Art Chowder January | February 2017, Issue 7 | Page 35

HOW WINE OF THE NORTHWEST HAS CHANGED | Eric Cook

North-westerners enjoy a reputation for living rugged and hearty lifestyles.
Our region shares many diverse environments, from rainforest, desert, mountains to
farmland and the art of northwest winemakers has to try to stretch that same gamut,
but they are getting closer.

F

orty years ago, the
wines spanning the areas
of Oregon’s Rogue Valley,
Washington’s
Okanogan
to Idaho’s Snake River reflected a narrower range
of style than they do today.
Our region was represented by growing the grapes
that would later be shipped
south to top off Californian
tanks. The wines that indicated Oregon, Washington or Idaho on the label
were more likely to be
white than red; also more
likely to be sweet than
dry. Today, while there are
still plenty of sweet white
wines available, they are
balanced by ripe, full-textured red wines from a
dozen diverse, dark grape
varieties.

vineyards also resulted in
water rights being leased
away from new dry-loving
vineyards, to establish water-loving apples, cherries
and hops. Once monoculture farmers learned to diversify, grapes were a fine
balance to the demands of
asparagus, potatoes and
especially wheat.
Thirty-five
years
ago
Vintners Gary Figgins of
Leonetti Cellars and his
co-conspirator Rick Small
of Woodward Canyon Winery, were spending their
free time becoming two of
the state’s more respected
artisans of the craft—be-

ginning to attract national attention for the wines
they had been making in
their garages. Their wines
showed contrast of style
yet similarity of quality. Leonetti wines have
always been made to be
more immediately readyto-drink where Woodward
Canyon wines reward more
patience in the cellar. The
quality is the same though
the styles display a range
of appeal.
Thirty-five years ago, David Lett of Eyrie Vineyards
answered the challenge
of a French winemaker to
re-stage a wine event. Da-

vid’s Eyrie Vineyards Pinot
Noir had previously just
won a wine competition
against a French dominated international competition. The Drouhin family
of Burgundy was looking
for proof that this was no
fluke. In this re-match, the
1976 Eyrie Vineyards Pinot
Noir would place second
only to the already famous
1959
Drouhin
Chambolle-Musigny, and Northwest wines again received
a vindicating nod from
wine connoisseurs around
the world. The Drouhin
family would subsequently buy property in Oregon
within the decade.

This is not to belittle the
efforts of the grape farmers from that era; they were
simply growing what people were buying. A 1967
Gewürztraminer made by
a collection of Washington
State College professors
earned us the attention of
a world-class winemaker
from Napa Valley, Andre
Tchelistscheff. He found
the wine “light, vibrant and
encouraging of effort”. The
path of vinifera grape varieties in the Northwest was
set. Vineyards planted in
warm places often birthed
battles between grape
growers and wheat farmers using pesticides. The
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