It has been almost half a century since David Lett planted the first Pinot Noir vines in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Rain and ridicule followed in almost equal amounts, but today the top Oregon Pinots are some of this country's most sought-after wines. In fact, in what would be a first, a major California winery is about to buy a number of Oregon vineyards.According to Peter Bouman, a real-estate broker with Oregon Vineyard Property, the wine giant Kendall-Jackson is closing soon on the purchase of two Oregon vineyard properties, including a parcel in the Eola Hills, and is in negotiations for additional properties. "This would be about a 1,500-acre play, of producing vineyard properties, if it all comes down," Mr. Bouman said. Kendall-Jackson declined to comment.
There have been other non-Oregon investors (Washington state's Chateau Ste. Michelle bought Erath Winery some years ago, and the Burgundy-based Drouhin family created Domaine Drouhin in 1987), but no significant California winery has ventured north to date.
There was a time, some 20 years ago, when California's Mondavi Winery looked into buying Oregon Pinot Noir—but backed away on account of the weather. "We agreed to sell Pinot Noir to Mondavi in 1993," recalled Rollin Soles, now owner of Roco Winery and then head winemaker at Argyle Winery (where he remains a consultant). "But 1993 was very late to flower, and Mondavi was not used to September rain or late flowering." The Mondavis exited the deal and Mr. Soles made Argyle's first prestige Pinot Noir with the former Mondavi fruit in a vintage that turned out to be great.
Mr. Soles is one of the Oregon originals—a winemaking pioneer who came from Texas by way of Australia and Switzerland 27 years ago to try making wine in a marginal climate. Over lunch in Portland a few weeks ago, I asked Mr. Soles about the early years. Were there times during all that bad weather, with all those lost crops, when he simply lost hope?
Mr. Soles guffawed. (He does that a lot.) "I didn't think any of us would survive," he replied. "But we're better winemakers because we decided to come to the Willamette Valley." The "we" in this case extended not only to his fellow winemaker Mark Vlossak of St. Innocent Winery, who was sitting across the table, but to the rest of Oregon's winemakers as well.
Oregon producers are nothing if not collegial—it's something they take as much pride in as they do their ability to make wine under challenging circumstances. More than anything else, the message I heard over and over during my recent Oregon visit was that the success of one winemaker was the success of them all.
Dick and Deirdre Shea, owners of Oregon's famed Shea Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton area, said that even the winemakers who buy their fruit were willing to share winemaking ideas. This is particularly notable since Shea sells Pinot Noir grapes and makes its own Pinot Noir, too. "Our competitors are also our customers, but we feel free to call and ask questions," Mrs. Shea said. "If you're the only good producer in Oregon, you're not going to get shelf space or a place on a winery list." In other words, a collective tide was required to raise all Pinot Noir boats.
Of course, the Shea name on a label helps a lot, too. Shea Vineyard Pinot Noirs are some of the state's most sought-after wines—and the fruit doesn't come cheap. How much does it cost? Mr. Shea didn't want to say, but some of the winemakers I talked with, including Maggie Harrison of Antica Terra, said she pays around $12,000 an acre, compared with $7,500 to $10,000 for a typical Pinot acre in Oregon.
Ms. Harrison is one of Oregon's most promising new talents, having come to the Willamette Valley by way of Southern California, where she worked with the famed Manfred Krankl at Sine Qua Non. Ms. Harrison was particularly struck by the supportiveness of other winemakers when she arrived. "Dick Shea even sold me some fruit," she marveled. "People are very protective of one another here—there's a wildly generous collaboration." Perhaps that's because they've all faced the same challenges: choosing the wrong clones, the wrong rootstock and enduring the Phylloxera louse—not to mention, of course, the challenging climate.
Was she afraid this esprit de corps might end with the arrival of a big company like Kendall-Jackson? Ms. Harrison, like most winemakers I spoke with, was enthusiastic at the prospect of a neighbor 100,000 times her size. Like the others, Ms. Harrison hoped the California giant would bring Oregon a higher profile.
And that's something that Oregon still requires, despite all its current success. The best Oregon wines can be hard to find. That's due in part to size—most Oregon wineries produce fewer than 5,000 cases of wine a year—and also because they have a solid market at home. Oregon residents drink a lot of Oregon wine—a surprising 20% or so of Oregon's production is consumed in-state, says Charles Humble of the Oregon Wine Board.
But Oregon producers need to do a better job of distribution. As Mr. Vlossak said, "If you make over 1,500 cases of wine, you need to go outside of Oregon." And he added, "You have to know how to sell. You have to know how to talk to people." Mr. Vlossak, in keeping with his own advice, was set to embark on a multistate sales trip.
And what of the wines that Oregon producers are selling? With a few exceptions, the Pinot Noirs that I tasted from some top producers ranged from good to exceptionally good. The overall quality was impressively high—from the much-heralded 2008 vintage to what critics have called the lesser vintages of 2009, 2010 and 2011. There were a good many standouts: the lush and generous St. Innocent wines, the opulent Sheas, the frankly delicious Pinot Noirs from Mr. Soles (who made first-rate sparkling wines at Argyle as well). There were also nuanced examples from Ms. Harrison at Antica Terra (notably the 2010 Botanica) and Doug Tunnell at Brick House (another Oregon original). And there were well-made, accessibly priced wines from Tony Soter's North Valley label and the "basic" Willamette Valley Pinot from Domaine Drouhin.
Then there are the much-anticipated 2012 wines still to come. The 2012 vintage has been universally deemed "superb" by Oregon winemakers. Or as Mr. Soles declared, with an un-Oregon-like immodesty, "the wines of 2012 will blow your mind." But will the prices as well? They'll probably go up, Mr. Soles acknowledged, not just because of the high quality but because of the small crop as well.
That might be a problem. After all, it wasn't so long ago that Oregon Pinot producers were criticized for pricing their wines too high (a lot of wines cost more than $50 a bottle.) The current prices seem a lot more reasonable. Mr. Vlossak agreed. "The price/value is in balance for now," he said. "I just hope we don't screw that up."
