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Dive into the Burgundy of the West
Happy Wine Wednesday!
We’re here to level up your wine game and celebrate the women who work in wine, all while having a grape time.
Today, we’re exploring Oregon’s Willamette Valley and talking to Heidi Moore, a wine insurance specialist and host of the podcast Wine Crush. So pour yourself a glass and let’s get our learn on!
Willamette Valley
The Burgundy of The West
Oregon weather can be erratic, and it’s certainly not known as one of the sunniest or warmest areas. It can rain a lot and even get frost during the spring and fall. So, naturally, it’s quickly growing as a notable New World wine region!
The Oregon wine industry of today goes back to 1961 when Richard Sommer, an agronomy graduate from UC Davis, planted riesling and other grapes in the Umpqua Valley in southwest Oregon. Four years later, another UC Davis graduate, David Lett, planted Oregon’s first pinot noir in Willamette Valley (rhymes with “dammit”) and is now known as the father of Oregon pinot noir. Today, most of Oregon’s wineries grow and are known for their pinot noir, although they also grow chardonnay, pinot gris, riesling, cabernet sauvignon, and tempranillo.
While Oregon itself has four major wine regions (including Southern Oregon, which contains the Umpqua Valley where Richard Sommer first planted grapes, Snake River Valley to the east, and Columbia Valley in the north), the most well-known and most talked about region is Willamette Valley. This northwestern section of the state (south of Portland) is filled with soft, green hills and contains two-thirds of wines made in the state.
Outside of deliciously elegant pinot noir, here’s what you need to know about Willamette Valley: similar to California, it had a violent geologic history. Tectonic plates brutally collided into each other, resulting in spewing hot lava and volcanic sludge. The entire Columbia River Basin was then flooded in the Ice Age, resulting in a massive glacial lake being created over and over again in what is now Willamette Valley due to what became known as the Missoula Floods. These floods broke down the lava that had cooled into rock (called basalt), and deposited hundreds of feet of rich sediment on the floor of Willamette Valley. Nature is hardcore.
All of that to say: these lucky vineyards are happily resting above this fertile floor and have a few different types of ‘dirt’ they exist on – basalt (the cooled lava), ancient uplifted marine seabed (a sandy sediment), windblown silt (a dust-like sediment made up of rock and minerals), sand (called loess), or some combination of the above. This helps not just the vineyards thrive, but the grass and general lush-ness of the valley overall (fun fact: more than 95% of hazelnuts in the U.S. are also grown here as well as forests of fir, oak, maple, and Christmas trees).
In addition to this rich soil, Oregon’s climate and geography contribute to these top-notch pinot noirs. A small chain of mountains known as the Coast Range — and referred to by winemakers there as the first line of defense — helps to protect the vineyards from cold and wet attacks from the Pacific Ocean. Although it is still cooler and wetter than California and Washington, most of the rain falls during the winter when vines are dormant, allowing the precious grapes to ripen slowly over a relatively cool summer season. This slow ripening is critical, making the wines delicately balanced with slight acidity, brightness, and delicacy with a taste of ripe fruit instead of jam (another reason why they’re often referred to as “subtle” or “elegant.”)
If you want to explore Oregon chardonnays, you’ll find them to be similarly very elegant, crisp, and mineraly. While the chardonnay first planted in Oregon came from the warmer California, they now have grape clones from Burgundy that are thriving in the cooler climate. Whether you’re a red or white wine fan, Oregon is a go-to option for those of you that are Burgundy fans!
One final note about Oregon wines - the state has strict wine regulations and their most well-known varietals must contain at least 90% of whatever grape variety is named on the label. In comparison, the U.S. only requires a minimum of 75%.
For example, if you see a pinot noir from Oregon, you know that it’s at least 90% pinot noir whereas a pinot noir from another state may only be 75% pinot noir.
Some well-known Oregon producers to try include Domaine Drouhin (starting from around $30), Stoller (starting from around $20), and Ken Wright (also starting from around $20) but there are plenty of smaller winemakers in the area to explore as well!
This leads me directly to….
Heidi Moore
Wine Insurance Agent, Host of the Podcast “Wine Crush”
This interview has been edited for clarity and truncated for the newsletter.
This week, we’re talking with Heidi Moore, a wine insurance specialist and host of Wine Crush, the podcast that tells the stories of Oregon winemakers
Merobebe
How long have you been in Oregon?
Heidi Moore
I grew up in Tillamook, on the coast. I'm a dairy farmer's kid, and I am 4th generation dairy. Not proud of it at the time, but I’m very proud of it now.
Merobebe
How did you get started in wine – other than obviously everyone loves drinking wine!
Heidi Moore
Here's the funny story about that. Working for the [insurance] company I do, after you have established yourself, they let you have a little bit more freedom as far as what you can do for work. I always wanted to specialize in something and be really known for it.
