The SOMM Journal

April / May 2017

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60 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } APRIL/MAY 2017 UMPQUA { cover story } THE UMPQUA VALLEY has a streak of wildness to it. Sparsely populated, its towns lie scattered amidst a series of rugged, undulating hills thatched in spikey Douglas fir and black oak. The Umpqua River and its winding tributar- ies churn and tumble through a network of valleys formed by the collision of three mountain ranges—the Klamath, the Coast Range and the Cascades—before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. In the 1800s, prospectors dredged and panned sandbars of the South Umpqua and the Rogue rivers, in search of matchhead–sized nuggets of gold. It's this dramatic history and landscape that colors the region, whose wines I had never tasted despite 15 years in the wine industry, most of them spent in the Pacific Northwest. As I would quickly learn on a pre-harvest junket in 2015, the wines from the emerging Southern Oregon AVA are as complex and surprising as the terrain itself. PHOTO: ANNE BLODGETT UMPQUA The Umpqua Valley's "Big Three" winemakers: Earl Jones, owner/GM, Abacela; Stephen Reustle, owner/Winemaker Reustle– Prayer Rock Vineyards; and Terry Brandborg, owner/ Winemaker, Brandborg Vineyard & Winery, at Reustle–Prayer Rock Vineyards in Roseburg, Oregon. UNDERCOVER DISCOVERING THE BIG THREE WINERIES IN SOUTHERN OREGON'S UMPQUA VALLEY by Christine Havens

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