David Lett is a wine pioneer who will be missed

The sad news that Eyrie Vineyards founder David Lett had passed away Oct. 9 at the age of 69 brought up a flood of memories. Lett is rightly praised for pioneering the cultivation of pinot noir in Oregon's Willamette Valley, but his legacy includes much more.

He somehow found not just a spot, but arguably the best spot, in which to cultivate grapes -- the Red Hills of Dundee. He also introduced pinot gris, which was at the time a completely unknown and obscure white grape that has subsequently become an international superstar. A 1975 Eyrie Pinot twice placed a close second in blind tastings of top Burgundies in Paris and Beaune. Less than a decade later, Burgundy's esteemed Drouhin family invested in an Oregon vineyard and winery of their own, establishing what is still the most prestigious Burgundian outpost in the world.

But Lett was not blessed with a comfortable life, either as a winemaker or as a wine prophet. His wines were already out of favor (and his skills under attack) in the early 1990s, when some of the world's most prestigious critics faulted him for making wines that they called thin, green and herbal. The ultra-ripe, jammy, heavily oaked style of American pinot noir was never to Lett's taste, and he was not shy in explaining why he thought it was a travesty.

In an interview at my home in 2003, he railed against what he saw as the trend to making big, dark, ripe, jammy wines. "Look at the vintages that get highly touted by the critics; they're the big vintages. We go back to the theme: big, dark, high alcohol, and then you oak it up to taste the vanilla, which is what your mom put into everything she baked when you were a kid so it tasted really good and what have you got? Coca-Cola! It's vanilla, the international flavor."

"I was pouring wine next to a table of pinot noir from a warmer region," Lett continued, warming to his subject, "and that wine was 15.6 percent alcohol! If you want to get a kick from alcohol, go drink a martini. Pinot noir is a lighter colored wine by nature; it's missing four of the nine pigments in all other grapes. It's never going to be as deeply colored as any other vinifera when it's picked at the right time. If you let it get overripe you can get dark colored wines, because you are able to extract more color.

"But by the time you've reached that point you have lost the flavor; and the only reason to grow pinot in a climate as capricious as the Willamette Valley is for the flavor. I make wines for flavor, not scores - for pleasure, not power."

Clearly, David Lett was not a man to mince words, and his outspoken, occasionally curmudgeonly demeanor could rub some people the wrong way. Personally, I've never met anyone in the wine industry whom I admired more -- for his vision, his talent, his passion, his dedication and his steadfast belief in what he was doing. David Lett was an avid sailor, and he had a sailor's love of self-reliance and solitude. In his honor I will keep reminding those who follow in his footsteps about the things he fought for most passionately. Whether or not you completely agree with him, he deserves a voice in the debate.

That debate seems to be heating up. Recent comments from Bill Hatcher in the Oregon Wine Press sounded a warning to all of Oregon's winemakers. Hatcher spent years as the managing director of Domaine Drouhin Oregon, and now heads up the A to Z wine company, which also owns Rex Hill. Chief among his concerns regarding Oregon's future prospects is what he calls a wine glut of Biblical proportions about to hit the state.

Pinot noir sales, Hatcher notes, have been growing at roughly three to five percent annually, while production is increasing at a 30 percent annual rate. The number of wineries has doubled in the past four years, to almost 400. Most are small and must rely on in-state sales for the bulk of their income. That market is becoming impossibly crowded. Where's the effort, asks Hatcher, that will help to open up new markets? The nearsighted focus on academic research, he argues, will result in an industry reduced "to an island of producers in an ocean of fruit."

Hatcher's message is a sobering one that says maybe the good times are not going to keep rolling. But he is not just complaining; his A to Z wines offer consumers excellent value across the entire range (see my column from Jan. 16 of this year).

There are others that I've found that should be singled out for praise. Arcane Cellars (www.arcanecellars.com) is making outstanding pinot gris and pinot noir at below-market prices. Chehalem does an incredible job with their white wines, especially the dry riesling, pinot gris and chardonnay, all under $20. I'm very fond of the pinot blanc and pinot gris from both The Four Graces (www.thefourgraces.com) and WillaKenzie Estate (www.willakenzie.com). And a little winery called Spindrift Cellars (represented in Washington by Cru Selections) has dazzled me with a terrific Spinnaker pinot noir ($19) that can successfully compete with entry level pinots from New Zealand, California and Burgundy.

Pick of the Week

Sawtooth 2005 Skyline Red, $9. This Idaho winery has an appealing range of both white and red wines, most from the newly designated Snake River Valley appellation. This Skyline Red is a great little pizza wine, roughly half cabernet and the rest a mix of merlot, syrah and even a splash of primitivo. You get plenty of that pretty toasty flavor that usually costs more, along with a tart underpinning of red fruits and lightly earthy tannins.

Paul Gregutt can be reached at wine@seattletimes.com.

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