There were several Oregon wine industry pioneers that came from viticulture studies at the University of California Davis at the end of the Sixties.  The first to arrive in the Willamette Valley, David Lett, has properly earned the sobriquet, ‘Papa Pinot’.  It was Lett who saw the cool climate valley as the place to test his post graduate theory that matching a grape varietal to its ideal growing conditions would produce wine perfection.  Lett’s studies of French vineyard production in Burgundy and Alsace, regions with climates similar to northern Oregon, convinced him that the temperamental Pinot grape family could succeed here.

Papa was right.  He set about to prove his point with the planting upon he and wife Diana’s arrival here in 1966 of Pinot Noir and its cousin, Pinot Gris, in the Dundee hills area.  The Eyrie (EYE-rie--named after a family of hawks on the vineyard property) winery was bonded in 1970 in an old turkey processing plant near downtown McMinnville.  By 1975, bottling of Eyrie estate-grown grapes had reached a world-class level that Papa Pinot had in mind. 

Wine World Stunned

Burgundian distributors, eager to underscore the international superiority of their most prestigious varietal, staged a “Wine Olympics” in France.  When Eyrie’s 1975  Pinot Noir dominated all but a French Chambolle Musigny (and only that by a mere two-tenths of a point) in blind tastings, Oregon went on the wine world map.  The Davis pioneers who had followed Lett to this promised land saw their hopes justified.  To this day, Lett has been making Pinot Noir from a single estate vineyard longer than any other U.S. winemaker.

This grizzled visionary also produced the first U.S. Pinot Gris, bottled in 1970 from his own plantings and now a benchmark for an Oregon varietal wine lovers have begun embracing. Lett recalls
what he terms “Three Musketeers marketing trips”  with fellow Oregon wine industry pioneers David Adelsheim and Dick Ponzi in the 1980’s to introduce major markets to Oregon Pinot Gris.  When this columnist first tasted Eyrie Pinot Gris in the ‘70’s, Papa
Pinot described it as “salmon wine” and it is ideal with that Northwest piscatorial champion. 

Today Lett touts Pinot Gris as “a sensational grape, as versatile with food as Pinot Noir…growing in the right climate gives Willamette Valley Pinot Gris a unique flavor as the grapes struggle to ripen in our cool climate.”  He describes this varietal as “a fragile grape, just like its Pinot Noir cousin” and while admitting there is more consistency in Oregon winemaker styling, “there is still too much variance.”

Papa preaches finesse

Lett’s’ wine styling for both Gris and Noir follows the precepts he came to Oregon to prove.  His wines have a subtlety, a finesse.  His Pinot Noir is a far cry from current California attempts with the grape.  “We now see Pinot Noir all over the map in characteristics from the subtle complexities of Willamette Valley’s finest fruit to the big, jammy Californians produced from overripe fruit in climate pockets that lack Oregon cool.”  The Oregon industry’s sponsorship of the International Pinot Noir Conference, held annually in McMinnville, is credited by Lett for “showing the way to California, New Zealand and now Australia…but none of these areas have the equivalent to our Willamette Valley climate and are still learning from viticultural methods we’ve pioneered.  French Burgundy producers also are represented at the Conference, and their products mirror what Papa Pinot came here to preach.

Lett declares that “getting people to embrace Pinot Noir has been a tough challenge…Americans like to be hit around the head and ears with big flavor, like Cabernet Sauvignon and California’s oaky Chardonnays…they need to learn to savor softness and complexity.” 

European ethos missing here

Papa Pinot decries the average American’s lack of appreciation for wines that enhance their food.  “We need to get more civilized at the table, to sit back and enjoy flavors and ideal food and wine matches.”  A visit to any European wine region emphasizes what he means…local cuisine compliments wine stylings and the resulting taste blends are superb.   Just what Papa Pinot had in mind when he dubbed his Pinot Gris “salmon wine.”  Dry and fruity are the desired characteristics for Pinot Gris…not the level of sweetness various Oregon vintners have created with this grape. 

Lett’s work with Pinot Gris is based upon Alsatian achievments with this grape.  Alsace, on the French border that abuts France, turns out rich, dry white wines, most notably Pinot Gris, which was originally known as Tokay ‘d Alsace, until this designation confused an export market too familiar with the lesser, sweeter Tokays produced in eastern Europe (primarily Hungary) from another varietal. 

“Grigio” it’s not

The American wine market is now inundated by “Pinot Grigio” from Italy…a light, very mild flavored and inexpensive wine produced from grapes that miss the climatic ministrations found only in Alsace and the Willamette Valley.  Pinot Grigio has also recently found a home in California vineyards, where  again the grape hasn’t found growing challenges  similar to France and Oregon.  Regional climate has also not deterred what Lett terms a “major marketing plan” formulated by Washington wine industry giant Chateau Ste Michelle to push Pinot Gris soon to be vinified from large plantings of the varietal in eastern Washington…where the vineyard climate encourages volume production while not providing the cool climate challenge that pushes Oregon and Alsatian Pinot Gris to perfection.

 Papa Pinot’s beard literally bristles when he takes on the topic of wineries who fail “to understand the value of fitting specific varietals to specific growing conditions  in a given region, rather than planting varietals willy nilly.”  This was his premise when he first planted a flag for other Oregon wineries to follow, and made it his mission to convince winemakers who followed him here that there was no need to make wine the way it’s made in California’s warmer clime.  Pinots are his passion, and when it comes to Noir, “I don’t make dark color, high alcohol wines, and never have.”  Both Noir and Gris are food wines gracing the Eyrie label, to be enjoyed with a meal.  They are not produced to win popularity tasting contests when sipped by themselves.

Justifying  proper pricing

Papa Pinot’s wines do have legs…the Pinot Noir’s longevity in the bottle easily stands up for a decade, still tasting fresh and fruit-filled.  And unlike many newer Oregon labels, Eyrie sustains complexity, sophistication and good old finesse as the proper standards for food wines that celebrate their European heritage.  While many Oregon Pinot Noirs now are priced in the $40-50 range, capitalizing on the ideal conditions here for our most recent vintages, Lett says “I’ve kept my prices stable for years in the $20 range.”  He points out that his first bottles of Pinot Noir  “sold at $2.65 and it took years to get my price up to $10.”  Volume is not an Eyrie goal, with annual production of only up to 8,000 cases per year from the winery’s estate vineyards.

Quality rules the Lett roost.  He admits to sponsoring some recent Pinot Noir plantings in the hills of northern Portugal, some 30 miles from the ocean, with three harvests to date…”but it’s still early to tell the results, and while it looks more promising than similar regions in California, it still isn’t the perfect Pinot climate of the Willamette Valley.”  The latter , according to Lett, “is an expensive place to grow grapes…our climate produces a low yield per acre, but fruit with a clear flavor message.”

That message will be preserved by those who learn the gospel according to Papa Pinot, an icon for caring winemakers who understand the true potential of the Pinot clan.

© 2002 Oregon Magazine