Oregon's "PAPA PINOT" Speaks to Appellation America on Pinot Noir

No wine more closely associated with a single state than Pinot Noir and Oregon. In an interveiw with Appellation America's Cole Danehower, Oregon's Pinot Noir founder David Lett exlains how it happened.

David Lett, founder of The Eyrie Vineyards in the Willamette Valley, Oregon is referred to as "Papa Pinot" for is pioneering efforts with the grape that has become associated with Oregon. In a conversation with Appellation America's Cole Danehower, Lett reveals how Oregon Pinot Noir came to be more than 40 years ago: http://wine.appellationamerica.com/wine-review/Diana-and-David-Lett-Interview.html

In the Appellation America interview Danehower gets Lett to reveal that he indeed did have a sense of the importance of his undertakings.

According to Lett, "Yeah, I did. From the beginning, I knew — hoped anyway — that it was momentous. These were the first Pinot Noir vines in the Willamette Valley. Yeah, it felt important.”

What followed Lett's initial planting of Pinot Noir and the founding of Eyrie Vineyards was more than 350 Oregon wineries.

Lett says, "To see a viable industry grow out of nothing. To see winegrowing become a sexy agricultural industry for Oregon. To know that winegrowing has helped save some Oregon farmland. To see Oregon Pinot Noir take its place on the world wine stage, and to see Pinot Gris being grown all over the New World—not bad!”

The entire article and interview can be read at AppellationAmerica.com: http://wine.appellationamerica.com/wine-review/Diana-and-David-Lett-Interview.html

Appellation America is a wine information portal that offers more than 12,000 pages of information on North America's unique wine growing regions, the grape varieties that are grown in them and the people who make wine from coast to coast. Appellation America’s wine reviews, e-commerce channel, features from correspondents across the country and database of information make it the most comprehensive sources of information on North American wine anywhere.
http://wine.appellationamerica.com