Windsurfing and pears and scenic vistas put the Columbia River Gorge on the map for many people. These days, many of those repeat visitors – and a whole lot of new ones – come specifically to dip a nose and take a sip (or three) of Gorge wine.

From a modest handful of winemakers less than a decade ago, the Gorge wine industry is growing… well, it may not be the best metaphor, but it’s growing like a weed. A really healthy weed with abundant fruit of complex character and diversity found in few other places around the world.

By one estimate, the Gorge wine industry grew by a full 33 percent in the last year alone. That reflects the number of new physical locations on the map produced annually by the Columbia Gorge Wine Growers Association, says designer Marie Cordell.

Scratch beneath the surface, and here’s just some of what’s happening (it would take a much longer piece to chronicle everything that’s going on, which is itself a sign of the vitality in the Gorge).

• Barnard Griffin, the Tri-Cities-based 2006 Winery of the Year for Wine Press NW magazine, is developing a site near Maryhill to launch new labels in partnership with Gunkel Orchards.
• Speaking of Maryhill, Craig and Vicki Leuthold’s dramatic Maryhill Winery property brings back its popular concert series to a new permanent stage, raising the volume around the fresh new flavors coming from the cellar of winemaker Craig Larson.
• Cathedral Ridge scores honors as 2007 Oregon Winery of the Year for Wine Press NW, and shares the news with Gorge billboard readers. Yet another accolade for their fine array of award-winning wines.
• Dan and Mercedes Bolton opened Bolton Cellars Tasting Room offering wines from their vineyard on fourth-generation-owned farmland above the Dufur Valley, a few blocks from Erin Glenn Winery at the Mint in downtown The Dalles.
• Jacob Williams joins the emerging epicenter of Gorge wines around Lyle, WA, which in the last couple of years also has seen relocation of Syncline Cellars, siting of Cor Cellars, release by McCormick Family Vineyards of its Memaloose and Maestrale brands, and the low-key arrival of quality blends from Domaine Pierre Noir, joining long-timer Klickitat Canyon Winery.
• Wy’East Vineyards has spun out of Mt. Hood Winery to release some stellar estate pinot noir.
• Mt. Hood Winery owners Don and Steve Bickford are providing converted fruit warehouse space for veteran winemaker Rich Cushman to work his magic for their label and two other Gorge labels – Phelps Creek and Cushman’s own Viento label.
• Naked Winery is shifting production from shared space in the Willamette Valley and southern Oregon to space at Cascade Cliffs.
• A new tasting room for Springhouse Cellar joins The Pines, Quenett and The Wine Seller in downtown Hood River. Sierra Wright, who heads sales and marketing for The Pines, says it will expand into space formerly occupied by Westwind Frame & Gallery, creating its own gallery, hosting regular live music, and developing a catering kitchen for groups that want to provide food and wine for special events.
• And grape growers in Hood River and Underwood are preparing to launch new labels.

With a button-popping growth spurt like that, no wonder people inside the Columbia Gorge American Viticultural Area (AVA) are considering an expansion of boundaries eastward.

“Just watch out for this AVA – the quality is killer,” says Cushman, in his 26th year as a winemaker, much of it in the Willamette Valley. “This is my fourth year with Gorge fruit, and every year I’m realizing we’ve got something special here.”

People who follow wine know that quality wine begins with quality grapes. Cushman thinks the fruit coming from Gorge vineyards is pure and intensely flavorful. He says the harvest from 2007 “is stunning at minimum.”

“I’m not going to be surprised if, qualitatively, we displace the Willamette Valley,” he adds.

As the Bickfords have turned their former fruit-packing warehouse in Pine Grove into a cooperative winemaking facility, they also are planning a new tasting room nearby. Their former shared tasting room on Hwy 35 just north of Neal Creek Road will now focus on Dick and Christie Reed’s Wy’East wines.

And, like other fully integrated wine operations, Bickford’s are expanding their vineyards to include such varietals as tempranillo and albarino. They’re not the first to embrace the possibility of Spanish varietals here, but their expansion attests to the confidence and sense of adventure that has come to define the Gorge wine scene. As the Wine Growers Association likes to boast, it represents a “world of wine in 40 miles.”

