Good soil,
hard work,
blossom into~.
It is early autumn, after the turn of the 21st century in
Oregon.
Endless rows of grapevines laden with swollen, ripe
fruit march across the hundred valleys of the Umpqua.
Pregnant with vineyards, the southern Willamette Valley
has a tasting room around every turn in the road.
Vintners from the classic wine regions of Europe —
Bordeaux, Champagne, Alsace, the Rheingau, Tus
canny — have reluctantly admitted a number of
Oregonians to their select club. Wine drinkers world
wide rate a Zinfandel from Napa Valley and a Pinot Noir
from northern Oregon as toss-ups. Hillcrest Vineyard
makes a sparkling wine that rivals the champagne of
Moet et Chandon. A connoisseur of wines has trouble
distinguishing between the Cabernet Sauvignons
produced by the leading wine artists of Bordeaux,
Sonoma, and the Umpqua Valley
Perhaps the scenario is unlikely. But impossible?
Non, mon ami.
Oregon's nouveau wine industry is expanding plus
vite, with fertile prospects for the future Conditions are
right in some regions; land is available, the market for
the fruit of the vine is burgeoning.
But the people who dreamt of owning a vineyard are
prepared for a long haul. The ones who look for quick
returns are barking up the wrong vine, warn those who
know
"The normal farming mentality is an annual crop."
says Dino DeNino, one of the grape growers and
winemakers at Hillcrest Winery “If you're gonna grow
grapes, you gotta change your thinking and be
prepared to wait.”
"You shouldn't plan on planting any amount of
acreage and living off it for the next ten years,'' says Phil
Gale, also of Hillcrest But the delay doesn't dishearten
Gale, who takes a long view of the possibilities, and has
invested in a vineyard of his own
"If you just wanted to plant a couple acres of grapes
and had some kids to help you," Gale says, “you could
do it on the side.”
"You get the grapes either by buying the cuttings or
working for them. You need a tractor You need to keep
the deer off them You gotta have the skills of a
gardener or a farmer. You can’t be an absentee owner.
The only way to grow grapes is in your backyard,
whether it's an acre or 40 acres Every year is different ,
in the wine business The weather and the pickers vary
You gotta flow with it You gotta stay there and be
permanent to do the grapes justice ”
Doyle Hinman, 40, proprietor of Hinman Vineyards
southwest of Eugene, planted his first grapes in 1972,
and pressed his first wine in 1979 He worked as a high
school teacher in Eugene while his 10 planted acres
matured
"I had the opportunity to get started because I had a j
job and didn't have to pay for labor," he says "It's a lot
more work than what I thought it would be."
Hinman cautions those who might try to farm wine
grapes on a small scale I
"The smaller you do your acreage, the more expen
sive it is per acre, and the less return you get on your |
investment "
Story by Randy Malat
Photos by Jay Jollon
L
Developing a vineyard costs $7,000 per acre, he
estimates, including the price of the land. That's before
building a winery
Whether a person builds a winery or not, he can still
make money just growing grapes, DeNino says.
Hinman got about 3Vi tons per acre last year in an off
year Henry Winery, on highly fertile soil by the Umpqua
River, got upwards of 10. The current agricultural
market price for grapes is approximately $750 a ton
DeNino, Hinman, and others foresee an ample market
for grapes in the coming years.
Now clearing a piece of land for a vineyard a few miles
northwest of the Fern Ridge Reservoir is Gary Car
penter, 42, a retired Marine pilot
"It took a long time to find the right southern expo
sure," Carpenter says. "You also need the right eleva
tion — between 300 and 1,000 feet You need two feet of
topsoil, but it doesn’t have to be that good The con
Dreaming of owning
your own vineyard?
If you expect quick
returns, you're barking
up the wrong vine
ventional wisdom says that you shouldn’t grow grapes
in too good of soil. The grapes do better under stress
conditions.”
Once the grower owns proper land, he or she needs
stock. Carpenter, Jack Healy, and Paul Simonds, who
are planting adjacent vineyards on idyllic spreads amid
forests of fir and oak trees, bought 14,500 unrooted
cuttings from Alpine Vineyards, at 10 cents a cutting.
Planted in nursery rows to grow roots, the incipient
vines await transplanting next spring.
Healy, 56, has just finished teaching geography at the
University of Hawaii, and is starting a second career He
bought 40 acres, and figures to plant about 25 He
envisions a home atop the ridge and a co-op winery with
Carpenter.
Like most vineyards, Healy's comes with the quiet of
nature and a long view
He says he anticipates "a pleasant lifestyle. It's a lot of
hard work, but at least you get to run your own show ”
Starting from scratch, Healy will plow the land, bring in a
road and electricity, drill a well, build a fence, and wait
for the vines to mature.
Wine growers say a person can farm 20 acres pretty
much on his or her own, with help during planting,
harvesting, and pruning in the winter Lee and Linda
Smith of Forgeron Vineyards in Elmira have cultivated
their 20 acres practically by themselves Like other
grape farmers, they talk about the "sweat equity”
they've invested as a way of keeping costs down
DeNino is sitting pretty on a newly acquired 30-acre
spread a third of a mile away from the confluence of the
North and South Umpqua Rivers. The conditions re
plicate those of Bordeaux, he says.
DeNino talks about producing wines ranging from
inexpensive jug wines to a fine Cabernet Sauvignon He
says he's looking at 1990 for "the big garbanzo."
DeNino's winery is going to be called Umpqua Rivers
Winery The winemaking world will be watching as
DeNino's vines and Oregon's wine industry come of
%
"It's a lot more work than I thought It would be,"
Vineyards, southwest of Eugene.
says Doyle Hinman, founder and proprietor of Hinman
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