Cameron Winery Tour

by Lisa Marcus

Part 2 of a three-winery field trip organized by the WSA for the Spring 2008 WSET Advanced Certification course.

The gates are open for us today. We drive up the long gravel driveway surrounded by the Cameron Estate Vineyard. We find John Paul working hard at grafting vines. I can’t help but see him as an ex-hippy meets mad scientist meets grape grower, and I laugh to myself at how wonderful it is to be here. The first thing he shows us is how to take cut vines and graft them together, dipping the scions in wax to hold them in place. He then carefully placing them in perlite bins so they will stay moist. Next they'll live in a greenhouse under a shade cloth until ready for planting. This process has come a long way for him. When he began, his success rate was around 1%. Now he figures that 75–90% of his grafts take.

We move from there into the vineyard. While John Paul speaks about going biodynamic, his four-legged family follows close behind, running circles around us and receiving plenty of love and affection from the group. John Paul says he wants his vineyard to be a self-contained entity. Toward that cause, he will be adding chickens to his vineyard in the next year. The idea is to use what is called a “chicken tractor,” which is basically a mobile coop moved down the rows of vines. The chickens will eat the low shrubbery and allow the grape vines to thrive.

John Paul firmly believes in dry farming. He started Deep Roots Organization, which now includes other Oregon wineries, such as Beaux Freres, Brick House, J. Christopher, Eyrie and Westrey. In John Paul's opinion that the best vineyards are dry farmed. You can make a good wine using irrigation, but it will lack the character of its terroir.

We continue on into his cellar for our eagerly awaited barrel tasting (loving this class!). Using his wine thief, he pulls out a sample of a 2006 pinot noir blend. This one has a great heaviness to it, not too tannic and well balanced. The second, from his Abbey Ridge vineyard, is a bit more floral, but dense and meaty.

We finish the cellar tour and resume tasting upstairs. We try some 2006 Chardonnay, recently bottled. His Juliano, a blend of seven Italian white grapes, was a group favorite. We find it to be complex and crisp. There is just a kiss of moscato (muscat) amid the blend, giving it a touch of something floral. This wine will be great with seafood and summer.

At the end of the tour, I leave with a smile. I think about how beautiful Oregon wines really are. When I bring the juice to my lips, it is sweet and rugged. It is the balance of nature and intuition. I smell earth and the feel the love and sense the passion for the grape. And I want more.

Visit Cameron Winery online.