Well, I really like to drink beer, and I knew we had a beer policy being created. I also knew we had a wine policy being created, but I did not drink wine at all. I really didn't like it and had this negative connotation about it. Hollywood has done a really good job of putting wine on this elitist spectrum, where if you don't swirl the wine and you don't smell it right, then you're not doing it right. And I'm a do-it-right or don’t-do-it-at-all kind of person. [Unfortunately,] they brought the wine policy first and I'm like, Well crap, I guess I’m drinking wine!
Linfield, my alma mater which is a small liberal arts college here in McMinnville, created this Northwest wine program that is more about the business side of wine. My professor in college was the one that helped start and organize it so I called him. I'm like, Can you please explain this wine thing to me?
[Linfield’s immersion program] was every Tuesday and Thursday from May to August, and they basically immersed you within the wine industry. We started with geology and dirt and history, and we worked through vineyard management, pest management, the winemaking process, the business and the sales side of it, all of it. I really felt like I had a really good base for the wine industry.
That’s how I got into wine, and now I drink a lot of it!
Merobebe
There you go. One way or another, we all get there!
Heidi Moore
Yeah, and you know what? That whole Hollywood thing that I spoke about a few minutes ago, it's so false – at least in the Willamette Valley. I can't speak for California or France, but everybody in Oregon, for the most part, are artisans and farmers. I didn't think they would be my people, but they are so my people and I was so blown away by who they were, their stories, and where they came from. That's what I really fell in love with. Not necessarily the wine, which is great also, but I'm very much a people person and that's where I started. I fell in love with the people and then with the wine.
Merobebe
What is wine insurance and how is that different from other commercial or farm insurance?
Heidi Moore
It's kind of all of the above. Wineries are a very specialty business. They're very niche. They have so many components that go into them, and there's a big difference between a winery that is also an estate vineyard, where there’s the farm component of it along with the vineyard, their home, their autos, and so on.
But then, you completely shift sides and you're now on a commercial policy with a product that's being manufactured and made. You have leakage, contamination, business income, employees – all these different things. Then you have the farm side where you're trying to help them with crop insurance. We had a smoke incident in 2020, so how does that fit in? There's so much.
Merobebe
You mentioned the smoke from all the fires in 2020. How has climate change been affecting your insurance policies or how your customers are approaching their insurance policies?
Heidi Moore
Up until 2020, about 10% of Oregon had crop insurance. On the flip side, Washington is 90% crop insurance and 10% not. Oregon has a climate that isn’t too extreme on one side or the other – not super hot or super cold, or smoke and fire or ice all the time. 2020 was a huge eye opener for people because we did have these wildfires that felt like the whole state was on fire. And in the Willamette Valley, because of the way it's shaped – the fires were really close to the valley and so the smoke just hung there. I mean, it looked like the apocalypse here for about a week.
The difference is that we grow a lot of pinot noir up here, which is a very delicate grape. It's very hard to grow. It's very thin skinned. It absorbs a lot of that smoke, so depending on where that smoke hung, some of those berries tasted like ashtray – they were just just absolutely awful. So there was that awakening to, Oh my God, yes, climate change is happening and these wildfires can happen more often.
There are definitely other changes happening with environmental warming and things like that. You're seeing grapes pushed out more towards the coast, which would have never happened a few years ago or 20 years ago. You're seeing these new areas kind of creep up because it's warmer now and they can get the fruit ripe.
There has been a lot of crop insurance sold over the last two years because it does cover smoke and smoke taint, and it also covers fire in most respects. I think it was 2021 – we had a lot of winemakers and vineyard growers call it Satan’s Bubble. We had temperatures of 116 for like two days in a row! We just don't get that hot here. For us to get a couple hundred degree days during the summer is pretty rare, so for us to be at 116 and 112 was just completely mind blowing. And then this spring we had a really late, heavy frost. A lot of people were panicking because they were losing crops.
Merobebe
What are some of the most important things that you've had to learn about?
Heidi Moore
Honestly, for what I do on the insurance side, it's the process and the equipment and the terminology. A lot of it was just learning the terminology and being able to pair that terminology with the piece of equipment. I think what has really helped me set myself apart is understanding the varietals and the kind of dirt that we have. And I'm not a geek about it. I'm not a geek about dirt, I'm not a geek about wine. I have a terrible palate. Me doing tasting notes is a hot mess. It just – it tastes like fruit, you know? I don't know what to tell you!
I got invited by one of my clients to do tasting notes and I said, You do realize I’m not good at this, right? This is going to be a shit show. I think we drank through 13 different red varietals and blends that day. So, I’m sitting in this group of people tasting all this wine, and I have a winemaker – who is amazing – and she's like, “this tastes like a campfire on a foggy day surrounded by cedar trees.”
And I looked at her. I'm like, Where the F did you get that? I'm like, “I taste fruit,” you know? What is that? I don't even understand that. She's like, “it evokes a feeling,” and I'm like, ok whatever. I like hot chocolate and coffee around my fire.
