For nearly 30 years Oregonâs Le Cadeau Vineyard has been producing amazing wines, cultivating a loyal audience and earning worldwide attention for their grapes and wine rosters.
Founders Deb and Tom Mortimer
The founders, Deb and Tom Mortimer, will tell you the secret to great wine isnât a secret at all. Itâs actually quite obvious and staring everyone in the face. Itâs the grapes. Respecting the grapes and carefully protecting and supporting their process; itâs the difference between mediocre wine and the excellent wine that they strive to produce year after year.
They grew from six acres to sixteen, and planted Pommard, Dijon clones 667, 777, 113, and 115, Mariafeld (a Swiss Pinot Noir clone) starting on the south slope of Parrett Mountain, in the Chehalem Mountains AVA.Â
From the beginning, Le Cadeauâs location produced noticeable magic. Vibrant aromatics. Intense fruit forward flavors with glimmers of spice and earthiness usually not often found in young Pinot Noir wines.
Le Cadeau Vineyard
Find Le Cadeau Vineyard on the southern tip of Parrett Mountain near Newberg, Oregon, in the Chehalem Mountains AVA.Â
The 16-acre vineyard benefits from high-elevation (610â â 725â) developed and planted with one focus â growing distinct and complex Pinot Noir.
The vineyard delivers based on a combination of soils: Jory, Nekia, and Witzel soil (a very shallow, broken basalt). On the East side, a cross between Jory and Willakenzie.
One of the wines tasted today, Merci Pinot Noir â comes from an assortment of new plantings of heirloom clones, including Mt. Eden, Calera, Swan and Jackson.
Le Cadeau Wines
2018 Merci Reserve Pinot Noir
2018 Merci Reserve Pinot Noir
From Winemaker Jim Sanders, itâs a blessing in the bottle, or as theyâve said a âMerciâ thank you. After a taste, with a grin on your face you might say the same as you pour your second sip.
Ruby in the glass. Red currant, red plum, blue berry, peach, orange peel on the nose. White pepper, vanilla, boysenberry. Nice, velvety medium body with medium tannin and a very pleasant finish. Perfectly paired with lamb, turkey, roasted chicken.
Blanc de Noir 2017
Winemaker Steve Ryan and his team produced a classic representation of Blanc de Noir, minimizing skin contact, fermenting in both Stainless steel and French oak.Â
The result is a very drinkable potion. Subtle apricot with pronounced pear on the nose. Green apple, lemon zest, pasty and flirty touch of cherry on the finish. Pair it with garden salad, light appetizers, even a light chicken dish.
Le Cadeau Wine Club
Wine club membership has three level: Platinum, Gold, Silver with tiers that include discounts per shipment, access to limited releases, invites to events and parties, and complimentary tastings at the Dundee location.Â
Located on Highway 99W in Dundee, just 45 minutes from Portland and 30 minutes away from their vineyard, off-site tasting room is inside The Dundee hotel.Â
Oregon Wine shares a Tasty, New Release, with Winemaker Aaron Lieberman from Iris Vineyards
Sure, Oregon Wine is world-famous for its Pinot Noir. And rightly so, as the area produces incredible expressions of the varietal. But thatâs not all they can do.Â
Award-winning winemaker Aaron Lieberman wants the world to taste and discover all of the incredible wines from the area including Iris Vineyardsâs new Pinot Gris which has won acclaim several years in a row.
Today, Winemaker Aaron Lieberman from Iris Vineyards sits down over zoom to talk about his inspirations, his favorite wines, food pairings and whatâs next for Oregon Wine.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Find the whole conversation on our YouTube channel.
Thereâs so much to go over with you because youâre in a great area of Oregon.
Last year we had the privilege of covering the 2022 McMinnville Wine Classic, your Pinot Gris won Best in Show and Best White varietal.
According to press announcements itâs the first time ever for a Pinot Gris. What was it about that bottle and that year that brought you so much acclaim?
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The vintage we won that on was the 2020, and I think our Pinot Gris is fairly consistent. So I actually personally felt that the 2021 vintage was better than the 2020. What I think is going on there is that in our growing area Southwest of Eugene we have our vineyard in whatâs called the Lorane Valley. Weâre a relatively high elevation vineyard compared to the rest of the Willamette Valley. We get a lot more hang time on our Pinot Gris, which allows more flavor development and preservation of acidity, as well as slower and lower accumulation of sugar.
