'Cheers!' to winning wines

UMPQUA VALLEY — When a local wine earns a prestigious award, winemaker Kiley Evans wonders what the judges say when they learn where it was made.

Southern Oregon is still relatively unknown in the world of wine production. Evans, who makes wine for Abacela Winery in Winston, pictures a contest taster revealing an Umpqua Valley label and asking, “it’s from where?”

“It’s important to show it doesn’t just happen from Eugene to Portland,” Evans said of creating quality wine.

Two Umpqua Valley wineries proved just that recently by earning platinum honors from Wine Press Northwest’s annual Best of the Best in the Great Northwest competition.

Abacela’s 2004 Grenache and Spangler Vineyards’ 2004 Sundown Vineyard Cabernet Franc each earned the award from a panel that included an international wine judge, wine writers and wine competition directors.

The competition featured 247 wines from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia.

To enter, the wine had to already have earned a gold medal from one of 30 prestigious competitions during the year, including The Dallas Morning News Wine Competition and The Los Angeles County Fair Wines of the World Competition.

Pat Spangler, owner and winemaker at Spangler Vineyards in Green, said he hopes that getting picked amongst so many great wines will continue to bring more notice to the Umpqua Valley.

Instead of saying, “it’s from where?” he believes they might be starting to say, “wow, another one from there.”

“Wow,” is the response winemakers strive for. Spangler said it is an unsolicited and pure response.

It’s also quite possibly what the Northwest Wine Press judges said when they tasted the offerings from Abacela and Spangler.

Only 32 wines earned platinum or double platinum honors. Of those, only a handful were from Oregon.

“How can that not feel good?” Evans said of being part of that group. “How can that not be a validation for what you’re doing?”

Abacela was one of, if not the first Oregon winery to produce grenache, Evans said. It was nice to know “we didn’t fall on our faces” with it.

In fact, the wine was already sold out before the judging was announced. Only 72 cases were made.

Spangler’s stash of its 2004 Cabernet Franc totaled 169 cases.

Those smaller production numbers make it difficult to immediately benefit from awards. If a customer calls about a wine they read about in a magazine and it’s already sold out, the winery has to try and draw them in with other wines.

Fortunately, there is a lot to choose from at most Umpqua Valley wineries. Spangler said more than 30 different varieties of wine grapes grow in Douglas County.

That diversity is a testament to the area’s winemakers, Spangler said. In Napa, he continued, the weather is going to be the same every year and the grapes will not differ much over time.

Not so in Southern Oregon.

That does, however, prevent Southern Oregon from having a single standout grape. The Umpqua Valley doesn’t have a varietal that is its “calling card.”

Still, because of its undiscovered stature, winemakers are able to make wine how they want.

Both Spangler and Evans said they taste the fruit on the vine. They can decide how long to let the fruit hang and when to pick it.

They don’t adhere to a set schedule.

Evans said “90 percent of winemakers in the country wish they could do it this way.”

Doing it that way doesn’t just build the name of Abacela or Spangler, it gives a boost to Southern Oregon and the Umpqua Valley.

Winning awards isn’t always the goal, exactly, it’s just part of the process.

“Everybody in this part of the state has one common goal, that is to make the wines better,” Evans said.



• You can reach reporter Paul Craig at 957-4211 or by e-mail at pcraig@newsreview.info.