Cherries,
blackberries,
strawberries,
grapes flavor
OreaoiYs best bachcountrv brew
Candlelight, french bread, imported
cheese, a tin of Russian caviar A bottle of
expensive red wine from — Amity, O'egon?
Only if you want to make a really good
impression
Otherwise you might settle tor its cheaper
California counterpart
While the grape vines of Napa and Men
docino counties enjoy national popula'ity a
burgeoning wine industry in Oregon cannot
be slighted Especially if price is any in
dication
A 10-ounce bottle of White Retsling (a dry
white wine) made at the Hillcrest Vineyard in
Roseburg can go for as much as $19 A
bottle of the same wine bearing a California
label can be had tor under $5
The same price distinctions — though
perhaps not quite as drastic — hold true for
wines made in Amity, Dundee and even
Lane County
Home bottling yields
low-budget fine wine
In another month, the blackberries will be
everywhere
They will hang in a lush tangle along the
Willamette threaten cyclists along the bike
paths and tempt drivers along county roads
And Brad Visgatis will be busy making
wine
In late August, when the berries are
blackest and plumpest, Visgatis visits his
favorite bushes, located in various places
around Eugene He spends the better part
of an afternoon plucking about 15 pounds
of the sweet |uicy fruit
Then he heads home to begin the process
of turning his harvest into his favorite drink
— red wirie
On a coffee table in Visgatis livingroom is
a tall green bottle of wine from his favorite
batch He sips the dark red liquid from a
wineglass
The taste most resembles a French Bor
deaux Visgatis says about his homemade
blackberry wine "It's very dry — I prefer a
drier wine "
As he says this he twirls the glass and
stares at the contents
"I try to duplicate the expensive French
wines," he says, with no sound of boasting
in his voice "That’s why I'm very pleased
with this particular batch
The wine is good The flavor is strong, but
it is not juicy The taste is accented with a
hint of blackberry but it is subtle and one
has to search for it
Visgatis began making his own wine after
traveling to Europe and sampling the
products of each country French wine
pleased him most
What the U S needs is a cheap table
wine," Visgatis says "In France, you can
spend 2 francs (about 50 cents) on a very
decent bottle of wine Here, it's at least a
couple dollars a bottle "
So he started bottling his own
"I'm very low budget on this," Visgatis
says bluntly This particular batch cost him
about $10 to produce 20 bottles
Visgatis says it costs between $10 and
$20 to purchase the necessary initial
equipment, depending on the
innovativeness of the winemaker Picking
the fruit instead of buying it, using recycled
materials — such as the plastic tubs res
taurants often throw away — and using old
wine bottles helps to cut costs
Other necessary equipment includes a
hydrometer to test the alcohol content a
coiled plastic tube called a "fermentation
lock' that shows the speed of fermentation,
and some rubber hosing for siphoning the
wine
Visgatis begins the process by mashing
the fruit and saving the juice After adding
sugar and a few chemical stabilizers, he
seals the liquid in a 5-gallon glass bottle to
begin the primary fermentation stage
When all the sugar is used up (trans
formed into alcohol), Visgatis bottles the
wine lor the secondary fermentation stage
"l complicate matters beacause I add
sugar at different stages to increase the
alcohol content,' Visgatis says The alcohol
content of his wine is generally much higher
than the 11 percent found In most commer
cial wines
At 1 percent, the wine is not very sta
ble he says, and easily may turn to vin
egar
Once bottled, the only way to tell if the
wine is ready is to sample it Visgatis says
this usually is the most rewarding part of the
process
A few years ago Visgatis made 16 bottles
of strawberry wine as an experiment with
different fruits With the help of some
friends, he managed to finish off the entire
batch before it actually was "ready" to
drink
The danger of prematurely opening a
bottle of wine such as blackberry or straw
berry is that the wine will retain too much of
the fruit flavor
However, some people may like it that
way, Visgatis says
And if you fail, don't worry about it," he
says Although the process is fairly simple,
any number of things can go wrong during
the fermentation stages
The wine can get too warm or too cold
and upset the process, he says, or con
taminants can ruin the whole batch
You really have to taste a lot of wines to
know when the wine is ready to drink."
Finishing his glass and setting it down,
Visgatis allows himself a look of satisfac
tion
Yes It’s always a good feeling to be able
to say, this is my wine — I made it. ’ "
Roberta Porter, owner of Porter Foods
Unlimited and an expert on imported and
domestic wines, is diplomatic on the ques
tion of which is better
"That's everybody's decision,” she says,
but only after mentioning a gold medal won
by an Oregon vineyard at a Paris wine-tast
ing In 1975 Eyrie Vineyard of Dundee
Oregon produced a Pinot-Noir that appar
ently stole the discerning tongues of a panel
of European judges during a worldwide
competition
"You really can't compare Oregon to
California,” says Porter, whose store car
ries a large selection of domestic and im
ported wines
"Their grapes ripen faster The soil isn’t
as wet There are a lot of variables ”
Part of the reason for the growing
number of successful Oregon wineries can
be attributed to a general increase in wine
consumption
This is a national trend — and Oregon is
no exception, Porter says
' More younger people are drinking
wine,” she says, and white wines are the
most popular among them Young people
like the taste of the sweeter, fruitier wines,
she adds
"After they've had some experience, they
like drier wines "
Currently, hard liquor outsells wine, with
vodka the best-selling hard alcoholic
beverage in the United States However,
Porter says wine sales are increasing while
sales of hard liquor have leveled off
Are Orgonians following the national
trend?
"In Eastern Oregon, it's mostly scotch
and bourbon drinkers," Porter says "Or
conservative ranch beer types "
But the taste for wine in the rest of the
state "is growing, I suppose," she says
Winemaking at home is growing as well,
Porter says In fact, her store sells more
wine ingredients and paraphernalia than
the drink itself.
Although homemade beer is more
popular than homemade wine, Porter says
her customers claim the wine they make is
often better — and always cheaper — than
what she sells
"A lot of kids make it and drink it the next
week, which is a mistake If you can hide a
bottle from yourself for a year, you'll find out
how good it really tastes ”
However, Porter admits that not all the
homemade wines she has sampled were
successful
"I’ve tasted some pretty horrid stuff,” she
says
Although some Oregon wines have
made it as far as France, most will not make
it past the state line. Little or no wines are
exported from Oregon, Porter says, but that
may be only temporary.
Most vineyards in Lane County are less
than five years old and "are just getting
started," she says The vines haven't fully
matured and the wineries haven't reached
the point where they are producing enough
wine to sell it outside the state
"There’s simply not enough volume to go
very far.”
The oldest commercial winery in Oregon
is the Hillcrest Vineyard, which opened
seven years ago. One of the newest is
Eugene's own Hinman Vineyard on Briggs
Hill Road Hinman may harvest its first crop
of wine grapes this year, but it will be a few
years before they are producing wine in
quantity.
Other Lane County wineries include the
Forgeron Vineyard in Elmira, the Hon
eyhouse Winery, also in Elmira and the
Alpine Vineyard in Monroe
Stories by Harry Esteve
Photos by Bill Wack
Gedrgeann Janni considers taking home a bottle of Oregon wine from Porter's Foods Unlimited, a Eugene store that
carries a large selection of locally-made wines.