So we ended up with a higher acid, lower alcohol wine thatâs very expressive in terms of fruit flavors.
I wanna let our audience know a little bit about your background and what brought you to where you are today. Your education in soil and winemaking, but I hope youâll touch on your Peace Corps time, and your work in Guatemala with soil education.
As I was finishing up my Bachelorâs Degree at Oregon State University, I became involved with a couple of different grad students, helping them with their research projects, basically. At the beginning of my junior year [I had already] switched my major from Pre-Vet to Crop and Soil Science.
So the projects I was working on with these grad students involved soil research. One of these grad students had been in the Peace Corps and talked about it frequently and also had a professor who had been in the Peace Corps. They both inspired me to look into it and do it.
I ended up going to Guatemala. The project I worked on was called Corn and Bean Seed Improvement and Post Harvest Management. We were trying to counteract the invasion of commercial corn seed into Guatemala and Latin America. Itâs replacing the land raise varietals or the traditional varietals of corn. We were working with those traditional varietals to improve their performance in the field by selecting the plants that were growing well and were the most disease resistant.
The program started four years before I got to Guatemala, so I was the third volunteer and we were really showing some really good results.
Something I love about winemaking is such a mix of science and magic, or science and artistry. And it sounds like science is very strong with your background and the magic that you bring to the bottle.
Yes, I would agree with that.
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So letâs switch back from Guatemala. Youâve got some great soil types. Letâs talk about how you use the soils in your region to bring such delicious flavor, characteristics and aromas.
In our vineyard, we do have some Jory soils, and I think most people who know about the Willamette Valley know that Jory is the preferred soil in the region particularly for Pinot Noir.
Our vineyard is dominated by Bellpine soil. Bellpine is kind of an analog of Jory, but itâs formed in sedimentary rock rather than basaltic rock or volcanic rock. So thereâs some significant differences in the chemical makeup of the soil that contributes to the flavor difference in our Pinot Gris compared to some others.
The last time I visited, what I heard overwhelmingly from the winemakers is you have to be okay with inconsistency year after year.
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I want my wines to represent the area that theyâre from and the varietal from which theyâre made and different weather during each growing season as part of that representation.
So based on the weather and the level of ripeness of the fruit and what weâre tasting in the grapes before we bring them in, we will make some adjustments to how we do the vinification to try to push it in one direction or another, to be at least somewhat consistent.
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Letâs talk about the wines themselves.Â
Letâs start with the Pinot Gris. The comment I hear the most is white peach. Thatâs new. I usually hear pear, red apple peel, quite a bit of citrus.
Commonly I get stone fruit comments on our Chardonnay. Whether itâs our still Chardonnay or our Blanc de Blanc.
Then thereâs the Brut Rose, the Pinot Noir 2021, the House Red Blend. A lot of people will remember 2020 and how that vintage went for us. I refer to that year as the worst year of my life.
Letâs talk a little bit about what made it such a bad year.
We had beautiful weather during bloom. I started to feel like it was going to be a really great vintage. Weâre seeing a really modest crop load and smallish berries, which leads to more fruit forward. Right around Labor Day, the major fires started. Smoke came into the valley for about two weeks which was extremely disheartening.
In the Willamette Valley that was really our first experience with that level of damage to the fruit. So a lot of people were scrambling, worried, and ultimately didnât produce Pinot Noir in 2020.
We made less than we had planned. We applied some techniques to mitigate the smoke effect.
Can we talk about what you did to mitigate?
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Well, there are two things that helped the most. One, we sent some grapes to California to go through a process called flash. Itâs a kind of thermovinification method where the must is heated to 80 degrees celsius and then pumped into a vacuum chamber that boils at a much lower temperature. The water and the skins of the grapes âflashesâ to steam in the the vacuum chamber. That steam carries away a lot of bad things. Those things are responsible for the bulk of the smoke effect that you might find in a wine.
Then following vintage and some aging, we did some reverse osmosis to remove the smoke effect from the rest of our wine.
At the tail end of vintage, I had surgery for appendicitis. As I was about recovered from that, I got covid right at the end of 2020.
Fortunately â21 and â22 were very similar to 2020 and how the vintage started and ended up, we had some really beautiful fruit and beautiful wines. Iâm really excited about â22 based on what we have in barrel right now.
