Tag Archives: Vidon Vineyards.

Vineyards reflect climate change reality

09 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by in Oregon, Uncategorized

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Steve Lutz in his Lenne tasting room last October

If you don’t believe in climate change, ask a farmer. Few farmers see the more immediate impact of warming temperatures than winemakers and vineyard managers across the country.

In normally cool-climate Oregon, the vineyards are warming. But just like the different terriors across the 150-mile long valley, the impact varies from vineyard to vineyard. But winemakers seem to agree something is happening.

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Fitzpatrick

“I don’t think it necessarily meaning warming for everyone at every time of the year,” said Alloro Vineyards winemaker Tom Fitzpatrick. “I think what we’re seeing is wide swings in the temperatures and weather during the ripening period, which is really an important period of time.

“So the last couple of years (2016-2017) were fairly warm and fairly early harvest in September. Then in 2018 things were a little bit more typical at harvest. We but had a really dry and really warm summer. We were lucky to get these really cool temperatures, 60s and 70s, through early September for harvesting.

The state’s legislature ordered a climate assessment that concluded with a 160-page document. The report says that even if emissions are reduced, average temperatures will rise 3 to 7 degrees by 2050. That number may or may not seem significant but the state’s leading crop, delicate and thin-skinned Pinot Noir grapes, does not do well in intense heat.

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Bailey

“I typically talk about global change instead of global warming,” said Youngberg Hill Winery and Inn owner and winemaker Wayne Bailey. “I think what we’re seeing is a lot more extremes. There is extreme rain in the Midwest, extremes in terms of cold and warm and extremes in terms of hurricanes. It’s all over.

“More specifically to growing, over the last 4-5 years we’ve had consistent warmer temperatures. But I’ve been in agriculture all my life and know weather patterns to in 20-year cycles. I’m here to say in 5-6 years we’re still going to have warmer and cool years. I’m going to suggest there is going to be more extremes instead of less extreme weather events because of global warming.”

Steve Lutz, owner/winemaker at Lenne Estate, agreed its all about the timing of the state’s hotter spells. “We’ve been a really fortunate,” he said. “This year we had a huge cooldown at the end of August and beginning of September.  We had 10 days of no sugar movement in the vineyard at all. My take is we have to be very careful how much fruit we drop (which allows remaining fruit to ripen better).”

Lutz’s point is cutting grapes aggressively, followed by a warmer fall harvest season, could substantially reduce a winery’s ability to reach normal production levels. More heat means more sugar in the grapes which results in wines with a higher alcohol content while the industry is largely moving to lower alcohol wines.

One logical step might be the increased planting of varietals other than Pinot Noir. Tempranillo, gamay, syrah, and even some cabernet has been planted in recent years.

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Bellows

“Don (Hagge) is way ahead of the curve as usual and we’re already making estate tempranillo in the Chehalem Mountains AVA,” said Vidon winemaker David Bellows. Hagge owns the boutigue Vidon winery. “Other people are only going to plan more similar grapes. Tempranillo is a good illustration of how to cope because I can’t think of a more hot plains varietal. It’s ripened here three years in a row and ripened just fine this year.”

All of the winemaker agreed there will be years of bigger wines – Pinot or different varieties. Bellows said the 2018 crop went through higher temperatures than the 2017. “So the 2018 had more sugar than we would want so we worked on more extraction, move body to balance off the alcohol. Those are the kind of things you have to do. We’re going to make a bigger darker wine than last year. We hope more extraction will balance the alcohol.”

So will there be years where Oregon Pinot is closer to the mouth feel of Pinots from California? “There will be years,” Bailey agreed that is possible. “In 2012 and 2014 the wines were bigger, more robust, more red fruit. But consistently I think not for the foreseeable future. We’re not growing on the valley floor where it’s hottest.”

Fitzpatrick  takes a similar view. “To me a great Pinot is a balance between a warm year and much cooler year, concentration density and roundness, very cool delivers aromatic complexity and more expression. To me a great vintage is one where weather conditions are such you get both of those.”

