A TASTE OF WINEMAKING.

Byline: Jim Feehan The Register-Guard

Romancing the grape is hard work. Just ask any Willamette Valley vintner.

But the final product was well worth the toil to many of those who showed up Saturday as several area wineries invited the public to try some of their best wines.

Gingerly sipping a 2001 pinot gris, Jenny Cherrytree of Los Angeles was impressed with the wine at King Estate Winery near Lorane.

"It's very smooth," the former Eugene resident said. "Not being a wine aficionado, I don't know what to say but that it's a very satisfying wine that would be great for a dinner party."

Mary Bellando, tasting room manager at King Estate, said there should be no snobbery when it comes to wine.

"Basically, if you like it, drink it," she said. "If you don't like it, don't drink it."

Joe Baguio of Eugene is a big fan of the winery's 2001 pinot noir.

"This is the smoothest pinot noir I have ever tasted," he said. "It has a buttery sensation as it goes down."

More than 100 Western Oregon wineries are offering wine-tasting throughout the Memorial Day weekend.

Willamette Valley wines run the gamut of traditional whites and reds, plus sparkling wine and an array of dessert wines, showing the breadth of the region's bounty of grapes. The valley's floor of wind- and glacier-deposited soil, undulating geography and river and creek drainages provides an excellent location for growing varietal wines, Bellando said.

The right soil composition and proper sunlight are required ingredients to growing grapes. What Mother Nature does with the grapes, coupled with proper pruning by the vineyard manager, is essential for a bountiful crop, she said.

"As for if making great wine happens in the vineyard or in the wine cellar, I think it happens in both," she said.

King Estate's top sellers are its pinot gris and pinot noir. The winery also produces a chardonnay vin gris and a clace dessert wine, Bellando said.

Oregon is the largest producer of pinot gris in the United States with 61 wineries producing the white wine.

Chad Dalton, the cellar master at Secret House Vineyards in Veneta, said this year's crop is a little behind schedule due to cool overnight temperatures earlier this month.

A hodgepodge of nature allows a vineyard in one spot to flourish, but render barren another less than a mile away. A few dozen feet in elevation, a different angle to the sun and proximity to air flows that minimize frost can make a world of difference when it comes to raising prized grapes, Dalton said.

"It comes down to location, location, location," he said. "That, and commitment."

Steve Girard, co-owner of Benton-Lane Winery near Monroe, said the cool wet spring has not dampened his spirits - or ruined his crop.

"We're running about 10 days behind schedule due to the weather," he said. "That's not problematic and we'll make that up."

Area vintners say that winemaking is not as romantic as most people think.

Frolicking in a sun-dappled vineyard, enjoying a colorful harvest ceremony with pickers, crushing grapes between your toes, topping a few barrels and making a handful of stunning wines that dazzle the critics: It's an endearing - and enduring - wine fantasy.

Racking, which involves emptying the wine out of each barrel, cleaning the sediment out, and then refilling and retopping the barrel, is one of the chores of winemaking that is by no means fun, yet essential to the creation of fine wine, Bellando said.

"There is a huge portion of winemaking that is unglamourous and time consuming," she said. "But it's all important."

CAPTION(S):

Barney Marinelli of Healdsburg, Calif., tries one of King Estate's pinot noirs. He was very pleased with the results of the 1996 and 1998 years. I n d u s t r y