Umpqua wines have room to grow

After Bob Bentley, Conde Cox and Paul Sinclair completed a recent long weekend of visiting and sampling several wineries around central Douglas County, they had plenty to savor and say.

In their opinions, it was well worth traveling the back roads of the county to see vineyards and taste the wines. Although the results of their judging of wines entered in the 2008 Greatest of the Grape won’t be revealed until the Saturday event, the three were in agreement on the quality and potential they see in the county for the wine industry.

“The wines here show very well,” said Bentley. “This is really an emerging region. I taste wines all over the world and there are many wines here that match up with the best worldwide.”

“The lineup of wines here, particularly some from the newer locations (vineyards), are of worldwide quality,” said Cox. “The potential for more is unlimited.”

Wine experts Bentley, Cox and Sinclair visited central Douglas County in mid-February as guests of the Umpqua Valley Winegrowers Association. Their selections will be announced at the Greatest of the Grape event on Saturday at the Seven Feathers Hotel & Casino Resort in Canyonville.

Bentley of Port Townsend, Wash., is a wine educator, writer and consultant, and is president of the Olympic Peninsula Enological Society.

Cox of Jacksonville is also a wine educator and writer, and is a Master of Wine candidate. He's the only person in Oregon who has achieved that high level of wine knowledge and who is still active in the industry.

Sinclair of Kennewick, Wash., is an eight-year writer for Wine Press Northwest magazine.

“I think there’s the potential here to grow,” said Sinclair. “I’m told 40,000 acres in the county have the potential to grow wine grapes. If this was California or Washington, those properties would be scooped up instantly.”

There are now slightly more than 1,000 acres in vineyards and 20 registered wineries.

Cox said that wine grape growing in Douglas County “is still a secret” despite the added marketing efforts brought by some of the newcomers to the local industry in the past 10 years. He said the area reminds him of what the Willamette Valley was like 20 years ago and what the Napa, Calif., area was like 40 years ago. Both of those areas are now key players in the wine world.

“I’m not sure the local people here know who has shown up here,” said Cox of the newcomers to the county’s wine business. “The newcomers are educated professionals with capital and training. They’ve looked for particular pieces of ground and they’ve picked this area based on their research. They’ve made their money elsewhere and now they’ve invested their fortunes here. They’re completely passionate about wine and committed to it.”

“There are definitely some great vineyard sites here,” added Cox, who had toured part of the county earlier in the day. “What’s best for a good vineyard is a south- or southeast-facing slope, some water, relatively fertile soil and temperatures that are not too hot or too cold.”

Cox gave some statistics about wine that he said show there is a market for wine growth.

He said that last year, retail sales of wine in the United States topped $30 billion, the first time sales had gone over that mark. He added that 10 years ago one in four adults in the U.S. were wine drinkers, but that now in 2008, a third of adults drink wine.

He also explained that in 2005 for the first time in the U.S., total gross revenue for wines priced at more than $15 a bottle exceeded the total gross revenue for wines that sold for $8 or less per bottle. He said the fastest-growing segment of wine sales — breaking it down into $10 divisions — was for wine in the $60 a bottle range.

“There's a move toward premium wines,” Cox said. “More people are buying wine and buying top-end wine. That’s good for a place like Oregon, where there’s quality in the wine products, not quantity.”

The visiting wine experts said that the reason for the slow growth of vineyards in the county is because there’s not a major population center nearby, so growers and winemakers have to put some extra effort into marketing their product to distant outlets. The older, established wineries have done that, and the newcomers are quickly working on the challenge.

The three judges were also complimentary of the county’s wine growers and makers for being innovative and creative with their grapes. Because the “Hundreds Valleys of the Umpqua” from south to north have subtle differences in their soils and climates, it’s possible to grow different varietals, and growers have done that.

So unlike a Napa, Calif., area where similar soil and climate limits the grape growing to just two or three types, “here you can easily have 20 varietals,” said Bentley.

“Some varietals are being done here that are the first of their types in the U.S.,” he added.

“People here are willing to experiment,” Sinclair said. “Some people wonder if the Umpqua needs a signature wine, but I don’t think so. They don’t have to say Umpqua is all about one wine as long as they do a good job of wine making.”



• You can reach Features Editor Craig Reed at 957-4210 or by e-mail to creed@newsreview.info.