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Oregon’s Willamette Valley: Interview with Samuel Coelho of Coelho Winery

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

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When we look to fill our glass with elegant, perfumed and pleasing Pinot Noirs, we need look no further than Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It is a haven for wine lovers and winemakers alike for its unique scenic beauty and its true expression in the wine. The task of producing quality Pinot Noir that expresses the local terroir is no easy undertaking, and the winemakers’ approach has established the Willamette Valley as a foremost producer of this varietal.

Oregon vineyard view

To help illuminate the Willamettte Valley further, we spoke with Samuel Coelho, proprietor and marketing manager for family-owned Coelho Winery [KOO-AL-yoo] in Amity, Oregon.

coelho-winesThe Coelho family has a long winemaking history, bringing Portuguese heritage and winemaking know-how to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Coelho means rabbit in Portuguese, with each bottle featuring the distinctive Coelho rabbit.

How does Portland’s proximity influence you and the Willamette?

Sam Coelho: Portland, Oregon has a green perspective when it comes to the environment and consumables. Green, in the sense of sustainability and longevity. Generally speaking Portland wine enthusiasts prefer wines that are made by hand, local and family farmed with respect for the land.

What does it mean to you to be sustainable?

Sam Coelho: Our vineyard is certified Salmon-safe and L.I.V.E. sustainable.  The certifications are really just validation of processes we have always done and believe; farming with minimal amount of chemical input, using sustainable practices, etc…  We dry farm our vineyard in order to reduce runoff and land erosion, we have Kestrel boxes so native Kestrels can nest and provide natural bird control, we grow clover as a cover crop to till in as a natural nitrogen supplement for the soil, and many other practices to promote and sustainable vineyard.

David and Samuel Coelho

David and Samuel Coelho

What is the climate’s impact: the challenges and the advantages?

Sam Coelho: The Willamette Valley’s climate presents many challenges for grape growing. The most well-known being the risk of rain at the end of the growing season and the shorter, cool growing season.  With rains that come late in the growing season the risk increases for damaged fruit, where rot and other spoilage organisms can take hold. The short, cool growing season, in most years, can present the potential for under mature grapes. The advantages are some of the same factors as the disadvantages, i.e. cool growing season produces elegant, sophisticated and cellar worthy wines.  The Willamette Valley is one of the only places to produce premium cool climate varietals.

What sets the Willamette apart from any other wine region, domestic and abroad?

Sam Coelho: I think what sets the Willamette Valley apart from other growing regions is the sense of community, the commitment to sustainable practices, the soils and of course the quality of the wines.

Thanks, Sam for spending this time with us, and for your family’s fantastic wines!

 

It’s Wil-LAM-ette, Damn It: An Introduction to a Great Wine Region

01 Wednesday May 2013

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OR Vyd 4“Oregon grapes have it tough,” says Karen MacNeil in The Wine Bible. Unpredictable weather changes along with sun and heat shortages in some years pose challenges to winemakers, she explains. Yet somehow complexity and unique characteristics emerge from the struggle to make great wines, particularly in the coolest region in the state: the Willamette Valley.

When he established Eyrie Vineyards in 1966, University of California at Davis-trained enologist David Lett planted the first commercial Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes in the Willamette Valley and the first Pinot Gris grapes in the United States. After spending the prior year in France’s cool winemaking regions of Burgundy and Alsace, the 25-year-old winemaker concluded that the best grapes grow in cool regions where ripening is a challenge. “California was just too hot. … That’s why I came to Oregon,” Lett told Wine Spectator in 1983.

Just south of Portland, the region runs along the Willamette River, which lies between the towering Cascade Mountains to the east and the Coast Range Mountains to the west. Here, vineyards dapple the many south-facing mountainsides to maximize sun exposure, while mountains insulate them from excessive rain and winds. The region’s red soils, known as “Jory” and “Nekia,” offer a well-suited grape-growing medium that is free draining with low fertility.

OR Winery Signs

Other pioneering winemakers followed Lett, building on his vision for the region. Today, Willamette and most of Oregon’s wine regions that emerged south of it specialize in Burgundy’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes as well as Alsace’s Pinot Gris. Known as “Pinot Grigio” in Italy, Oregon’s Pinot Gris wines—like their Pinot Noirs—are world class and have superseded Chardonnay as the state’s signature white grape.

Lett, who passed away in 2008, proved his California-Davis instructors wrong for their claim that European grapes would not survive in Oregon, let alone thrive. His 1975 Pinot Noir won first place in a French wine tasting in 1979 and again in 1980, prompting famous Burgundian wine merchant Robert Drouhin to buy land and open a vineyard in the Willamette Valley, as noted in The Oxford Companion to Wine.

Every year, the growing numbers of innovative winemakers meet in nearby McMinnville for the now world-famous International Pinot Noir Celebration—a testimony to the region’s triumph over the skeptics.

Should you take the opportunity to participate, be careful not to mispronounce Willamette (Wil-LAM-ette) to these many proud winemakers. As noted by wine podcaster Tim Elliot, it’s Willamette, damn it!