Five Winemakers Creating Cult, Collectible Oregon Wines You Can Actually Find

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PAUL GREGUTT | Wine Enthusiast
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There are as many reasons to stock up on Oregon wines as there are bottles to collect. In addition to the obvious—a global reputation for expressive wines—the state’s had a string of outstanding vintages starting in 2014. This has made the wines a hot commodity for both collectors with expansive cellars and those just getting started.

Conversations with some of the state’s top vintners further solidify why these wines have such strong appeal to collectors. Ahead, meet the producers whose bottles are worth the hunt—because isn’t that part of the fun?

Tony Soter, Soter Vineyards

Aiming for Grand Cru-level Greatness

Winemaker Tony Soter’s résumé spans four decades and includes consulting work at Napa stalwarts like Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Spring Mountain Vineyard and Spottswoode. His own California brand, Etude, rose to fame for its Pinot Noirs, which led Soter and his wife, Michelle, to trade Napa for Oregon.

They started to plant the Mineral Springs Ranch vineyard in 2002 and launched Soter Vineyards in Oregon two years later. It focused their commitment to environmental and biodynamic farming, as well as sharpened Soter’s vision for world-class Pinot Noir.

Using the classic Burgundies as a reference point, he says that he set out “to make wine as from this property as convincingly great as any Grand Cru Burgundy. That’s our ambition: to ferret out the great New World sites. I believe we have some here in Oregon. It’s not a replication of Burgundy, but a wine you can pick out in a crowd.”

Rarity or scarcity often motivates people to collect, but Soter says it’s up to the winery and the wines to deliver something that makes the hunt worthwhile. There should be, he says, “a demonstrated track record of being more than they ever were as young wines with the passing of time.”

Soter is convinced that Oregon Pinot Noirs are more age-worthy than those from California.

“I think it has to do with a degree of ripeness,” he says. “When grapes get too much sun, they lose their aromatics. They become more like raisins than grapes. But when just on the cusp of being underripe, some turn into wines with beautiful bouquets. Sometimes, the shoulder vintages, those in the shadow of the great vintages, are the ones that develop.”

In pursuit of those goals, and as a gift to those who search for something rare, Soter’s Origin Series (white label) wines are an ongoing experiment in the study of terroir. They avoid overripe grapes and heavy-handed oak treatments, and each is focused on a single appellation.

The “lay-down collectors’ wine,” says Soter, is the Mineral Springs White Label Pinot Noir. Farmed biodynamically on the estate vineyard, it’s a dark, powerful wine, packed densely with black fruits, graphite and complex earth flavors…

PAUL GREGUTT | Wine Enthusiast - November 26, 2019
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