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Some people approach wine from a food and wine pairing point of view. Iâm not sure if you are a chef or a home cook, but do you have any suggestions for great food pairings for some of your bottles?
I think with our Pinot Gris, I really enjoy seafood.
Itâs really good with salad. Brut Rose, I always say if youâre making a dinner and youâre not quite sure what wine to serve with your dinners sparkling wine is always a a crowd pleaser. Itâll go with dishes from salad to steak or pizza. The acidity of sparkling wines makes them really versatile in any kind of food. Fatty foods in particular pair well with more acidic wines, kind of a palette cleansing.
For our Pinot Noir, traditional pairings like salmon and chicken.
When youâre going through a year, from growth to harvest, what are the traits or elements that get you excited saying itâs gonna be a good year?
Last spring we had a couple of fairly severe frosts after bud break and it was an interesting year because of that. We ended up, to everyoneâs surprise, with a vintage that was quite nice and yields that were not really affected by the frost. The vines bounced back with their secondary and tertiary buds set fruit, set a really good crop. We got a nice batch of wine out of it.
If we get into harvest in the rainy season, sometimes your hand is forced and the grapes start to get ripe, the skin softens an they become more susceptible to botrytis and other bad things that you donât want.
But â22 was nice. We werenât really forced right up until the end. Around October 20, we had the first big rainstorm come in. 20% of our fruit still hanging. We brought most of it in before that big rain.
But I think we had really good ripeness even at that point.
Youâve been doing in-person and zoom wine tastings, do you have a favorite part of that wine tasting process?
My favorite part, without a doubt, is just when I see somebody tasting my wine and the look on their face shows me that theyâre really enjoying it. Thatâs a big reason why Iâm in this industry, what we do makes people happy.
Do you have a certain memory of including either your wine or someone elseâs wine in a great celebration?
Several memories. My father and I had a wine business of our own from 2002 to 2015. [A few years in] we had a celebration at a steakhouse in Portland. I ordered a Puligny Montrachet off the menu. I still remember that wine quite vividly and how impressive it was. That changed my mind about chardonnay in some ways.
In Oregon, thereâs a lot more chardonnay coming out of the Willamette Valley now is a good thing, but itâs still been an uphill battle for producers to get that chardonnay wine passed the gatekeepers, the distributors.
You go to a distributor and theyâre like, âEverybody drinks California Chardonnay or white burgundy. They donât know about Oregon Chardonnay. And when you say Willamette Valley, everybody thinks Pinot Noir, which is great. But weâve kind of pigeonholed ourselves with that. There are a lot of other nice things that can come out of this valley like Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. So we have some work to do on the marketing and publicity to let people know.
Any lessons your winemaking team has learned this past vintage that you can share?
 I think that happens every year. Letâs not assume that I know everything because I learn stuff every year as well.
One of the things that I really stress with people who are working for me during harvest, is the importance of fermentation temperature.
Itâs with white wine, with aromatic whites in particular. You really have to keep the temperature under control. Yeast likes to get hot and ferment fast, so you have to keep those ferments cool, whatever the method is if youâre in stainless with jacketed tanks or if youâre in barrel and youâre taking the barrels outside at night or wetting them down to keep the temperature down. Itâs super, super important.
With the white wines, you get a temperature or a fermentation thatâs too hot and you end up with a wine thatâs like generic white wine. It doesnât have varietal character left in it, thatâs something I stress a lot.
Then when you talk about red wines, the style of red wine that youâre making is so dependent on a lot of things, but temperature is a big thing. So if you do a cool ferment on a red wine, youâre going to have a red wine thatâs fruit forward and aromatic, but itâs not going to be very extracted. Itâs not gonna have a big tannic backbone to it. In that way it would be out of balance.
Like with our Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, we do a couple of different fermentation methods that end up having different peak fermentation temperatures and then we blend them together to get a wine that is crowd pleasing, easy balanced. So one of my big things is temperature.
Are there any topics in winemaking that you wish got more attention?Â
The fact that I donât do this alone. If I didnât have a team behind me doing the right thing and supporting production in the winery, starting with our vineyard and our vineyard manager, who is amazing, grows amazing fruit, all the way through to the marketing team selling the wine or promoting the wine and the sales team selling the wine. I think itâs really important for people to understand that itâs really a team effort. Iâm the winemaker, I get the publicity, I get the recognition but thereâs no way I could do it by myself.
