Corvallis Gazette-Times from Corvallis, Oregon • 6

i MY tMitM 1974 WHITE RitSUNC (WO lM i ii Ore ob winemaKers By John Atkins of the Gazette-Times David Utt, owner of Eyrie Vineyardi, standi behind a row of ook At tit di Oi as wi Wi CI be be qu 11 nl ar sa follow the federal "appellation," or labeling, requirement of 51 per cent The only exception to the wine council's proposed appellation rules is a 75 per cent requirement for Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine that is bottled In Southern Oregon. The proposed rules are before the OLCC for consideration. Coury said the adoption of appellation controls won't stop "cheaters" in Oregon with any greater success than it has in France or Italy. "But without rules," he said, "there's no such thing as cheating." William Fuller, who owns and operates Tualatin Vinyards in Forest Grove, is another alumnus of the UC-Davis wine school Though his winemaking style differs in some respects from Coury's and Lett's, the three came to the Willamette Valley from California with shared expectation: That certain varieties of grapes those of northern France and Germany's Rhine regions, for example would produce wines of greater character and complexity in Oregon than in the warmer climate of California. "To duplicate.

European wines, you have to find a place whose climate duplicates that of the European varieties you want to produce," said Coury searched all over the United States for climate to match the grape varieties I was interested in." Fuller, whose vineyards include the same varieties as Coury's and Lett's, plus some others, says another similarity between Oregon and European winemaking is the element of risk. Unlike California's wine regions, where climatic conditions are stable, Oregon's summers are unpredictable. The happy aspect of that unpredictably, says Fuller, is that Oregon will have vintage years, just as Europe Burgundy, Alsace, the Mosel and the Rhine. "We're not going to bury California with Cabernet Sauvignon," said Coury, but some Oregon wines are better than California's." David Lett, owner of the Eyrie Vineyards, bottles Pi not Noir, Chardonnay and White Riesling at his winery in McMinnville, along with two lesser-known European varieties, Pinot Oris and Pinot Meunier. Wines produced from the two latter grapes are limited in quantity and available only at the winery.

Lett was a classmate of Coury's at the University of California's "wine school" at Davis. He and Coury bold different views about winemaking. Lett is a "craft" winemaker, a traditionalist who ferments his wines in small vats and ages them la imported French oak casks. Coury no less than Lett strives for perfection in his wines, but is happy to kt technology do some of the work. Like most Willamette winemakers, Coury uses stainless steel fermentation tanks equipped with temperature-controlled water Jackets.

Red wines and one white, Chardonnay, are aged in oak, though Coury puts Chardonnay "on the wood" begrudgingly, believing that oak aging of that wine is a tradition best abandoned. He says be does it only because wine consumers have been led to believe that Chardonnay should have an oaky taste. On one point, Coury and Lett are in full agreement They believe that strict regulations should be adopted by the Oregon Liquor Commission governing the making and labeling of Oregon varietal wines. Though Lett and Coury were unable to convice the Winegrowers Council of Oregon to propose a rule requiring varietal wines to contain 100 per cent of the varietal grape named on the label, the council proposed a 90 per cent rule. That's much more strict than California's rules, which Encouraged by successful early vintages, a 'youthful wine industry is ripening in the rolling hills of the Willamette Valley west and southwest of Portland.

Winemakers are planting more vines; expanding their production capacity, and forecasting that, in time, the varietal wines of the Willamette will become as highly regarded as those of California's Napa and Sonoma valleys. Or, for that matter, the wines of any other region. "We're on the thresfchold of becoming one of the world's great wine regions," says Charles Coury wiihout modesty. Coury, a Forest Grove winemaker, lays claim to having bottled the Willamette's first European-style wines six years ago. Coury adds one stipulation: "Oregon won't come into its own as a premiere wine region until there are professional grape growers," as there are in California.

By Coury's estimate, only CO acres of vines are planted in Oregon, most of them in the northern Willamette Valley. Pinpointed on a map, the vineyards line up in a left-handed crescent between Tualatin and McMinnville. Because native production is limited, Coury as well as other Oregon winemakers import grapes from Washington's Tri -Cities area to supplement the output of their own vtevardt They are careful to specify on their labels where the grapes are grown. The output from pury's winery was 25,000 gallons last year. This year, he estimated, production will increase to 35.03d gallons.

Coury has 45 acres of vines planted and will plant another 40 more acres this year. Ten years of experience as a winemaker has convinced Coury that three varietal grapes are best suited to the Txtt Valley's soil, weather, and relatively short gm.g season. Thiy are Nir, Chardonnay and White Riesling saxe grss tLit produce the great wine of does. Unhappily, on the other hand, there will be nonvuv tage years as well. "We are going to have to come up with a system to cope with that." said Fuller.

One answer could be a different labeling and cheaper prices, Fuller theorized. Such a move would put Oregon's off-year and lesser varietal Into competition with California's lower-priced "jug" wines, those that art sold by the half-gallons In supermarkets, No such Oregon wines are marketed now. Another possibility, one that will require courage by Oregon vine growers until sufficient information is accumulated on which to base predictions, is to limit production by "snipping," or cluster thinning. It takes courage because the grower must make a judgement as to the ultimate quality of the vintage. If the outlook is for a lesser year, the quality of that year's growth can be improved by snipping off most of the grapes from the vines, so that the grapes that are left will ripen faster.

Fuller said that experience and careful record-keeping will gradually reduce the guesswork. Richard Erath, who has 60 acres of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and White Riesling grapes planted on a hillside near Dundee, is expanding his winery and adding fermentation tanks to accommodate what will be his biggest harvest this fall. The bulk of Erath's vines were planted in 1972. It takes four to five years for the vines to mature. So far, Erath has produced White Riesling, Gewurtt-traminer and Pinot Noir wines.

Next year be'll bottle Pinot Blanc, a white wine, and the year after that, Cascade, a French-American hybrid. By then, the winery's capacity will be up to 25.000 gallons, he calculates. One point Willamette Valley winemakers appear to bi it Pf th th fr Vi if 1 7: 1 1 I .) a 1 l. Richard Erath dexribet the operation of hit winery's grape cruhr. The momanl of truth at the Eroth winery Moggie Hockett, a visitor from Corvallit, taitei th Riesling..