Chehalem - A wine story
Meet Chehalem Wimemaker Katie Santora and Delight in the Fruits of a Wonderful Story! May 16th – 6 pm
Chehalem was one of the very first wineries for which we developed an affinity when we began the Bethany’s Table adventure ten years ago. We liked the wine, loved it even. But that wasn’t what bonded us. We admired the people, their reputation and standing in the community – important ingredients in the connective tissue that we formed. Somehow though, the sum of Chehalem’s parts was greater than whole. Businesses, corporations, organizations – these are unintelligent organisms, capable of manifesting only what we imbue in them. A visit to Chehalem, a day with its people, a sip of the wine; this is how the Chehalem story is told.Harry Peterson-Nedry is a much beloved person. It was 1980 when the family purchased the Ridgecrest property, 1982 when he began planting, and 1990 when Chehalem harvested its first commercial vintage. Think about how many stories live inside that compound sentence. Ten years. So much to learn. So much to do. It couldn’t have been easy. Somehow, I don’t think Harry minded, but he must have gotten tired. Fledging vineyards don’t support a family. A fellow’s got to have a job and it wasn’t until 1986 that the family moved to Newberg to be closer to this demanding task-maiden called Ridgecrest. A low-point in the story of Chehalem was the first day of harvest, 1996 when Harry and Judy’s 19 year-old son Ian – poet, athlete, rascal – pulled his car onto Hwy 99 while running an errand for the winery. The car that hit him was traveling at 65 mph. Judy Nedry wrote a beautiful article about this in 2010, just when we were getting acquainted with Chehalem. Somehow, for some reason, this unfathomable tragedy cemented and sealed our affection for Chehalem. I think that the quality I’m struggling to define here is “humanness.”
In 1993 Bill Stoller joined Chehalem and purchased the nearby turkey farm that his family had run for 50 years. Having grazed up to 700,000 free range turkeys at a time on the property, it was time to convert the sloped, rocky, low-yielding soil into a world class vineyard. In 1995 the first Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines were planted and the Corral Creek property was acquired.
Harry and Bill collaborated on planting Stoller’s Dundee Hills vineyard and designing the winery for Stoller Family Estate, the first winery in the world to achieve LEED Gold certification. Side by side Chehalem and Stoller grew. The two wineries were (and are) fundamentally connected yet distinctly different. In 2014, Wine Press Northwest magazine selected Stoller as its Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year with Chehalem as its Oregon Winery of the Year.
We are so pleased to welcome Chehalem winemaker, Katie Santora to Bethany’s Table for this very special evening. Katie attended UC Davis with Wynne Peterson-Nedry. After graduating in 2007 she cut her chops working in Australia, New Zealand, Chile, California and, of course, Oregon. In 2012, Katie was hired as assistant winemaker at Chehalem, working shoulder to shoulder with Wynne. In 2016 she was awarded the title of Associate Winemaker. These fast friends and budding superstars collaborated on the current vintages of Chehalem wine that most of us so fondly recall.Last year, 2018, Bill acquired Harry’s interest in Chehalem and, after leading the team through the 2018 harvest, Katie made her resounding case to assume the reins as Chehalem’s head winemaker. Said Katie upon her appointment, “I am humbled by this opportunity to continue the legacy that Chehalem has acquired over the years. I am excited to continue making smart, structured, long-lasting, delicious wines and follow the small lineage of Chehalem winemakers that I have come to admire.”With Katie’s firm hand on the wheel, the winery has launched into this next phase of its manifestation as one of Oregon’s finest, world-class wineries.
Harry and Wynne are working together out of the Carlton Winemaker Studios to continue production of RR Wines, their longstanding, boutique 500-case brand dedicated to Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir and Riesling from Ridgecrest Vineyards, which they’ve grown to 164 acres during four decades. Soon they will unveil their new Ridgecrest brand that Wynne will likely, someday, call her very own.Katie is a wonderful woman. You really have to meet her! Janet has made several trips to Chehalem and drank innumerable bottles of wine in order to get these pairings just right. (It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.) Arrive at 6 PM and rub elbows with friends, fans and aficionados. We will greet you with our favorite rosé of the season. Once we are seated at 6:30, the Ridgecrest Gruner Veltliner served with spicy shrimp skewers tomato and avocado will get your whistle dripping for what comes next.The heart of the dinner will be a side-by-side tasting of the three 2017 “Best Barrel” wines featuring the best Pinot Noir Chehalem has to offer from each of its Corral Creek, Stoller and Ridgecrest vineyards. Served as a single course, Janet has designed pairing for each of these wines – three courses in one. Don’t go to heaven just yet! That miracle trio will be followed by the granddaddy 2015 Reserve served with a Baby Tenderloin Beef Wellington. You’ll certainly be satisfied by then, but we will next delight you with a Sext-strawberry sorbet made with Ridgecrest Sext Riesling and first of the season Oregon strawberries. The cost is $95 per person plus gratuity.
Make your reservation by clicking here or call us at 503.614.0267.
Do not miss this event!
Greeting: 2018 Pinot Noir Rose
First Course: 2017 Ridgecrest Vineyard Gruner Veltliner – spicy shrimp skewer, avocado, tomato
Second Course: A side-by-side tasting of three “Best Barrel” picks”2017 Corral Creek, Chehalem Mountain – Smokey Rogue soufflé2017 Stoller Vineyard – pork belly sliders 2017 Ridgecrest, Wind Ridge Block – seared duck breast on fried duck confit hash
Third Course: 2015 Chehalem Ridge Reserve – Baby tenderloin Wellingtons, port demi, local rab
Fourth Course: Sext-strawberry sorbet
