oregon 150 lake
DESCRIPTION
A History of Grapes and Wine in OregonTRANSCRIPT
A History of Grapes and Wine
Oregon 150 Symposium,February 18, 2009
Umpqua Community CollegeRoseburg, Oregon
Chris LakeDirector
The Southern Oregon Wine Instituteat Umpqua Community College
History of US Winemaking
• Putting the Oregon Experience in Context
• Starting with the Original Colonists• Heading West• The Great Experiment• The Current Situation
Wine Producing Regions of USA
Thomas Pinney’s A History of Wine
in America
Pinney’s Eras in the History of US Winemaking
• Three Major Eras– “Getting It Wrong”1607-1807– “Compromise” 1807-1960– “Getting It Right” 1960-Present
Pinney’s Eras in the History of US Winemaking
• Three Major Classes of Grapes– Vitis vinifera L. - the classic winegrape– “natives”- Hybrids of the wild,
American species: V. lubrscana, V. cordifolia, V. aestivalis, ect…
– “French-American Hybrids” – More advanced hybrids between V. vinifera and the wild American species
Heading West
• Horticulture in the Northwest begins at Hudson’s Bay Company, Fort Vancouver on Columbia River
• Grapes raised from seed brought from England in 1824
• Likely these were V. vinfera
Heading West
• Settlement of the Oregon Territory – 1840’s
• Seth Lewelling of Milwaukie, OR planted Isabella (native) 1847
• William Meek of Willamette, OR won award for Isabella white wine in 1859 California State Fair
Heading West
• 1860’s – A.R. Shipley of Oswego imports some vinifera into the Willamette.
• 1869 Oregon State Fair lists prizes for “foreign” and “American” grapes
• 1900 fair lists only “American” varieties
Heading West – Southern Oregon
• 1860’s – Peter Britt establishes the Valley View Vineyards – made wine for local market and some for Portland
• 1880’s – the Van Pessl brothers planted vinifera in the Melrose area
• The Doerner family opened a winery in 1890’s that operated until 1965, in the Melrose area
The Doerner Winery
Adolf Doerner,c. 1940
The Great Experiment
• “Prohibition”– Generally considered
– January 17, 1920 – December 5, 1933
– Volstead Act, 18th Amendment– Repeal, 21st Amendment
• Oregon “Jumped the Gun”– 1914 Votes to Go Dry in Anticipation
of the Volstead Act of 1919
Light at the End of the Tunnel
• 1933 – The first post- Prohibition license is granted to Louis Herbolt
• The Doerner winery resumes production in 1934
• No Significant Activity until 1960• 1960 – Richard Sommer establishes
the Hilcrest Vineyards winery, bonded winery #44, in Melrose area
Richard Sommer, in the Hilcrest Vineyard, Roseburg, OR, c. 1965
Richard Sommer, in the vineyard
The Modern Era
• 1965 – David Lett plants Pinot Noir (V. vinifera) and others in the Willamette
• 1968 – Pinot Noir from Hillcrest becomes available in Oregon
• 1970 – Five bonded wineries and 35 vineyard acres
The Modern Era
• 1979 – David Lett of The Eyrie Vineyards places in the top ten of the Gault-Millau French Wine Olympiades with his 1975 Pinot Noir
• 1987- The Drouhin Family, a respected wine family from France buys 100 acres in the North Willamette
• Oregon Wine is now respected on the World’s Wine Stage
Modern Wine
Producing Regions of
Oregon
The Current Situation
• According to Pinney, the Three Major Eras in US winemaking– “Getting It Wrong”1607-1807– “Compromise” 1807-1960– “Getting It Right” 1960-Present
• Future Growth in the Oregon Wine Industry looks Promising