Wine tasting for a fresh demographic
Story by Katy George
Photos by Cathriona Smith
Think about your first taste of wine. Remember the feel of the glass against your lips, the surprisingly warm sensation of the liquid on your tongue. Try, if you can, to remember how sharp the alcohol tasted, how it burned the inside of your throat. Perhaps you snuck a bottle from your parents’ cabinet, or maybe they offered you a sip with dinner. Either way, it felt deliciously grown up, if not ever-so-slightly illicit. Whether you liked it or not, the experience of that first brush with wine remains.
Wine is all about the experience. Rarely does one down a glass alone, hurriedly. Wine is made for enjoying, whether in relaxing solitude or boisterous company, with a gourmet meal or a good book.
It’s this experience that Oregon winemakers are selling, and they’re hoping to snag a new demographic: young people who may not know what terroir or tannins are, but who certainly know what they like.
Eugene-based King Estate Winery is one of those on the hunt for the youth market. Housed in a castle-like manor perched on a hill outside of Eugene, King Estate is as picturesque as they come. The twenty minute trip is well worth the gas money, as many young wine enthusiasts are discovering.
“We’re seeing a greater trend in the younger wine crowd [in the tasting room],” says Austin Kumm, manager of King Estate’s visitor center. Round-faced with a neatly trimmed beard, he speaks slowly, carefully. “I think that there’s an interest in all things gourmet, and . . . a passion for an educational experience.”
This trend inspired King Estate to develop its Next: label in 2005, a low-priced but quality bottle geared toward the younger set. The Next: pinot noir is one of our introductory labels,” Kumm says. “It’s an approachable wine. Wine tasting can be very intimidating, especially for the Next: or millenial generation, and the Next: wine is a great way to get started with that.” Kumm calls it a “crowd-pleaser” with a “light and balanced” flavor and a lower cost than King Estate’s other labels.
So maybe all this talk about pinot noir and wine tasting intrigues you, but you don’t know where to begin. How do you make the move from tossing back three-buck Chuck and Franzia to exploring the millions of varietals of wine? By drinking them, of course.
Oregon is an ideal place to start. With a smaller wine industry than California, Oregon has a close-knit community of winemakers. But in spite of – or perhaps because of – the size, Oregon’s wines have become internationally recognized in the past few years.
Oregon pinot noir in particular has garnered a large following. Madeline Triffon, one of fifteen women in North America currently certified as a master sommelier, calls it “sex in a glass,” but the grape itself is often called the “heartbreak grape” due to its finicky nature. It requires a temperate climate with warm, but not hot, summers and winter frosts that come late and depart early, if they show at all. Steady rainfall is a plus, as long as there is a break before harvest time to prevent the mold that pinot noir is so susceptible to.
This long list of requirements leaves a fairly limited geographic area for pinot noir to thrive in. In fact, the grape grows almost exclusively along the two 45th parallels. In short, Oregon’s Willamette Valley is ideal. David Lett of the Eyrie Vineyards first planted pinot noir grapes in Oregon in 1966; he is often called Papa Pinot for his work. Eyrie’s 1975 pinot noir took third place at the 1979 Wine Olympiad in Paris, beating out wines from Burgundy, pinot noir’s traditional home, thus creating Oregon’s reputation as a world-class wine producer. In 2005, nearly 8,000 of the 14,000 vineyard acres in Oregon were devoted to pinot noir grapes.
Every so often, however, weather patterns do not cooperate and vineyards throughout the Northwest are sent scurrying to save their crops. One of those years was 2010: A late and short summer with cooler temperatures delayed the grapes’ ripening, and harvest was not possible until mid-October – about three weeks later than normal. The conditions were perfect for an outstanding vintage – less sun means a less sugary grape, and thus a more subtle wine—but the window of opportunity closes fast in years like 2010. If frosts arrive before the harvest is completed, millions of grapes will be lost. Phillip Patti, certified sommelier and director of the Eugene Wine School, says the race was on to pull in the grapes this year. “People [were] really rushing,” he says. “The time from bloom to harvest is one of the longest we’ve ever had.” The balance, therefore, was precarious—the 2010 grapes needed the time to ripen, but the longer growers wait, the greater the risk of devastating loss.
Luckily, things worked out; King Estate pulled in the last of its grapes at the beginning of November. Kumm says the harvest was smaller than usual, “but the warm weather and sunshine at the end of September and October were very beneficial to the grapes.” He likened the structure of the grapes to that of the 2008 harvest, which was widely regarded as a huge success. “One of our best vintages ever,” he says decisively, and he expects this year’s vintage to keep pace with 2008’s.
However, these wines will not be ready for consumption for two to four years, depending on the varietal. Things are looking good for the 2010 vintage, but if you’re looking to really enjoy it when it’s time to uncork, the best plan is to start tasting right here, right now.
Patti’s classes at the Eugene Wine School are designed specifically to give new wine enthusiasts a set of tools for enjoying wine. “Everybody’s palette is different,” Patti says.
“People experience wine in such unique ways. [In my classes] I try to lay down some of the basics . . . and then people can go from there.” Patti offers one-night classes periodically on a range of topics from pairing wine with food to Italian varietals. He also plans to begin his second five-week introduction to wine course in January, which meets once a week. “We probably try about twenty wines during the class,” Patti says—enough to provide a jumping off point, but just barely scratching the surface of the wine industry. “I never buy the same wine twice. Why would I, when there are so many great bottles available?” What the intro class is for, Patti says, is figuring out what you like. “Taste, taste, taste,” he advises. And, he is quick to add, his classes aren’t the only way to start sipping.
“How I started is I found a great wine shop, and found somebody within that wine shop that I trusted,” Patti says. “If you trust them, and you trust their enthusiasm for wine and their willingness to lead you there, you’ll learn a lot.”
Sundance Wine Cellars in Eugene is a great place to go searching for new wines. The knowledgeable staff is happy to help customers pick out a bottle or two, and they offer free tastings on Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Sales Manager Jeff Salata says Fridays are for categories, such as the wines of France, while Saturdays feature local wineries. “It’s a nice way to start off,” Salata says, since you can buy what you taste right there on-site.
“Wine drinking is a full-contact sport,” he says. “You can’t learn it all by reading!” He and his coworkers are infinitely informed on the wines they sell, which include over 5,000 different varieties. They also have the largest collection of Oregon wines “anywhere in the Milky Way,” Salata estimates jokingly. Anything they don’t have, they can usually order specially. “You have to explore [wine] to know it,” Salata says. And he and his coworkers are happy to serve as guides.
An even cheaper way to learn the ropes is to visit local wineries. Many offer tastings for low fees or even for free, depending on how many wines you want to try. Start with Oregon’s 2008 vintage to get an idea of how this year’s weather will affect the harvest. Sweet Cheeks Winery, located a half an hour from Eugene in Crow, Oregon, offers twilight wine and cheese tastings with live music every Friday evening, in addition to free tasting daily from 12 to 6 p.m. They host weekly Mimosa Sundays, a free brunch event featuring the winery’s sparkling wines. King Estate also holds daily free tastings with their pinots – both gris and noir – taking center stage.
With Oregon winemakers so optimistic about the 2010 harvest, things are looking up for the local wine industry. This year is a great time to cultivate an interest in wine beyond the box, and the Willamette Valley is a prime location for the budding vinophile. So grab a friend, grab a bottle, and start drinking.

Want another round? Check out this local vineyard based out of a coffee warehouse.

Gallery • 3 Photos

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The Next Vinophiles