The tagline speaks to the variety of growing conditions on each side of the Gorge, as it slices west to east. All those micro-climates let growers plant everything from Alsatian to Rhone varietals. Speaking for his partners, Pat Graham tells how Acadia Vineyards on Underwood Mountain in Washington is growing tempranillo, riesling, Gruner Veltliner, pinot gris and gewurztraminer.

“The advantage of our hill is that you can gain elevation really fast, for Alsatian varieties,” Graham says. “We’re the cooler climate wines.”

Now making wine in Carlton, he and partners are hoping to develop winemaking facilities closer to home. They’re shooting to release their first wines under the Cerulean Skies label in early 2009. Going slow, their wines will be available at first only for family, friends and business clients, then possibly for wider commercial sale.

Winos who have tracked growth of the Gorge scene know that it takes time to build quality, and time for quality to get notice. At long last, the outside world is starting to take note of Gorge wines, and hand out accolades. Gorge wines now consistently earn ratings in the high-80s and low-90s in publications such as Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast. In competition, they frequently score top honors against the best in the West.

“As the business becomes more sophisticated in the Gorge, we will continue to attract people to the quality of fruit that can be grown here,” says Christie Reed of Wy’East Vineyards. “There’s a real sense of place here.”

After launching with pinot noirs from their Wy’East and Blue Chip vineyards, Christie and Dick Reed are preparing to expand the list with a pinot gris, a chardonnay and a syrah, the latter with grapes from Kortge Vineyards in The Dalles.

As the industry has grown, so has demand for winemaking talent. The best are sharing their talents with more than one label. Alexis Pouillon, the winemaker behind Domaine Pierre Noir, is also working with Wy’East. John Haw, formerly with Maryhill and Sokol Blosser, is now working with Pheasant Valley and Jacob Williams, making wine for the latter out of a facility in Hood River, which owner Brad Gearhart will introduce to the public beginning mid-April at a new tasting room on SR 14 in Lyle.

And, of course, there’s that little matter of highly regarded Rob Griffin pounding a stake on the south slope of the Columbia between Maryhill Winery and Maryhill Museum.

Griffin and Dan Gunkel have been planning things for two years. Gunkel and his brother Ron farm peaches, cherries and 115 acres of grapes that include such varietals as zinfandel, sangiovese, barbera, malbec, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, mourvedre, cinsault, cabernet franc, tinto cao, touriga and tinto national. They have been supplying fruit to Barnard Griffin for years.

Gunkel said the new winery – if all goes to plan – should open in May 2009. He said it likely will feature two or three new labels, geared to the quality and price of the contents. It will be a destination winery, nestled in the vineyards, smaller than its neighbor and with no plans for concerts. Just wines, just tasting, just sales, and just those spectacular views from the Maryhill bench.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, people like James and Lisa Mathison are planning a little more low-key approach to winemaking and sales. After moving their Springhouse Cellar from Mosier to the former Antique Mall by the Mt. Hood Railroad depot in Hood River this spring, they plan to do custom label sales, and even bulk sales.

The magnetic draw of the Gorge has guided David Barringer and Dave Michalec to bring production of their Naked Wines closer to home. Based in Hood River since their launch in 2006, they had been making wine at facilities in Dundee and Cave Junction.

“Now we’re developing a shared relationship with Cascade Cliffs,” Barringer says. They’ll offer tastes of their wine at Cascade Cliffs as well, but they also know the value of going where the people are. Initial marketing efforts focused on restaurants in major population centers, to build brand awareness quickly and at minimal cost. Now their wines are working into store shelves. And once they can find the right facility, they, too, hope to join the evolution of Hood River as Tasting Room Central.

For some people, obviously, the windsurfing capital of the world is also becoming a wine tasting capital, too.

 

A career journalist, Stu Watson helped his wife, Kathy, develop the wine list at Nora’s Fish House in Hood River.

 

Wine Scene Blossoms

By Stu Watson