All four winemakers agreed they’ve spent a career watching the weather. With temperatures rising, watching the thermometer is fine but more adjustments in  winemaking will be necessary as well.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This feature store first appeared in Madison Magazine – a niche publication of the Anderson Herald Bulletin. Contact these wineries through the links embedded to buy their wines.

Small wineries just can’t charge big price

16 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in Oregon

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Smaller Oregon wine producers feel some pressures to keep their wines moderately priced. While some of the better known Willamette Valley wineries are pushing the ceiling of $100 a bottle and beyond, the smaller producers don’t want to gouge their base customers.

Domaine Serene with its bevy of awards and media accolades has several bottles over $100. A top bottling at wineries such as Beaux Freres, Bergstrom, and many others have a bottle or several selling at $100 or more.

The smaller producers struggle with distribution because they simply don’t make enough wine to sell in multiple states. They like staying in the $35-$60 or $70 range so wines are affordable for club members and through their tasting rooms.

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Bailey

“The competition really hasn’t been price competition,” said Wayne Bailey, owner at Youngberg Hill Winery. “It’s been beneficial (to be moderate in price) in that it’s made a whole lot more Willamette Valley Pinot available for people to try.

“We’re such a small piece of the pie. Pinot is only 5% of what is sold in the US. The valley produces one-hundredth of one percent of all Pinot grown in the country.”

Bailey has an entry-level Pinot for $35.

Price discussions have to include increases and on some occasions decreases for some producers. “We talk about price in both directions,” said David Bellows, winemaker at Vidon Vineyards. “Don is resistant to raising prices. We’ve had people come in and say ‘your wine should be more expensive.’ We have a hard time selling what we make.”

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Bellows

Don Hagge’s Vidon has sold wine at wholesale prices to internet sites which provide instant income and cash flow. Vidon’s signature 3-Clones wine, his lowest priced bottle, sells for $45 at the winery.

Bailey points out that there is lots of market research showing people east of the Rocky Mountains want  Willamette Valley Pinot but they can’t find it. The exception, he notes, is big producers. He adds that the small producers can open up a much bigger world to Pinot fans but they may have to search for smaller-production labels or come visit.

The backbone of these winery’s income is direct sales out of their tasting rooms and wine club memberships. “Some of our pricing reflects that,” said General Manager and Winemaker Tom Fitzpatrick, Alloro Vineyards.

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Fitzpatrick

“We want to be accessible. We don’t want to be where no one could buy them. Even our estate Pinot Noir ($40 SRP), which is the lowest price point of the three we make on the property, is not a lower tier wine. We focus our winemaking on producing the very best wine we can make.

But Fitzpatrick states the obvious that the sales have to support the winery. The estate Pinot was bumped from $35 in 2017 for the first time since the winery opened its doors.

Tasting these wines: A side note, I tasted all of these wineries wines twice in 2018. I received samples early in the year I shared with wine drinking friends solicited their opinions. I visited these producers in October. The wines easily hold up to or surpass the bigger Oregon names you may know. Reach out to the wineries, I’ve linked each site, to see if they can ship directly to you.

Pinot, Pinot, and more Pinot Noir

09 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Food & Travel, Organic, Uncategorized

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A beautiful view of a stand of tall trees through the Alloro vineyard

McMINNVILLE, OR. – I normally advise people not to do more than three winery stops in a single day. So on my first full day in Oregon’s Willamette Valley I was able to stick to that rule but stretched things a bit on the last stop.

Alloro Vineyards, Vidon, and Stoller Estate filled my first day of tasting capped off by a great evening at Nick’s Cafe in McMinnville. Wayne Bailey, owner and winemaker of Youngsberg Hill Winery and Inn, hosted me, marketer Carl Giavanti, and a personal friend who owns a small winery north of Chicago. It was a great day.

I was most anxious to visit Alloro Vineyards up in the hill of Willamette Valley just outside of Portland. Two blind tastings with friends rated Alloro the best of four or five small production wines tasted earlier this year.

