My sister Ashley lives in Palo Alto, CA and will be getting married next fall to a wonderful Chinese-American man (he was a card-carrying communist until the age of 7). They have spent the last weekend driving up and down the California Coast to Napa to check out wineries.
My mom, who has been privy to stories of these adventures in wedding planning, has started calling Napa “the Disney World of weddings.” It’s big, it’s fun, there’s a lot going on there, and you had better plan on shelling out a fortune to come home with some nice pictures.
Everything I read and experience about Oregon’s wine-producing regions reaffirms my decision to move here and make a life in the Willamette Valley. As far as I can tell, it’s the anti-California — and not necessarily because of the often virulent anti-Cali bias shared by many Oregonians.
My latest exploration of place has involved a close reading of Janis Miglavs’s stunning photo essay Oregon: The Taste of Wine. Miglavs, a longtime adventure photographer and contributor to National Geographic magazine, isn’t really writing about Oregon wine per se, but about the people who make it.
It would be easy to look at a book like this and wonder if it was commissioned or supported by the winemakers themselves — it struck me initially as a public relations vehicle, albeit a really sexy one. But the more I have explored this book, the more I have come to appreciate its uncommon format — yes, the requisite gorgeous photos of vineyards, barrels, people, grapes, and the people who care for them — and hell yeah!, a narrative of the Oregon wine industry crafted through pull-quotes from individuals.
The story is told in these quotes, most of them little more than a few hundred words. This approach can make for a sometimes incohesive story, but it also provides a lot of really pithy and personal anecdotes and some really great overarching stories about how Oregon wine got where it is.
Here’s one of my favorite examples, from Myron Redford, President of Amity vineyards, about how he created his wine:
“I wanted to make the skeleton that Lett did really nicely, sort of a Twiggy wine, and combine it with — who is that country singer with the big boobs — yea, Dolly Parton. So I wanted to combine it with Erath’s voluptuous Dolly Parton kind of wines. I wanted to make a Meryl Streep sort of thing in the middle.”
To me this encapsulates so much of what I love about Oregon and about Oregonians — a laid-back attitude coupled with motivation for greatness.
The book paints a portrait of the Oregon wine industry that suggests that its success has been based entirely on the willingness of the area’s winemakers to share approaches — and even vine cuttings — with their neighbors and competitors.
That’s a place I want to live.
And if you haven’t made it out to any of the wineries this weekend, you’re not too late! Many of them are open for special tastings today.
Happy Memorial Day!
I love that quote, and yours too. Laid back with a motivation for greatness, says so much about Oregon. I’ll have to remember that. I think we are going to go cider tasting today and Wandering Aengus cidery. Its up in West Salem’s wine area so if anyone is still open, who knows, we may taste some wine too. BTW, I don’t know why but Ilove photography vineyards. They have so many nifty patterns to capture on film (grape vines, architecture, bottles…).
oops, too many typos. I meant photographing vineyards.
Nick and MImi make great cider. Just made the trip up the hill yesterday. The prize is at the top – Bryn Mawr – David makes delicious wine.
Cool, thanks Lisa and Ccmf. I’m wondering how long you have to live in this area before you have visited every vineyard? And what comprises a favorite one? My neighbor works for arcane, I should go visit him there next.