulleti
Oregon's Burgundy
French-style pinot noir in the Dundee Hills
By John Gottberg Anderson / For The Bulletin
Published: October 04. 2009 4:00AM PSTDUNDEE —
It would be easy to believe that Robert Drouhin built a winery in the Willamette Valley because of its similarity to his native Burgundy. That wouldn't be entirely true.
Indeed, the climate and soils of the basaltic Red Hills of Dundee are very similar to those of central eastern France. That's one reason why, in the past 25 years, Oregon vineyards have done so well with pinot noir, the defining grape of the Burgundy region.
But it would take more than that to convince one of the most successful winemakers in Europe — the third generation of a family of vintners that now extends to his own grandchildren — to establish a New World presence.
Now 22 years old, Domaine Drouhin is one of the pre-eminent wineries in Oregon. The time I spent at this beautiful estate was a highlight of my recent visit to the viticultural Eden of the northern Willamette Valley.
For two full days, I visited wineries and vineyards, sampled the fare at tasting rooms and fine restaurants, and checked out a couple of spectacular new hotels. I limited my exploration to the precincts of Newberg and Dundee, twin towns located 30 to 40 minutes' drive southwest of Portland on U.S. Highway 99 West.
It was crush time in the region's three distinctive AVAs, or American Viticultural Areas. In the densely planted Dundee Hills, the Chehalem Mountains and the unique Ribbon Ridge district, carefully tended vines were jam-packed with cobalt-blue pinot noir grapes, as well as smaller quantities of other varietals. Work crews, scheduled weeks ahead, were hustling to clip bunches of grapes off the vines and dump them into large plastic bins, which were then removed from the vineyards by forklifts and trucked to a crushing facility.
I met Robert Drouhin at the Nicholas Vineyard, which produces Anam Cara wines near the eastern edge of the Chehalem Mountains between Newberg and Sherwood. Drouhin uses grapes from only two vineyards besides his own, Nicholas and Durant; the latter is just downhill from his own Dundee Hills estate. He and his operations manager and cellar master, Arron Bell, were raving about the quality of the Nicholas grapes and planning an imminent harvest as I approached.
The Drouhin story
I was fortunate to encounter Drouhin, who spends only about one month a year in Oregon, during key times in the wine-producing cycle. He told me he grew up outside of Beaune, France, near Dijon, on a vineyard built by his grandfather, Joseph Drouhin, in the 1880s. In 1961, he made his first trip to the U.S. West Coast to market his wines.
California was then gaining recognition for its cabernets and chardonnays, but Oregon had yet to launch a state wine industry. Nevertheless, Drouhin speculated that Oregon had the right combination of soil, weather and farming techniques to produce pinot noir, the defining grape of the Burgundy region. From Europe, he watched as Oregon wines found their place on the world market.
A breakthrough came in 1979, when a pinot noir from The Eyrie Vineyards stole the grand award away from Burgundy in a wine competition in Paris. The following year, Drouhin hosted a blind, head-to-head competition between Oregon pinots and his own finest wines. A Drouhin Grand Cru won by the narrowest of margins, but Drouhin was now convinced that Willamette Valley wines were for real.
With Drouhin's encouragement, his daughter, Véronique, upon completing her university studies in wine science in 1986, traveled to Oregon to intern with winemakers at Adelsheim, Bethel Heights and Eyrie. Soon thereafter, the senior Drouhin learned of 225 acres of south-facing hillside for sale in the Dundee Hills. He made the purchase in late 1987.
Father and daughter planted 8 acres with pinot noir clones in 1988, even as Véronique rented space to make her first vintage from locally purchased grapes. Dijon grapes from Burgundy were added in 1989, grafted onto disease-resistant root stock and crushed that fall in a new gravity-flow winery that was a vanguard of things to come. The 1988 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir was released in 1991 to worldwide acclaim for its silky elegance. And Drouhin has been a leader in the Oregon wine industry ever since.
The Drouhin family continues to reside in Beaune, where Maison Joseph Drouhin is well into its second century of wine production. Although she lives in France with her husband and children, Véronique Drouhin-Boss continues to direct winemaking in Oregon, where she spends at least two months annually. Her brother, Philippe, is in charge of the vineyards.
For most of the year, however, Bell is their eyes and ears at the Oregon estate. “I'm in daily contact with Véronique,” the Oregon State University graduate told me. “I'm her hands here. I just implement what she wants done. But that's not too hard: Drouhin's philosophy is to do as little as possible, to keep our wines as natural as we can.”
Bell found time during his busy crush schedule to show me around the winery. During crush, he said, Drouhin takes in 30 to 40 tons of grapes a day for eight to 10 days. That will result in 18,000 cases of quality pinot noirs and chardonnays. “That really makes us a pretty medium-size winery for this region,” he said.
Ma and pa winemakers
Duck Pond Cellars — off Highway 99 West between Newberg and Dundee — qualifies as a large Oregon winery. It produces 125,000 cases of 11 varietals each year.
Anam Cara Cellars is at the other extreme.
Nick and Sheila Nicholas, former pizza-parlor owners from the Napa Valley, bought their little piece of Chehalem Mountain paradise in 2000, produced their first vintage in 2003 and their first commercial vintage a year later. Today, they make just 2,000 cases of wine a year — pinot noir, Riesling and a gewürztraminer dessert wine — while selling half of their 30 acres of grapes to larger producers: Drouhin, Adelsheim Vineyards, Elk Cove Vineyards and Et Filles Wines.
Still, they are an Oregon success story. “High-end restaurants are really enjoying our wines,” said Nick Nicholas. “We are selling them from New York to Las Vegas, and up and down the West Coast.”