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Alloro’s Fitzpatrick

General Manager and winemaker Tom Fitzpatrick is meticulous in overseeing winemaking operations. We chatted in the winery and tasting room. He uses carbonic maceration in the winemaking process which really shows off the fruit.

 

The wines are reasonably priced at $40 for the entry level estate wines. I found the Pinot to be well-balanced, bright fruit, and perfect to sip or with food. Alloro also does Chardonnay, a dry Riesling and a dessert wine.

I  talked with Fitzpatrick about Oregon’s warming growing season and about price pressures with the Valley’s booming success. His thoughts and comments will be feature in a future post.

After a quick lunch stop at the Alison Spa and Inn, we headed to Vidon Vineyards, always a favorite stop. Don was off to California trying to sell wine so we spent time with Don’s winemaker David Bellows. Bellows holds a in PhD in Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. That’s some serious winemaking science.

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Vidon winemaker Bellows

David, resplendent in his Slipper Noodle t-shirt (Indianapolis iconic blues bar), tasted us through a vertical of Vidon’s classic 3 Clones wines – a 2013, ’14, and ’15. We also barrel tasted the 2017 Apollo Chardonnay which was outstanding – perhaps one of the best Oregon Chardonnay’s I’ve had in previous visits. The wine is part of a series of wines highlight Don’s time with the NASA space program.

Bellows was very insightful on the challenge of the warming climate and what it could mean to Oregon wineries. His thoughts will be included in the future post mentioned above.

The ‘we’ throughout the post represents myself and Carl Giavanti. Carl helped arrange interviews with several of these winemakers whom I interviewed via email earlier this year. I wrote a series of pieces about the challenges of the small guys fending off the big-money investments happening in the Willamette Valley. Carl was my guide throughout the day providing valuable background about each winery and the Oregon industry.

Our last stop was “for comparison’ purposes” contrasting the small wineries to Stoller Estate. Stoller recently was honored with USA Today’s “Best Tasting Room in America” honor. From Stoller’s website: “Our tasting room and winery combine environmental sustainability and high-efficiency design, and harvests 100 percent of its energy through a 1180-panel solar panel installation. Notable design features include a green roof, skylights, salvaged timber, and an EV charging station for electric vehicles.”

Stoller produces 68,000 cases of wine under multiple labels compared to the typical 2000-3,000 case operations of the smaller wineries I’m visiting on this trip. Communications Director Michelle Kaufmann was our host for the tasting and share all of Stoller goals of sustainability and growth.

I’ll write something independent about Stoller. Their efforts are setting the bar for how one grows, treats employees, and build a brand with integrity and  purpose.

Today, we’re off to Lenne Estate, JL Kiff, and back to Youngberg Hill for a tasting with owner/winemaker Wayne Bailey.

More from boutique Oregon winemakers

14 Monday May 2018

Posted by in Food & Travel, Oregon, Uncategorized

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Good journalism and writing always demands more sourcing than you can use in a single story. I’ve always tried to conduct as wide-ranging interviews as much as possible with the forum or time constraints of the opportunity.

I did email interviews with the boutique Oregon winemakers I’ve written about in recent weeks. But I also have a great deal of material that didn’t make it into any of the columns.

So here is one long – very long – blog post with some of the highlights from each interview. I thought these were valid and interesting points that didn’t necessarily fit into the stories I wrote. I’m going to present it as concisely as possible in a Q&A format. I included everyone’s answer about aging their Pinot Noir, admittedly a personal interest.

Ghost Hill Cellars

Interviewee Mike Bayliss, owner

The only winery of this group that makes a white Pinot Noir. Why do they make this wine and how has the market reacted?

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Drenda and Mike Bayliss

“We wanted to expand the wines we sell in the tasting room. At the time, all that we had planted was Pinot Noir grapes. The Pinot Blanc was suggested to us by a friend who is a French winemaker, who said that half of the French Champagne is made with Pinot Noir Blanc from the youngest planting of Pinot Noir grapes. Our winemaker suggested instead of aging it in oak to use stainless steel to give it a bright crispness to the finish. It’s been very well received in our tasting room and has been well acknowledged by many reviews.”

