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5A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2016 Gorge’s wine success rooted in Wright’s old vine legacy Other vineyard owners call him mentor, advocate and friend By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press THE DALLES — The pump is on for the irst time this season but things aren’t working. Alejandro Rojas, Lonnie Wright’s foreman and friend for 20 years at The Pines 1852 vineyard, says there isn’t enough pressure to water the grapes up on the slope: the syrah, the merlot, the “Young Zin” and, of course, the Old Vine Zin- fandel that grows at the heart of Lonnie’s story. Wright doesn’t like what he’s hearing. Truth is, he’s fuming. He says there must be a leak in the system. He wants Rojas and two other employees to chop a path down to Mill Creek to see if there’s a problem in the pipe down there. Rojas demurs; he has other options to check irst. And besides, he just had a bout with poison oak and doesn’t savor crashing through brush to examine the creek pipe. “You got a machete?” Wright asks. “I’ll do it.” And next thing he’s rummaging through a tool shed, muttering, looking in vain for a machete and grabbing a couple of big clippers instead. Daddy of wine in the Gorge Wright, 67, bears the ruddy look of some- one who works outdoors, with a thick mus- tache and salt and pepper hair swept back from his forehead. He’s the acknowledged daddy of wine in the Columbia River Gorge, a pioneer on the level of the visionaries who made the Willa- mette Valley an internationally acclaimed pro- ducer of pinot noir. He’s planted, planned or consulted on hun- dreds of acres of vineyards on both sides of the river from Hood River east to Maryhill, Wash- ington, a region that includes two American Viticultural Areas and produces robust reds, del- icate whites and boasts of “a world of wine in 40 miles.” Other vineyard owners call him mentor, advocate and friend. In 2011, the Oregon Wine Board gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award. He was nominated by his peers. But right now he’s just another dirt farmer dealing with a dang problem. The issue is resolved a few minutes later when Rojas, the vineyard foreman, inds a closed valve on an irrigation well. Water soon lows to the drip lines strung through the legacy vines up on the hill, and Lonnie Wright is smiling again. Gorge takes off Columbia River Gorge wine is on a roll. Vineyards, wineries and tasting rooms dot the towns that line the river and now compete with orchard stands and brew pubs for tour- ists. Increasingly, the region is tapping the big Portland market on the shoulder and reminding wine lovers that Interstate 84 through the Gorge is a much quicker drive than creeping out Ore- gon 99W to the pinot noir vineyards of Yam- hill County. An April “Portland Grand Tasting” held in the city’s posh Pearl District was packed with people eager to sample gorge wines. In the meantime, Wine Press Northwest, an insider trade publication, named Hood River’s Mount Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Lonnie Wright is considered the pioneer of Columbia Gorge wines, having planted or managed dozens of vineyards over the past 35 years. In 2011 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Oregon Wine Board. Hood Winery as its 2016 Oregon Winery of the Year. The Gorge itself, a national scenic area known for its massive basalt formations and dazzling waterfalls, is part of the attraction and is key to the variety of wines grown in the region. The river bisects the spine of the Cas- cade Mountain Range, which divides Oregon and Washington state into western wet and east- ern dry sides. Wine enthusiasts like to say the region loses an inch of rain with every mile trav- eled east. The west side of the Hood River Valley gets 36 inches of precipitation annually, while only 15 inches falls in The Dalles and only 10 beyond that. As a result, the region produces at least 40 types of wine from grapes that grow in a wide range of heat and water, from zinfandel, mer- lot and pinot noir to pinot gris, riesling and chardonnay. For winemakers, the Gorge represents the “blessing and challenge” of a diverse American Viticultural Area, said Mark Chien, program coordinator of the Oregon Wine Research Insti- tute at Oregon State University. “They are well on their way to making great wine,” Chien said. “It’s sort of like where the Willamette Valley was 25 years ago: You igure out what the heck you’ve got and what to do about it.” Vineyard revival That might have been Lonnie Wright’s line 34 years ago as he stood on a slope above Mill Creek a few miles southwest of The Dalles. He’d heard — through the grapevine, if you will — that an orchardist planned to revive an 8-acre, century-old zinfandel vineyard that had been abandoned for about 20 years. Wright showed up unbidden at 7 a.m. and found the orchardist literally reading from a University of California-Davis pruning textbook. Wright grew up in Indiana, where he earned a scholarship and played guard on Butler