Willamette goes big at auction

Oregon supplies just 1.5 percent of the nation’s national wine, according to the Oregon Wine Board, but 115 percent of the excitement, boldness and buzz.

Unfettered joy recently reached its peak at Willamette Valley Pinot Noir auction, held this past weekend at the Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg. In its fourth year, the trade-only auction has two goals: to introduce buyers to its most recent offering in a series of formal and informal tastings and events; and raise funds to market themselves. It delivered on its promises and grossed over a million dollars. The average price per bottle this year reached $160, an increase of 29% from last year and 81.5% since the first auction in 2016.

This time, 86 Pinot Noir and six Chardonnay there were many in the neighborhood. Each bundle consists of five, 10, or 20 crates, and each is created exclusively for this event. Buyers come, bid and buy, then can either drink and cellar the wine or resell it. Chardonnay is planted more and more (that’s another story), but Oregon is defined by neurotic but charming great lady from Burgundy, Pinot Noir.

Unlike Burgundy, winemaking in the Willamette Valley has only been around for 53 years. Like many second-generation phenomena, the Valley seems to have something to prove; it has shallow roots, but they are there, and it’s not really clear where it will go next. If the auction – which broke several records – is any indication, Burgundy (quietly: and Napa) better watch its back.

Famous auctioneer (and founder of Napa winery Ariette) Fritz Hatton kicked things off by bluntly informing the auction house that the goal was to reach seven figures this year. Last year they raised $737,000, so no pressure. From the start, surpassing a million dollars seemed far-fetched. Before lot 89 of 92, the auction was $121,000 short of its $1 million goal, but strangely panic never set in. Instead, behind Hatton, the two co-presidents – Eugenia Keegan, Oregon general manager for Jackson Family Wines, and Shirley Brooks, vice president of sales and marketing for Elk Cove Vineyards – could be seen screaming in triumph, booing with laughter and banging the table in glee as minor skirmishes broke out.

Then, lot 89, (from Serene Estate), sparked a bidding war that ultimately resulted in the highest bid of $54,000 (purchased, I was told, by a successful Portland restaurateur). When the final batch of Duck pond cellars appeared, there was $957,000 in the pot; the air was electric. It practically caught fire when father-son duo Bill Knight and Glen Knight, co-owners of The Wine House in Los Angeles, visibly got up from their perch in the front row and approached a few other shoppers several rows away , a break in the auction protocol. . They told Hatton that they were willing to work together on a lot of things, if others stepped up (they had held back some of the others who had ended up joining them earlier in the day, just in case one such a situation would arise). Soon, a motley crew of saviors assembled and six buyers shared the same lot, paying $10,000 each for the privilege, to the encouragement of the bidding public, Keegan, Brooks and Hatton. (The Wine House does about $20 million in annual volume, and the other five buyers were also apparently players with enough bounce in their margins to maintain a figure of $1,000 a bottle.)

Why did they do it?

“Well, because we believe in the wine industry here, we always have,” Knight explained. His son said this counterintuitive development – ​​they live quite close to that other big wine region we hear so much about – began in the 1980s and solidified when he went to college in Linfield. “Then I worked as a cellar rat at Argyle, then at Sokol. We love the community here, we think they produce some of the best Pinot Noirs in the world and we want them to succeed.”

After the auction, Keegan, dressed in true Oregonian style with a gray and white lumberjack vest, soft pink ribbed turtleneck and stunning pearl necklace, beamed.

“This ushers in a new era in Willamette Valley success,” she told Wine-Searcher. “It was exciting to see the whole community come together. We had a goal, we worked together and we got there because of that, but also because of the incredible support of the people who love our wines.”

And they clearly love them. Throughout the various tastings of the 92 lots, seminars with winegrowers and “immersion” studies on various aspects of the heterogeneous terroir of the valley, we become adept at the art of gilding the lily, and we quickly realize that indeed people (and not just the marketing department) were truly enthusiastic about what they were tasting.

“2017 tastes more restrained than 2016,” says Wendy Stanford, senior buyer for Wine.com, echoing what many other buyers told Wine-Searcher. “It is already accessible and delicious, but the purity of the expression of the fruit and the level of acidity make it very promising in terms of aging. For several years, our customers have not gotten enough of Willamette Valley Pinot, especially our East Coast customers.”

The Willamette Valley has enjoyed a decade of rapid rise in the wine world, and the auction highlighted its continued momentum.

“This year has been a game changer for us,” said David Millman, CEO of Domaine Drouhin Oregon (and chairman of next year’s auction) said outside the tent where a raucous after-party overflowed with sparkling wine, mushroom tacos, cheeseburgers and salted honey pie – and where the Winemakers and buyers showcased their karaoke skills and dance moves to the tunes of David Bowie. .

“As a region and a collaborative group of winemakers, we set a goal of reaching one million people and we exceeded it. And maybe it’s an easy metaphor, but look at this tent full of people at inside. It represents everything we’ve done, and it’s all yet to come,” Millman said.

More mushroom tacos and passionately performed renditions of David Bowie? Checks and beads? I’m here man, as long as you pour the Pinot.

The 2017 vintage, like the Valley itself, is perfectly delicious right now. Where will it be in 10, 15, 25 years? It’s impossible to say for sure, but all signs point north (west).