Iâm sure you talk to young winemakers all the time. Is there one huge piece of advice you would give a young winemaker from all your experience?
A big thing would be, and Iâve made this mistake when I was a young winemaker, if youâre about to do something to a wine and you think you know what youâre doing, but youâve never done it before, make a phone call.
Ask another winemaker that maybe has had the experience and has done that. Youâve got a 5,000 gallon tank of wine and youâre gonna do some kind of adjustment that youâve never done before. Get some information first.
Building network, building community, reaching out to those with either more experience or more diverse experience.
Yes. And in most wine regions, it is a community and people are happy to share their information to help the next guy out. Because ultimately, if weâre all making really good wine in the Willamette Valley, that enhances our reputation as a region. So I think it would be a big mistake for us not to share information.
Letâs talk about where people can find more information.Â
On Iris Vineyards website and social media. Our website is IrisVineyards.com and our handle on every social site is @IrisVineyards.
So thank you again for your time, and it was, it was great to have this conversation.Â
Steve Lutz of Oregon Wine’s Lenne’ Estate sells his iconic vineyard as he eyes: what’s next in wine career.
Steve Lutz, vigneron and founder sells his iconic estate after 22 years
Peavine soils certified worst in Yamhill County, proved to yield distinctive Pinot Noirs
Lutz is said to be setting up next phase of his idiosyncratic wine career
Purchasers Jory, LLC will release next stage brand name and concept for the estate
Lutzâs wine career spans 4 decades and includes hospitality management for part of the Mondavi Wines Group in Napa Valley among other Napa brands and heading up hospitality at Chateau Benoit (now Anne Amie) in Carlton, Oregon culminating in the discovery of his unique 20.9 acre estate vineyard.
youâll have to get on […] mailing and membership lists to take advantage of whatâs coming up next
The Lenneâ tasting room closes at the end of 2022.
Steve Lutz of Oregon Wine’s Lenne’ Estate sells his iconic vineyard
Jory, LLC had been searching for a bespoke Pinot producing site and were delighted when approached by Steve.
Jory intend to further develop the existing property with a new brand name, marketing concepts, and larger facilities. Co-owner Eugene Labunsky has admitted to being thrilled to finally acquire a property he has had his eye on for years.
Lenneâ Estate grows death-defying Pinot Noir vineyards on steep slopes in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Steve Lutz planted his first vines in 2001, expanding the vineyard property to 20.9 acres. The estate is planted with five clones of Pinot Noir (Pommard, 777, 115, 114, and 667), and most recently Chardonnay.
Jory, LLC
Jory, LLC is a partnership between grower and wine enthusiast Eugene Labunsky and Jared Etzel, winemaker and co-founder of Domaine Roy, and son of Mike Etzel of Beaux Frere fame. The partnership was formed with the intent to grow a portfolio of fine wine brands produced from singular estates of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Additional information will be released in the upcoming months.
Italian Wine Ambassador Susannah Gold shares Oltrepo Pavese wines at IEEMâs Simply Italian Great Wines Oct 24 in NYC
So much Italian wine is packed with great flavor, great food pairing possibilities, even great price tags ($20 or less). And yet many of us donât reach for their bottles at the wine shop because we havenât discovered them yet.
Italian Wine Ambassador Susannah Gold shares Oltrepo Pavese wines
So where is Oltrepo Pavese?
Oltrepo Pavese is in the north-west Italian region of Lombardy. Within Italyâs 20 regions, Lombardy (or Lombardia) is located on the Northern end, bordered by Piemonte, Emilio-Romagna, Veneto, Trentino – Alto Adige.
Wine Expert Susannah Gold
Oltrepo Pavese History
Oltrepo Pavese has a long wine history. Itâs called âThe Old Worldâ for a reason.
Viticulture was mentioned in the area as early as 40 BC. By the 1800s, the area was growing more than 200 grape varieties. Eventually it became the third largest producer of the Pinot Nero grape, just behind Franceâs Burgundy and Champagne.
Italian Wine Ambassador Susannah Gold shares Oltrepo Pavese wines
Oltrepo Pavese Grapes
There are four main grape varieties in Oltrepo Pavese and they are: Pinot Noir, Croatina, Barbera, Riesling. In addition, other popular options are: Pinot Grigio and Moscato. Â
Sparkling Wine in Oltrepo Pavese
Do they do sparkling? They do. Â
Their Pinot Noir vine clones started getting used in the 1800s and by the 1900s sparkling wine production took off.