What is the ageability of Oregon Pinot Noir?

“It depends on the vintage but as an average 8-10 years – plus. Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is always drinkable upon release and especially with local foods.”

What is background of winery?

“The Bayliss Family has been stewards in this corner of the Willamette Valley since 1906. We’re on 240 acres of beautiful rolling hills made up of sedimentary Willakenzie soils … very rewarding for Pinot Noir grapes. We started planting our vineyard in 1999, after we quit farming 200 head of cattle and putting up 250 tons of hay, farming oaks, wheat, and grass hays.”

Alloro Vineyards

Interviewee: Tom Fitzpatrick, winemaker and general manager

Speak about the growing broad appeal of Oregon Chardonnay:

Alloro Winery, Chehalem Mountain AVA, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Alloro Vineyards

“I think the appeal of Oregon Chard is the classic ‘cool climate’ profile our wines have. We have just the right climate for this style of Chardonnay, which allow the wines to retain all the subtle and wonderfully complex aromas and flavors, rendered on the almost perfect, complementary frame. These are wines that truly express the terroir and offer up a spectrum of flavors associated with the sites they come from.

“Our style is a wine with a classic cool climate profile with all the wonderful elements that come with barrel fermentation and extended lees contact. This focus and approach delivers a wine with moderate alcohol, bright acidity, a mineral core, fresh pear fruit, and flor aromas. It’s complemented by the barrel fermentation and less contact that bring more fullness and roundness to the palate along with notes of biscuit and baking spices.”

Alloro

Tom Fitzpatric

Your vineyard is in the northern-most part of the valley. Why is it unique?

“Alloro is a single vineyard site on Laurel Ridge in the Chehalem Mountains AVA. This is a very unique site with a very distinctive personality. My primary focus is to assure the wines capture the distinct personality of this site as they’re expressed in each vintage. I do this by capturing what I call “purity of flavor.” I want the flavors of these wines to be the direct, unencumbered flavor derived from this fruit. There is a very long list of things we do but in a nutshell we undertake activities that mitigate compromise to the integrity of the fruit and undertake activities that mitigate unwanted outside influence on the wines’ flavor. Once in barrel my wines are moved only one time prior to bottling. All movements are either via gravity or with the use of inert gas, all under the protection of inert gas to protect from oxygen exposure. They are bottled after about 11-12 months to capture and retain the richness and purity of fruit and then bottle aged for about one year before the release.”

What is your Pinot’s ageability?

“Our wines see very little oxygen and are handled to retain fruit purity. I believe this dramatically increases their ageability. In general, my wines typically take 2-3 years to blossom and then drink wonderfully for a subsequent 8-plus years.”

Lenne Estate

Interviewee: Steve Lutz, owner

You have a unique vineyard site, explain whys it’s different.

“We farm the vineyard primarily organically but I am not certified organic nor wish to be. I like the flexibility of being able to use other tools if we get into a year with high disease pressure. The way it is going with the weather and early vintages we haven’t had to turn to a commercial fungicide since 2011. We generally just use organic compounds and micronutrients in the vineyard. Our farming is dictated by the year in terms of how we manage the canopy and that is a changing landscape with these warmer evintages.

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Steve Lutz

“In the winery we are straight forward unless we get into an unusual vintage. We generally destem and don’t use any whole clusters though I am thinking about playing with it a little this year but it would be totally dictated by the vintage and how developed the stems are. But generally we destem, cold soak and inoculate with yeast. We press before fermentation ends then don’t expose the wine to much oxygen after that unless we have a reduction issue. We sterile filter all our wines and the wines spend 10-11 months in French Oak about 35 percent of which is new.”

When is the best time to drink your Pinot Noir?

“I think the best time to drink most of our vintages is at 10 years out from the vintage. Some vintages take longer and some it is hard to predict their peak. We only started producing in 2004 and so far none of them have oxidized. I think the 2006 wines are at their peak or just past it now for instance. That was a warmer vintage.”

