Checking out the Umpqua Valley

Wines & Vines, April, 1991 by Bob McKendrick

Checking out the Umpqua Valley

The Umpqua Valley is a bright green belt that follows the lazy meanderings of the Umpqua River as it flows throughout the Oregon landscape to the sea. The valley is a flat river bed, wide and lush and green surrounded by the ridges of the low-lying coastal mountains.

To get to this wine-pioneering region, take Interstate 5 to Roseburg. An alternate route from Highway 101 and the mighty Pacific, takes 42 South out of Bandon to 42 East and the quiet majesty that is the Umpqua River.

For my wife, Susan, and me, the trip from 101 to Roseburg was a kaleidoscope of mid-Autumn delights. The deep growths of green pines flanking both sides of the river sparkled with flashing golds and reds. The sun is bright and warm and the shadows, dark and instantly cool -- the first signs of winter. The ride is so glorious we know that in this display of nature's beauties, the wines have to be a delight. When I say the landscape is pristine, I don't mean to say it is uninhabited. The grass of the valley grows deep and thick and the cattle and sheep dotting the fields are very contented. I couldn't help but feel I was looking at the Napa Valley around the turn-of-the-century.

Our first stop is at HILLCREST WINERY, located 10 miles west of Exit 125, Roseburg. The address is 240 Vineyard Lane, Roseburg, Ore. 97470; (503) 673-3709. Hillcrest Winery is home, hearth and heart to its' owner-winemaker, Richard Sommers, the oldest of the new generation of winemakers in Oregon and, as Leon Adams put it in his book, "The Wines of America" (McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1978) ". . . the Father of today's Oregon fine wine industry." A bachelor ("the grapes are my children") born and raised in San Francisco, Richard is a quiet man with a reticence born of shyness. He'd rather his wines speak for him. He is spare of girth and serious, almost gaunt, of face but this you notice in the tasting room area of his two-story winery complex. With almost 30 years of growing and producing fine wines, Sommers planted vines in 1961 and made his first wines in 1963.

After taking a course in viticulture and enology from U.C., Davis, Sommers worked at a vineyard in Saratoga owned by the cousin of a cousin -- Martin Ray Winery. But Sommers was looking for a site for Riesling and, as far as he was concerned, there was no place in California cool enough to make an optimum Riesling.

"Things ripen when it's cool. That's the key." It is the long Oregon dip into winter that Richard Sommers depends on for his Rieslings.

The Hillcrest wines include a number of varietals, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Pinot noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon blanc and Semillon. We tasted two outstanding examples: Hillcrest 1985 Oregon Riesling (Umpqua Valley) Select Harvest. $6 (on sale). This wine won a silver at the '88 Oregon State Fair. The bouquet is delicate, surprising considering the full, fruity taste on the palate -- a dry sweetness that dissolves in the mouth into tangy residual acid. The 1981 Oregon Pinot noir (a.c., 12%; $10). The accent, as in all of the Hillcrest wines, is on the dry and the tart. Spicy on the palate with a young, sharp tannin hinting at a long and mellowing wine in the bottle. The dusky red of its color also carries over in its taste; that of spice and oak. CALLAHAN RIDGE, 340 Busenbark Lane, Roseburg, Ore. 97470; (503) 673-7901.

The day turns into an Impressionist painting as a soft mist saturates the valley air. We roll on, our second destination Callahan Ridge Winery, located in a building dating from the late 1870s. The wines, however, are produced from the passions and high youthful energies of Richard Mansfield, 34, part owner, winemaker and bon vivant who, in his own words wants ". . . to have friends over at night, have good meals and make good wine of which I can be proud and have a sufficient wage through sales of wines to live in modest style." The winery was started in 1987 by Mary Sykes, her husband, Frank Guido and Richard Mansfield. Frank Guido's death shortly after has left Richard in the cat-bird seat. He is winemaster, grape grower, barrel cleaner and host at the winery. He also is president of the Oregon Winegrowers Association. Richard has high hopes for Chardonnay (Fetzer Winery in Ukiah, Calif. buys Chardonnay grapes ("all they can get") from the Umpqua Valley.) The tonnage price is right and the Umpqua Valley has incredible grapes.

Mansfield's wine education belies his youthful exuberances. He may be Mickey Rooney among friends but with the wines he is a keen disciplinarian. A native Oregonian, he has a degree in chemistry and attended, at 24, Geisenheim in Germany's Rheingau. He speaks fluent German. His right-hand pal, Philip Gale, said that in 1987 the winery recorded Oregon's highest brix ever -- a 50 [degrees] sugar Riesling. Mansfield's first Gewurztraminer, with a residual sugar of .09%, won the gold at the 1986 International Wine & Spirit Competition in Bristol, England.

Callahan Ridge 1988 Oregon Dry Riesling: Appellation, Umpqua Valley; a.c., 10%, $7. Fermented very dry, the wine is pale, grassy gold in color. This is a wine meant to be drunk chilled. On the palate, it is dry and crisp like Oregon apples.