The metodo classico is Italy’s version of the methode traditionelle, proudly used (and protected) by the winemakers of France’s Champagne.
OltrepoÌ Metodo Classico DOCG has a minimum of 70% Pinot Noir OltrepoÌ Metodo Classico CruaseÌ has a minimum of 75% Pinot Noir
Letâs Get to Tasting
Italian Wine Ambassador Susannah Gold shares Oltrepo Pavese wines at IEEMâs Simply Italian Great Wines Oct 24 in NYC
Testarossa Oltrepo Pavese DOCG Metodo Classico Pinot Nero 2016 La Versa
In the glass, a brilliant straw yellow. White and creamy mousse, with continuous perlage. The nose has crusty bread with a citrus finish. The mouth has a soft feel, fresh and lively, with a lingering red fruit aftertaste. Would pair well with white fish, salmon, mussels.
Oltrepo Pavese Pinot Grigio DOC 2021 – Vanzini
In the glass, copper tones. On the nose, floral notes of apple, pear. Soft, elegant mouthfeel, with hints of toast and cream. Would pair well with fish and creamy cheeses.
In the glass, Ruby red with purple tinges. On the nose, notes of blackberry and black currant. The mouth is dry and tannic with persistent black currant.
Tiamat, Pino Nero dellâOltrepo Pavese DOC 2020 –Â Cordero San Giorgio
In the glass, luminous ruby red color. Red fruit aromas on the nose. Red fruit with a hint of spice on the mouth, soft mouthfeel. Would pair well with chicken and turkey.
In the glass, ruby red with garnet specks. The nose has complex violet notes with roasted coffee and cocoa. The mouth is big and elegant. A full body of red fruit with a spicy finish. Could be deliciously paired with gamey and roasted meats, rabbit, mushrooms .
In the glass, deep bright ruby red with a garnet edge. On the nose, raspberry, and a subtle blend of earth and white pepper. The mouth gets roasted red berries and earthy accents. But the wine keeps opening up! Sweeter red cherry and silky richness that lingers. Could pair well with grilled salmon in a wine sauce
Why You should make Boutique Bells Up Winery part of Your Oregon Trip!
Bells Up Winery â Accessibility and Experience are worth its weight in wine!
Dave and Sara Specter, owners of Bells Up Winery in Newberg, are proving that a tiny winery (they describe it as âmicro-boutiqueâ and âun-Domaineâ) can make a lasting impression on visitors who want that special âOregon Experienceâ.
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How does Bells Up Winery do it?
One phone call, one email, and one pour at a time.
Sara sums it up nicely.
âWe were out-of-state visitors ourselves in 2008, and this type of one-on-one owner/winemaker-hosted wine experience was what we loved best, but you hardly see it anymore.â
Their strategy and business planâproducing a scant 600 cases per year across nine wines, and only offering winemaker-hosted private tastings limited exclusively to one group at a timeâmay sound a bit retro, but it is an intentional throwback to simpler times… when communication and commerce were way more personal and intimate, and far less digital.
Bells Up Winery is one of the few that do not embrace online sales, online reservations, and SMS text marketing.
Dave and Sara have proved that old school relationship-based wine sales can not only work, but their customers also find it refreshing.
The only way to buy their wine is directly from the winery, either in person or by phone call. Once theyâve gotten to know you and your wine preferences, repeat orders can be made by phone or email.
If you are uncertain about a selection, they can either reference your tasting with them or discuss your preferences, then describe the available wines directly to you.
Only accepting tasting reservations by phone also allows them to advise their guests about what to expect in advance, which sets expectations for an exceptional experience. After all, reservations for this $50/person winemaker-hosted tasting are special and limited to a maximum party size of six.
This ensures that Dave and Sara can make the personal connections that create happy visitors that talk about their experience and ambassadors of them and their Oregon travels.
Their managed and controlled growth plan of increasing production only as a wine consistently sells out allows them to stay small, intimate, and personal. They insist that winery production will cap at 1,000 cases, which will allow them to continue their focus on surprising and delighting their visitors.
To learn more, visit www.bellsupwinery.com, then phone them at 503-537-1328 to arrange your own Bells Up wine tasting as part of your next Oregon Travel Experience!