Youngberg Hill

Interviewee: Wayne Bailey, owner and winemaker

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Youngberg Inn and event center

Let’s start with your Chardonnay:

“My background in Chardonnay began in Burgundy.  I tried for several years to purchase fruit but never found the quality. So we grafted over half of our Aspen Block of Pinot Gris in 2014 and 2015 is our first vintage. My style is that of Burgundy, fermented in barrels (once used) to have the influence of oak but not be oaky. I want to emulate Montrachet.”

How do you describe your approach to Pinot Noir?

“Pinot is the most transparent of any varietal, so my job is to be as light handed in the winery as possible to let that sense of place and vintage shine. That is why making wines from the fruit on our hill is so much fun.  We have three distinct soils on our hill, elevations from 500 to 800 feet, and different slopes and orientations. As a result, we make distinctly different wines from each of those distinct ‘terroirs.’ ”

What is the ageability of your Pinot Noir?

“We believe they can age for 20-years plus.”

Vidon
Interviewee: Don Hagge, owner

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Don Hagge

I have interviewed Don Hagge on several occasions over the years.  I did not ask him a lot in my email interviews like I did the other winemakers. But here are a couple of blog posts and stories featuring the colorful Hagge, wine maker, farmer, student of Burgundy, and NASA engineer.

My visit with Don.

First time meeting Don Hagge

Investors not all bad for small wineries

05 Saturday May 2018

Posted by in Newspaper Column 2018, Oregon, Uncategorized, Videos

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Small Oregon wine producers have been leery of huge corporate investment in the Willamette Valley. But they also see a benefit for their strongest sales outlet.

grape-sense-logoThe investments from big producers like Kendall- Jackson and Louis Jadot makes competing for shelf space, distribution, and marketing opportunities difficult. But the big budgets also help bring more visitors to Oregon wineries. Real oenophiles love finding small, boutique producers when visiting any wine region.

“Being small and getting our wines out there in the market is our biggest hurdle,” said Mike Bayliss owner of Ghost Hill Cellars. “We’re seeing more competition from the bigger well-funded wineries, who make wine with volume and less expense and have more market dollars.”

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Steve Lutz, Lenne Estate

Steve Lutz, owner at Lenne Estate, watched as Kendall-Jackson purchased Willikenzie Estate which is across the road from his small production winery. “I think that will bring more people to our location so I can’t complain,” Lutz said.

Wayne Bailey, who owns a beautiful inn and winery near McMinnville, Youngberg Hill, echoes the concept that big dollars bring more visitors. “It’s very exciting to have the big boys spending big marketing dollars on our region,” he said. “That awareness can only help all of us. Most wine tourists will tell you they prefer to discover small wineries that they are not familiar with (when visiting).”

Tom Fitzpatrick, winemaker and general manager at Alloro Vineyards, says the big producers have pushed Oregon Pinot Noir to the world stage. “This is tremendously beneficial for all of us,” he said. “This has created more crowding of Oregon wine in the sales pipeline. The hope is that the attention and the spotlight is widening the pipeline. In general, I look at it this way, the attention and dollars are coming because we have something truly great here. It was just a matter of time before this was discovered. Things that are truly great can’t remain a secret forever.”

Vidon Vineyards owner Don Hagge has struggled with distributors and selling all of his annual production. “I hope to get there in about a year or two,” Hagge said. “I have about two years of inventory counting unbottled wine.

“But I’m not concerned about big money much. There’s a market for wines from boutique operations that aren’t ‘factory wines.’ We have to exploit that big time, particularly with direct-to-consumer sales.”

Wineries realize the biggest margin, therefore profit, when distribution and retail sales are eliminated. A bottle of wine sold in the tasting room is all profit.

Mike & Drenda Baylis

Mike and Drenda Bayliss

The burgeoning success of all Oregon Pinot producers can lead to some of the smaller winery owners reconsidering their business model.

“Our production used to be much higher, around 1,500 cases,” Bayliss said. “Willamette Valley Pinot Noir fruit has become quite valuable so for the recent vintages we decided to sell the majority of our fruit.”

