Last Saturday turned out to be the last sunny day of the season, and luckily it was the very day of our Cellar Club fall party. Club members got to soak up the sunshine and the golden glow of the vineyard in the full glory of its fall foliage, taste the first wine of the 2008 vintage (very raw!), and sample new releases from the 2007 vintage paired with special treats from the local harvest bounty (roasted tomato soup shooters, butternut squash croquets, chocolate covered cherries. . .)
Vic Winquist catching up with Terry
We had a surprise guest at the party, an old friend whose daughter is a new member of our Cellar Club. Vic Winquist is the genius who spotted Bethel Heights Walnut Groves back in 1975, while flying over the Eola Hills in an airplane looking for the perfect vineyard site. He bought the property and lived here for two years in a trailer, while he cleared and planted the first 14 acres of grapes at Bethel Heights. In 1977 he sold the property to us, but he stuck around for our whole first year to help us figure out what we were doing. After that he went on to find and develop quite a few more of the most famous vineyards in the Eola Hills, including Temperance Hill, Canary Hill, Cristom (originally called Mirassou), Witness Tree (originally called Gentzkow), and Zenith (originally called O’Connor), before moving on to another career in Arizona.
Vic made a little speech during the Cellar Club party, about how he’d splurged on a recent major birthday, going to see Jimmy Buffett in Las Vegas and then dinner at the Bellagio, and how thrilled he was to see Bethel Heights Pinot Noir on the wine list there. In many ways, Bethel Heights is his baby too!
What great pictures! The first one of the vines is especially lovely. Thank you again for a great afternoon.