The blooming of Wild Rose Vineyard

DILLARD -- Fifteen years ago Carlos and Denise Figueroa had a feeling Oregon would be a sensible -- and family-friendly -- place to make their winegrowing stake.

Now, eight years after planting their first grapes, the California transplants are quite happy about that hunch.

The vines, spread only 3 feet apart in a planting method designed for minimal soil disruption, grow on 8.5 acres of the Figueroas' 80-acre spread in a remote creek valley south of Dillard.

The couple, who had originally bought 120 acres in Flournoy Valley, shifted to the Dillard area when they discovered the Flournoy site had winegrowing shortcomings in water supply and topography. Before moving from California's Bay Area, they had a house built on the Dillard property, which featured some clear pasture area, including a spot resplendent with wild roses.

"This is by far the best possible site É . It's just absolutely beautiful here," Carlos Figueroa said.

On a hot July afternoon, the Figueroas' kitchen serves as a makeshift tasting room. Carlos offers a couple visitors sips from a bottle of pinot gris, one of the first to carry the Wild Rose Vineyard label.

"This particular wine has a lot of fruit, a lot of flavor, bouquet," he said. "Some of our biggest buyers to this point have been women."

In the adjoining living room, Figueroa's 18-year-old daughter Nicole sorts through her packed belongings the family will transport to Eugene, where she is entering her sophomore year. They also have a 15-year-old son, Matthew.

The Figueroas both work full-time jobs aside from the vineyard -- Carlos as an engineering instructor at Umpqua Community College, and Denise, a surgical technician at the ORegon Surgery Center in Roseburg, where she is this afternoon.

While the couple had their sights set on owning a vineyard, "the overriding factor was to raise our kids in a better area," Figueroa said. He said there was "too much money flowing" around the Bay Area, having adverse effects on children there.

In the rural environs of Douglas County, he said, his kids "have learned how to work for their own money."

Figueroa said that, financially speaking, the couple's children stand to gain the most from the vineyard investment.

"For us, it's a satisfaction that we create a high-quality product," he said.

When the grapes from their initial planting matured, about three years ago, the couple began selling them to area wineries Champagne Creek Cellars and Henry Estate. Henry Estate has produced two vintages of merlot, using the Wild Rose fruit. It will begin aging a third -- it takes two years in oak barrels -- after this fall's harvest.

Dave Brown, who co-owns Champagne Creek with his wife, Janiece, said the Wild Rose grapes produced an exceptional pinot gris.

"We released them (under the Champagne Creek label) in early 2002, but they were 2001 vintage," Brown said. "The pinot gris won a number of awards at various places and got some accolades with some wine magazines. It's a very nice pinot gris, excellent. In my viewpoint, the grapes that come off their vineyard are some of the best around, they're probably the best in Oregon, just phenomenal."

The success convinced the Figueroas to establish their own brand. Again using Champagne Creek's winery facilities, the couple bottled 200 cases of pinot noir this year. Since they hit the market in the last six weeks, the vineyard has sold about 30 cases, mostly at wine and art festivals across the state.

The Figueroas, who also sell wine-filled chocolate balls produced locally by Fog Mountain Chocolates, will enter their pinot noir in the Oregon State Fair's wine competition this summer.

The couple, both 49, also will present their wines at next weekend's Land of Umpqua Wine Festival in Stewart Park.

FLAVORFUL GRAPES

The gradual natural rhythm that yields flavorful wine grapes can't be rushed, Figueroa said. So even though Wild Rose Vineyard has been blossoming under the sun for almost a decade, the family has taken a low-profile approach to their enterprise.

Figueroa said he's seen too many aspiring winegrowers rush the process then quickly go out of business.

"We took a more conservative path," he said. "We wanted to make sure we grew premium-quality grapes first."

The Figueroas plan to make their grapes an all-organic crop in the coming years. As it is now, they only use elemental sulfur and Roundup weed killer to keep their plants healthy. In future years, Figueroa plans to go to a mined sulfur, an even purer crop controller, and taper off using the weed killer.

"We have a minimum-impact approach," he said.

Brown likes what he sees of the Figueroas' environmentally friendly methods.

"It's really a wonderful vineyard," he said. "They take amazingly good care of it, and they're great people. They're a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing work with them. Most people in the wine industry are like that. They're really great folks."

The local wine industry, which has steadily grown since Richard Sommer, proprietor of HillCrest Vineyards, first planted wine grapes in the Umpqua Valley in 1961, is poised for a boom, Figueroa said.

He's seen what it's done in California. There, you can't buy vineyard land for less than $100,000 an acre. Parts of the Willamette Valley around Salem are fetching around $20,000 an acre, he said. The Figueroas were able to buy property in the Dillard area for about $1,000 an acre.

"We're going to see the same thing happen here," he said. "You've seen the number of wineries double here in the last eight years, and the number of vineyards has tripled."

Figueroa, a member of the Oregon Winegrowers Association Umpqua Valley Chapter, noted that local winegrowers "have been very supportive" of newcomers.

There are now roughly a dozen wineries in the Umpqua Valley, and the local chapter's monthly meetings regularly attract upward of 40 people, he said.

NEMESIS FROM ABOVE

Brown isn't the only fan of Wild Rose's efforts.

Drawn by the grapes, birds from the forests surrounding the vineyard arrive in Hitchcockian proportions in late summer.

One year the birds stripped the vines clean, Figueroa said. The family uses nets instead of propane cannons -- "we want to be good neighbors" -- to keep the birds off.

Within another 10 years, Figueroa, who spent 25 years in the bio-tech research field, envisions possibly a winery at the Dillard property, or perhaps in downtown Winston. In the interim, he'd like to establish a tasting room.

He's also thinking about launching a winegrowers' cooperative in the region. A winery co-op in the Portland area has been successful, he said. But cooperatives pose their own set of challenges, he acknowledged, especially when partnerships break off.

The wine industry in recent years has produced a glut of product, cutting into cash flows. That situation will resolve itself over time, Figueroa predicts, as winegrowers, especially those in California, consolidate and reduce inventory.

So, the pitfalls are many.

The Figueroas have weathered some unforeseen ones -- the unsatisfactory Flournoy Valley property for one, the bird infestation for another.

But another small obstacle has cropped up. Figueroa was informed by a fellow winegrower there is another Wild Rose vineyard, back in his home state of California.

"I did a search on the Wild Rose name eight years ago but didn't come up with anything," he said. "Obviously, I didn't dig deep enough."



* You can reach reporter Chris Casey at 957-4216 or by e-mail at ccasey@newsreview.info