The Story
The importance of The Eyrie Vineyards (Eyrie) to the Willamette Valley's wine status, success, and culture cannot be overstated. Founder David Lett, Papa Pinot, was the first to plant Pinot noir in the Valley. It was an Eyrie Pinot noir that shocked the wine world in blind tastings, proving that world class Pinot noir could -- was -- being grown here.
But this is not a historical retrospective. Why did the most historically significant, the original Willamette Valley winery, make a profound change after nearly 50 years?
The answer is that it was time for Jason to make his own history.
A literal handful of families who pioneered Willamette Valley wine, none more so than the Letts. I've written about second generation winemakers who grew up around the wine industry. The Willamette Valley wine industry grew up around Jason. We can talk about Willamette wine as being 50 years old but to me, it's Eyrie's founding to celebrate.
Like a lot of kids who grow up in and around the family business, Jason wanted nothing to do with the wine industry when he was 18. "My dad had stopped being cool," he says with trademark wit, "and it wasn't until I was in my 20s when he started being cool again."
Jason transitioned to winemaker at Eyrie in 2005. He and his dad had only three years making wine together before David's passing. Among the legacy Jason inherited from his father was an extensive library of wine -- not a case or two from a few favorite vintages and bottlings, but a voluminous warehouse of vintages and varieties. "I really miss having my dad around to ask questions," Jason says, "but he left me a library which has to substitute for conversation and discussion. I'm still learning from him."
But he couldn't learn from what hadn't been made -- there were no notes and more importantly, no bottles. "My dad made seven wines; I make twenty-two, (interestingly, Eyrie makes 9000 cases today and made 9000 cases in 1991). I wanted to know how the different sites age in the cellar, I wanted to learn about our vineyards," Jason says, in a way that seems so matter of fact to him and so profound to me. Jason is bottling the future history of The Eyrie Vineyards.
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