Merobebe
Being a woman, do you feel like there's been a difference when you talk to wineries about insurance? I feel like insurance is also pretty male-dominated.
Heidi Moore
It is. When I started 14 years ago, I think 5% of the agency’s salesforce were women although we’ve definitely grown since then. I've had this discussion with my husband several times because – When my kids left the house, I bought myself a really nice car. I'm like, I'm done with the mom car. I deserve something nice.
But here's the thing. I work with a lot of farmers and a lot of them are very old school. Good, bad, or indifferent, that's just how it is. When I step out of my rig, it's strike one. She's a chick. I don't know if I really want to work with her, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't know very much. She just stepped out of a Range Rover, strike two. She's definitely not one of us.
So I have really struggled with that on the insurance side – not as much with the winery insurance but farms in general. So now, I drive a Dodge pickup. I always have rubber boots. I always have a pair of jeans on and usually a flannel or some sort of jacket in the car. And it's not that I feel like I'm dressing down because that is my true, authentic self. True, authentic Heidi is a pair of sweats – actually, probably a pair of booty shorts and a pair of rubber boots with some wacko socks and a sweatshirt.
I think with the wine industry it's been a little bit different. If it were not for the podcast, I would not be as successful as I was because I'm able to go in and create relationships first.
Merobebe
Tell us a little bit about what makes the Pacific Northwest special for wine. What’s special about Oregon, Washington, and Idaho?
Heidi Moore
Oh my God, we could spend hours on this for so many different reasons!
We'll start with Oregon. So, Oregon was really unknown. It was just kind of this little podunk, country cowboy kind of state and nobody really thought much about it. And then you get someone like David Lett, the Ponzis, David Adelsheim. They discovered Oregon and decided that this could be a really good place to plant grapes. When you look at Burgundy and Bordeaux in France and Oregon [on a map], they are all pretty much on the same latitude and they’re a very similar climate. They have a similar topography, too. I think that's why they chose the Willamette Valley.
They really hit the nail on the head when they decided to explore and come up as kind of “wandering hippies,” I guess is the way their son explained it. They started planting grapes – and they didn't know what they were doing. And so, yes, they chose the wrong varietals and the wrong clones, but over the years they honed that in. There's just so much you can do in the Willamette Valley. It really is kind of a plethora, like a mecca, of agriculture between orchards and hazelnuts and grapes and stuff. And what grows so well here is pinot noir.
Pinot is obviously what we’re known for. You can get pinot’d out, because everybody does pinot on some level. But pinot is so versatile that you can make it into so many different styles – not only reds, but you have white pinot and rosé and you have a sparkling that they're doing with pinot as well. Chardonnay also grows really well here.
We now have about 1,500 wineries in the state of Oregon and it's growing every day. They still say we're in the juvenile phase of the wine industry. Napa is pretty mature, and we're kind of in that teenage phase. People are finally starting to see us as a legit [wine] area. With that, you're starting to see some cabernet sauvignon being planted. There's definitely some hybrids. There's a lot of riesling, pinot gris, I'm seeing tempranillos come in.
And when you move into Washington, you're seeing a lot of cideries start to pop up. You're also seeing a lot of those big, hot reds over in Walla Walla. And then Idaho is a completely different story. They don't know what they're known for yet. It's exciting!
Merobebe
If someone were to visit Oregon for a wine trip, how long should they stay and where should they go?
Heidi Moore
Well, let's start with the fact that I could be drunk every day of the year. I'd never visit the same winery twice! There's more alcohol per capita in Oregon than anywhere else in the world.
Around McMinnville, which is where I am, there's so many different AVAs. An AVA is an American Viticultural Area. Each AVA has its own personality, so I would say give yourself a week because within the Willamette Valley you are 2 hours to Mt. Hood, you're an hour to the coast, and then there’s so much you can see in the valley – not only as a tourist but as a wine person. I mean, you could visit a different AVA every day and see something completely different.
There are some great accommodations. There's some amazing food around here. We're really starting to get some amazing Michelin-type chefs bringing in restaurants, especially here locally in McMinnville. So I would say come to McMinnville because it really is kind of the hub in the heart of the wine industry, and from there you can branch off in so many different directions.
Get a wine-related movie or book pairing for your weekend.
Today’s pairing is The Widow Cliquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It by Tilar J. Mazzeo.
A New York Times bestseller, this business biography of a young window who builds a champagne empire and becomes a legend during tumultuous times can be best enjoyed with some bubbles (in a glass or in bath-form). This page-turner follows the fascinating journey of Barbe-Nicole Cliquot Ponsardin as she builds the now iconic brand.
Learn something new?
If you enjoyed what you read, please share it with your fellow wine-loving friends! After all, sharing wine & wine knowledge is the best kind of caring…
Next week, we’re diving into more detail about the effects of climate change on wine and talking to Lynn Phelps Finch, former part-owner and youngest daughter of Joseph Phelps Vineyard founder Joe Phelps.
See you on Wednesday!
Cheers,
Megumi
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