Винодельческий регион The Rocks в Орегоне завоевал мировую славу благодаря уникальному терруару из базальтовых гальки

Check out my gravel pit: why The Rocks is on the ascent The Rocks AVA in Oregon has managed to keep a relatively low profile, at least internationally, but its unique terroir, made entirely of basalt cobblestones, is producing first-rate wines with a hint of Côte Rotie. Roger Morris reports. Wine critics favourably compare its Syrahs with those of Côte Rotie. Its terroir is a dead ringer for the galets roulés of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. But nailing its identity can be as confusing as cataloguing an unrecorded California field blend. The Rocks – or, more fully, the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, nested within the larger Walla Walla AVA – is located in Oregon but most of its wines are made next door in Washington State, which means these winemakers can’t say on their labels that the prize-winning wines originated in The Rocks. Orphan chick And, in spite of its critical reputation – several of its reds have scored 98-100 points – until recently, the Oregon winemaking community, which identifies mostly as Willamette Valley, treated The Rocks like an orphan chick trying to climb into its marketing basket. A Walla Walla red Rhone varietal wine or blend didn’t look, taste or sound like an Oregon wine. One thing that isn’t confusing is that there are few places in the world that share The Rocks’ gravelly terroir – Châteauneuf is similar, although its bed of stones does not lie as deep, and Gimblett Gravels in New Zealand and Bordeaux Left Bank hide most of their stones under layers of soil. Geographically, the area lies in America’s Pacific Northwest region on the western cusp of the Rocky Mountains. There, the Walla Walla River tumbles down from the Blue Mountain and into the flatlands along the Columbia River basin, over centuries spreading an alluvial fan of cobblestones more than 100 feet deep in places. The river slows here and in a very few miles crosses the border into Washington where the area’s largest city, Walla Walla, takes the river’s name and robs the stream of an Oregon identification. “The Rocks have a long history, beginning in the 1800s, with grape growing because the area is an alluvial fan,” says geologist Kevin Pogue, who led the area’s AVA approval in 2015. “An alluvial fan gives you more service area, more small streams to use for irrigation, and you do need to irrigate here. That’s how the town of Freewater got its name. In addition of the vines there were a lot of orchards.” The stones, he says, tend to stress the vines and impart minerality while also providing extra reflective warmth to the grape clusters in the early evenings. A series of bad winters combined with Prohibition (1920-1933) mostly killed The Rocks as a grape growing region and, although there were lots of fruit orchards, it was not until the 1990s that winemaking began to re-emerge as an industry. Modern winemaking Today, The Rocks AVA in total covers about 3,767 acres, about 700 of them planted, with more than 50 wine producers. However, there are only five production facilities in the AVA and four tastings rooms. Most of the production and wine tourism occurs across the state border eight miles away in Walla Walla. Estimated total production is 75,000 cases, most of it Rhone varietals and most of it red. Doug Frost, MW, co-owner of Echolands Winery which produces wine from The Rocks, says, “The wines have soft tannins, high pH, are plush and quite generous. Red grapes also have what’s called ‘The Rock’s Funk’, which smells a bit liked grilled mushrooms.” It was a Frenchman who led the resurrection of the Rocks and put it on the map as a fine wine region. Christophe Baron, scion of the Baron Albert Champagne family, came to Oregon to make Pinot Noir but happened to visit the Walla Walla region. He was familiar with the Rhone Valley – “I grew up drinking Chateauneuf,” he told me in a interview a few years ago, “and I always had a bottle of it on the table.” Baron junked his Pinot dreams, planted a vineyard in The Rocks in 1997 and almost immediately started winning critical acclaim for his Cayuse Syrahs, although he also told me, “I don’t like that name – The Rocks.” He prefers calling them “stones.” AVA birth A Napa Valley newcomer, Steve Robertson, founded the Delmas brand around 2014 and hooked up with geologist Pogue to create the AVA. The terroir is totally of cobblestones consisting of eroded basalt, a dark-coloured volcanic rock, and the region is still trying to figure out how much variation there is in terroir characteristics. “There’s only so much of The Rocks, and only about 1,400 acres of it is plantable,” says David Wanek, co-owner of Cimento and the largest vineyard owner, with three separate plots. “Everything in The Rocks is still somewhat experimental – mainly Rhone and Bordeaux varieties, but different clones and different vineyard methods.” Matt Reynvaan, whose Reynvaan Family Vineyards has achieved some of the highest scores, says planting vines is difficult – but doable. “I roll the ground first while it’s wet,” he says, “then we roll out the row lines and dig holes with something like a crowbar.” Evan Martin, owner of Martin Woods winery, is one Willamette Valley producer who has embraced The Rocks, making wines from there since the 2018 vintage. “It’s a five-hour drive,” he says. “We arrive the night before, pick the next morning at the two vineyards where we buy grapes, and drive back.” It is worth the trip. “The Syrah from RockBar vineyard is more like Côte Rotie, while those from Le Mani are more like those of Cornas. Syrahs from The Rocks are not the big heavy Syrahs, but instead wines that explore the sensuousness of the grape.” Related news Pernod Ricard US boss outlines plan to reverse 14% sales decline