Pinot blanc: The other side of Bryan Creek
Discover the other side of Bryan Creek, and learn how David Adelsheim played an integral role in bringing Pinot blanc to not only Oregon, but to the United States.
“Pretty early in my life as a Willamette Valley winegrower, I heard the story about Ernest Reuter, the Forest Grove winemaker, who had won a gold medal for his Klevner wine at the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904[1]. It was a story that had double appeal – it spoke to the fame of Oregon wines in the pre-prohibition era and it enhanced the reputation of Pinot blanc. “Klevner” wasn’t exactly the name of a single variety – it has referred over time to many members of the Pinot family (even Pinot noir) but most often it seemed to mean Pinot blanc. At least in the early 1970’s that’s what I thought.
In those early days of the Oregon wine industry, it wasn’t clear what white grape would become the most important. Chardonnay was the most planted originally, followed by Riesling. But there were small amounts of other Alsatian varieties (Gewurztraminer, Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, Muscat Ottonel) and German varieties (well, at least Müller-Thurgau.) But none of them had the unequivocal focus of the industry that Pinot noir had for red grapes.
David Adelsheim planting vines in 1974
At that time, no one seemed to know very much about Pinot blanc. David Lett had gotten cuttings from U.C. Davis and Chuck Coury likely smuggled in material from Alsace, where he had lived and worked for a year. When I worked harvest for David in 1973, his opinion about the variety was so low that he mixed his four rows-worth of grapes with a couple of other miscellaneous whites to make something he called “Oregon Spring Wine.” One would have thought that Pinot blanc would be widely planted in California, but there was only one planting of any note. Dick Graff had planted the variety at his Chalone Vineyard in the early 1970s and used the same French oak, malolactic fermentation approach that he had introduced for Chardonnay.
There were two clones of Pinot blanc in the U.C. Davis Foundation Vineyard. But starting in the early 1970s, it was rumored that they were not actually Pinot blanc. (In 1976, it was confirmed by French ampelographer Paul Truel that they were actually Melon de Bourgogne.) In 1974, after working harvest at the Lycée Viticole in Burgundy, I wanted to visit Chuck Coury’s son, Charley, who was working at INRA, the grape research station in Colmar, Alsace. While there, Charley introduced me to Pierre Huglin, the station director, who had led their pioneering work in clonal selection. I asked if he would be willing to send cuttings of the clones that he had selected for their varieties. He agreed and Charley packaged them up the next spring and sent them off to Oregon State University. There were two clones each of Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, Gewurztraminer, Sylvaner and Auxerrois, and single clones of five other varieties. As far as we knew, those cuttings of Pinot blanc were the first officially imported in the U.S.
The Alsatian clones went through a specified quarantine process at OSU. Finally, they were released from quarantine and in 1980, plants from the two clones of Pinot gris, Pinot blanc and Auxerrois were propagated and put into clonal test plots. One was at Abbey Ridge Vineyard in the Dundee Hills, the other at Red Hill Vineyard in the Umpqua Valley. The goal was to compare the two clones of each variety to better understand, which should be recommended for further planting. Not much came of these test blocks, but you can still see the one at Abbey Ridge.
When the clones were first released, we didn’t have the land or the money to plant them. By 1986, we were starting to buy fruit from Pat O’Connor, who had a vineyard in the Eola Hills. We suggested that we’d be interested in buying both Pinot blanc and Auxerrois grapes from him if he planted some of the new clones.
We made our first Pinot blanc in the 1989 vintage (I think a little Auxerrois was in the blend, as done in Alsace.)
In 1989, we leased land from our neighbors across the lane from our original vineyard, Quarter Mile Lane. Four years later, we extended the lease to include a steep southwest-facing hill that was planted with dying filberts. Our neighbors pulled out the trees and we planted the first Pinot blanc vineyard of our own, Bryan Creek. By the mid-1990s, our Oregon Pinot blanc included grapes from both Bryan Creek Vineyard and O’Connor. By 2003, we were using only Bryan Creek grapes and the appellation shifted to Willamette Valley. In 2009, the label changed again to recognize the specialness of the wine. The Chehalem Mountains became the appellation and Bryan Creek was named as the single vineyard origin of the wine.”
Now, 30 vintages later, our Bryan Creek Pinot blanc remains our sole Pinot blanc in production. This estate single vineyard wine may be produced from only half an acre, but the quality upheld from vine to glass cannot go unnoticed.
[1] Scott Stursa did quite a bit of original research for his book, Oregon Wine, a Deep-Rooted History (American Palate, 2019.) On page 44, he busts the Reuter myth by pointing out that his Oregon wine could not have won anything at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair – no wines from Oregon were even entered! Apparently, Mr. Reuter had a history of claiming medals won at World Fairs (1900 Paris and 1893 Chicago) where no wines from Oregon had been entered.