In 2017, Ghost Hill was down from 1,500 cases to 360 cases.

But there remains a strong market to explore the smaller wineries. Readers can google the wineries in this column and order directly from these small Oregon wine producers. There will be one more column focusing on the challenges and a bit about the wines.

French continue buying in Oregon

31 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in Newspaper Column 2017, Oregon, Uncategorized

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Many but not all of the United States’ major wine regions could be considered ‘mature’ regions. There certainly is not much room for growth in Napa Valley. California produces more than 60 percent of this nation’s wine.

Certainly, there are areas in California still maturing – Santa Barbara and Paso Robles come to mind – but big change isn’t happening.

grape-sense-logoEstablished areas still seeing change include Virginia and to a much lesser extent Leelanau Peninsula in upper state Michigan. The scale is different but the impact is real when new players move into town. No where is this scenario more evident than in Oregon’s Willamette Valley – a personal favorite wine region.

Oregon’s wine industry grew organically from a handful of pioneers in the 1970s who had a vision. Those leaders were people like David Adelsheim, David Lett, and Dick Erath. The boom, arguably, started in the late 80s when French icon Joseph Drouhin bought property and opened its Dundee Hills winery. About that time Don Lange started his family operation along with many others.

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Vidon’s Don Hagge

Most of Oregon’s wineries are small operations producing less than 5,000 cases annually – or smaller. But in the past few years the really big guys have bought up wineries, vineyards, and cast an eye on the reputation and thirst for Oregon Pinot Noir. Names like St. Michelle, Kendall-Jackson, Joe Wagner of Caymus, Foley Family Wines, Constellation Brands, Burgundy’s Jadot, and many more have moved into Oregon in a big way.

The companies coming into the picturesque valley have big bucks, big marketing power, and they own shelf space earned over decades in supermarkets and wine shops nationwide.

“It’s good for us; the fact that these people are coming puts a stamp of approval on what we’re doing,” said owner and winemaker Donald Hagge of Vidon Vineyards. “It makes us an even more valuable property. Does it hurt the small guy? I don’t think so. Jackson Family is now 10th largest in the world. They own 1,500 acres here and three wineries but they pretty much claim to leave (previous ownership) alone, let them operate on their own.” EDITOR NOTES: Hagge has sold his wonderful small winery but the name lives on. Don is traveling and enjoying retirement.

Indeed, many of the big ownership groups have been rather stealthy in their purchase – at least to date. Few even realize St. Michelle owns Dick Erath’s winery – one of the valley’s real founders. Domaine Drouhin helped that second wave of the 80s establish the valley’s credibility but they are a big player. Drouhin proved that recently when it purchased a 200-acre vineyard south and west of its current property.

“I have no fears,” Hagge said. “They’re not interested in a place like this. Most of the wineries in Oregon are small and they’re going to stay small. Small wineries have difficulty; there is a lot of consolidation and many of them aren’t making any money. This is difficult but I don’t think that hurts us at all, it helps.”

Hagge makes a strong point that he can produce 1,000 cases of wine and sell it rather easily out of his tasting room. But his current production is slightly more than 2,000 so he struggles to sell his annual production. He has sold a good number of cases, discounted significantly by the nature of the business, to online flash wine sales sites.

The other major changes in the Willamette Valley through recent years has been the associated retail boom of lodging, restaurants and specialty shops. The natives are concerned about community but see the big investors as a welcome development.

“I think it affects us and our business here,” said Lynnette Shaw, owner of Republic of Jam in Carlton. “Those big companies have a lot more reach than this area has ever experienced before so with that reach we’ll have more visitors. The more people we can get in here and expose to this the better off we are so that part is very, very good.” EDITOR’s Note: Shaw sold her business and new owners had to unfortunately new owners ohad to close the business down last year due to Covid and personal hhealth reasons.

Shaw’s jam business first appeared as a unique and quirky operation during a 2011 visit. The long-term viability was certainly a fair question. The business is thriving today with its very unique twists and variations on jam.

The lesson is even economic investment causes businesses of all size to consider their futures carefully.