Anam Cara takes its name from a book of “Celtic wisdom” by Irish author John O'Donohue, Nicholas said. “Anam cara means ‘friend of the soul' or ‘soul mate' in Gaelic,” he said. “We want you to drink our wine and think of the very special friends in your life.”
Sheila Nicholas, who was born and raised in Scotland, said that philosophy suits them perfectly. “We sit outside at night and watch the grapes grow,” she said. “It's certainly better than TV.”
The Nicholas vineyard is one of about 100 vineyards, and one of 31 wineries, in the Chehalem Valley AVA. This uplifted land mass extends 20 miles from southeast to northwest, all the way from Highway 99 West to Forest Grove. At its southwestern edge is the tiny (3,350 acres) Ribbon Ridge AVA, home to Ed and Darlene Looney.
“We've been farming this land for 43 years,” Darlene Looney told me. “First, we had orchards and berries. Then, we switched to beef cattle. We planted our first vines in 2000, and now we make pinot noir, chardonnay and a Bordeaux blend we call Tillie Claret, using grapes we buy from the Columbia Gorge.”
The Looneys named their winery Aramenta Cellars, after Ed's great-aunt Ethel Aramenta. Their production is a mere 1,000 to 1,200 cases a year, but the flavors are vibrant. “Pinot noir is like a sponge,” Darlene said. “It seems to absorb the flavors from the roots of the fruits that have grown here before it, from the blackberries and cherries and peaches.”
A wine country visit
In a short visit, there is no time to visit more than a small fraction of the region's vineyards and wineries. A map-brochure published by the Willamette Valley Winery Association lists 170 businesses that welcome visitors, some by appointment only. On this trip, I also paid visits to Adelsheim, Chehalem, Owen Roe and White Rose Wines. Some of my favorites from previous wine-country trips are Archery Summit, Argyle Winery, Erath Winery, Ponzi Vineyards and Sokol Blosser Winery.
From this list, two are of special note. Chehalem, established near Newberg by Harry Peterson-Nedry in 1990, produces more white wines than red, an anomaly in pinot noir-happy Oregon. They include chardonnay, pinot gris, pinot blanc, dry Riesling and a new Austrian-style gruner veltliner.
Argyle, located right on the highway in downtown Dundee, is producing perhaps Oregon's best sparkling wines. Winemaker Rollin Soles makes four bruts with pinot noir and chardonnay grapes, as well as a blanc de blancs with 100 percent chardonnay.
Most often, however, I descend from the hills to the towns to eat and sleep. My favorite Newberg restaurant is The Painted Lady, which offers four-course prix fixe dinners for $60 (or $100 with wine pairings). A recent dinner featured slow-roasted coho salmon with heirloom beets and bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with butternut squash puree. Dayton, just south of Dundee, is home to the Joel Palmer House, whose father-and-son chefs, Jack and Chris Czarnecki, are nationally famous for their extensive use of wild mushrooms and truffles. Both restaurants occupy historic 19th-century homes.
The greatest concentration of dining options may be found in Dundee. Both Tina's and The Dundee Bistro, the latter owned by Ponzi Vineyards, are well established. Red Hills Provincial Dining is a casually upscale dinner spot offering French-influenced dinners and featuring the likes of a house paté with cognac and pistachios and a duck cassoulet with white beans and sausage.
A new addition to the list of great dining options is the Farm to Fork Gourmet Café and Market. Located within the handsome new Inn at Red Hills, and sharing space with a wine bar simply called Press, Farm to Fork offers hearty house-made sandwiches as well as salads and meal entrees (none priced above $20), all with ingredients purchased from local purveyors.
The region's first luxury hotel, the 85-room Allison Inn and Spa, opened in late September in the Chehalem foothills near Newberg. General manager Pierre Zreik, formerly general manager at Portland's Heathman and Avalon hotels, walked me through the property, whose “green building” orientation is such that it gives priority parking privileges to electric and hybrid vehicles.
“We have the first totally open kitchen in Oregon,” Zreik said, as we visited the 100-seat Jory. “Our wine list has 700 labels, two-thirds of them from the Northwest, and we have our own 5-acre vineyards; we'll begin bottling in 2011.
“We feature all original art from Oregon artists. Our spa covers 15,000 square feet, but it's for guests only. We have meeting space for up to 200 people. And we're already hosting weddings.”
Presidential history
The Chehalem Valley was first settled in the latter part of the 19th century. Newberg was named in 1869 by its first postmaster for his hometown of Newburgh, Germany, and initially grew as a Quaker settlement. Among the town's early residents were Henry and Laura Minthorn, a Quaker couple from the Midwest.
Henry Minthorn's sister, Huldah Hoover, had died in Ohio, leaving a son named Herbert. In 1885, 11-year-old “Bertie” traveled west to live with his uncle and aunt. He attended Friends Pacific Academy until 1889, then worked for his uncle in Salem until he left to attend Stanford University in 1891. Herbert Hoover is best known today as the 31st president of the United States (1929-33).
Today, the Hoover-Minthorn House Museum, a block off Highway 99 West in downtown Newberg, preserves Hoover's boyhood home with many original furnishings. The academy Hoover attended, meanwhile, became George Fox University in 1891. The small church-owned liberal-arts school remains a major influence in Newberg today.
Newberg was incorporated in 1893; Dundee, two miles west, in 1895. The latter town was founded by Scots and grew as an orchard center in the years before wine. Dundee today is home to about 3,000 people.
Newberg, meanwhile, has a population of about 23,000. Curiously, that's almost identical to Beaune, France, the heart of Burgundy's wine region. Perhaps that's one more reason to understand why the Drouhin family found the northern Willamette Valley so conducive to its North American wine estate.
John Gottberg Anderson can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.
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