Uni- versity’s basketball team and igured he’d most likely teach and coach hoops. But the call of the road eventually led by way of Central Amer- LISTINGS THE DAILY ASTORIAN W EDNESDAY E VENING A (2) (-) (-) (6) (-) (8) (9) (10) (12) (13) (-) (20) (-) (29) (30) (31) (32) (34) (35) (36) (38) (39) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (56) (57) (58) (61) (63) (64) (65) (162) L KATU KOMO KING KOIN KIRO KGW KRCW KOPB KPTV KPDX KCPQ TBS KZJO ESPN ESPN2 NICK DISN FAM FMC LIFE ROOT FS1 SPIKE COM HIST A&E TLC DISC NGEO TNT AMC USA FOOD HGTV FX CNN FNC CNBC BRAV TCM SYFY RFD (2) (4) (5) (-) (7) (-) (3) (10) (12) (-) (13) (20) (22) (29) (30) (31) (32) (34) (35) (36) (38) (39) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (56) (57) (58) (61) (63) (64) (65) (162) 6 PM ica to the Paciic Northwest, where in 1978 he found himself part of a crew planting the irst vineyards at Columbia Crest, a winery owned by Chateau Ste. Michelle in Paterson, Washing- ton. He learned he had a knack for the work, soaked up information, became a manager and supervised the irst harvest. The road called again, however, and he went off for the irst of two trips to Libya to install irrigation systems — adventures that seem crazy given the current state of affairs in the Middle East. In 1982 he was back in the Gorge, starting a family with his wife, Linda, and the idea of getting in on the start of reviving the old vineyard appealed to him. The rest is Gorge lore. The long-neglected vineyard apparently is among the oldest in the Paciic Northwest. Wright learned it was planted by a stonemason, Louis Comini, prob- ably between 1890 and 1900. Comini also made the headstones placed at the local Cath- olic cemetery, built a couple of stone houses in The Dalles and worked on The Grotto, a Catho- lic shrine in Portland. Early photos, one dated 1910, show the Old Zin vines weren’t grown on a trellis system but were “head-trained on the ground,” essentially grown like low bushes. The method provided protection against freezing but left grapes sus- ceptible to bunch rot. Wright revitalized the Old Vine Zin and eventually bought the vineyard and adjoin- ing property, which among other iterations had once been a dairy. Today the wine made from the old block is highly praised by connoisseurs and sells for $35 a bottle at The Pines 1852 tast- ing room Wright opened in Hood River. He also started a “Young Zin” block from Old Zin cuttings 25 years ago, and planted mer- lot and syrah grapes as well. In 1983 he planted a chardonnay vineyard for a neighbor along Mill Creek, veterinarian and beef cattle rancher Terry McDuffee. From that irst job, he emerged as the go-to consultant, cheerleader and vineyard manager among people likewise drawn to the prospects of growing grapes and making wine in the dramatic landscape framed by the Colum- bia River, Mount Hood and Mount Adams. Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Bottles of Old Vine Zinfandel and Pinot gris await customers at the The Pines 1852 tasting room in Hood River. Hostess Liz Marable is in the background. ‘Guru’ to ask Bob Morus, president of Phelps Creek Vine- yards in Hood River, tells a familiar story. Arriv- ing in the Gorge in the late 1980s, he learned Wright was the “guru” to ask about starting a vineyard. Wright “came up to the place and kicked the dirt,” and asked Morus what type of grapes he wanted to grow. Morus answered pinot noir, then becoming Oregon’s signature grape. “I suppose we can do that,” Wright drawled, but he cautioned that he’d not planted pinot noir before. Wright and his crew planned and planted the irst 8 acres. Phelps Creek has expanded over the years and its wines enjoy a sterling rep- utation with reviewers. “He got me going and we’ve remained friends ever since,” Morus said. He jokes that he eventually had to “ire” Wright “because I needed to make my own mistakes.” A break came when King Estates of Eugene, one of the state’s largest and most prominent wineries, came looking for grapes. Wright was friends with the late Brad Biehl, King Estates’ viticulturist, and introduced him to Morus and others who became King’s suppliers. “The combination of Brad and Lonnie really bootstrapped grape growing in the Gorge,” Morus said. The company liked what it found and paid promptly, critical to the beginning Gorge vineyards. “All those formative years sucked us into growing more grapes,” Morus said with a laugh. “It really helped us get established.” Morus said Wright also pressed for recogni- tion of the Gorge within Oregon’s wine industry. “He’s such a strong advocate for grapes in the Gorge,” he said. “It was really a struggle to get the Oregon Wine Board to recognize people were growing grapes somewhere other than in the Willamette Valley. “When they write the history of the Gorge, they’ll need to talk about Lonnie.” Evening listings WEDNESDAY A - Charter Astoria/ Seaside - L - Charter Long Beach 6:30 7 PM 7:30 8 PM 8:30 9 PM 9:30 10 PM 10:30 11 PM J UNE 11:30 1 KATU News at 6 Jeopardy! 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