The Tasting That Shook the Wine World
Near Dundee, Oregon
For years the winemakers of the Dundee Hills labored in obscurity, ignored by the great critics of Europe. That changed in nineteen seventy-nine, in Paris. The French food and wine magazine Gault Millau staged a grand blind tasting it called the Wine Olympics, gathering more than three hundred wines from thirty-three countries, judged by dozens of experts who did not know what they were drinking.
David Lett quietly entered a Pinot Noir from his Eyrie Vineyards, the nineteen seventy-five Reserve, grown right here in the Dundee Hills. When the scores were tallied, the little Oregon wine placed among the top ten Pinots in the world, standing shoulder to shoulder with the finest red Burgundies of France. The wine establishment was stunned.
One of the most respected names in Burgundy, Robert Drouhin, was so surprised that he organized a rematch in France. This time the Eyrie Pinot finished second, losing to one of Drouhin's own great wines by only two-tenths of a point. In two tastings, an unknown region had earned the respect of Burgundy itself, and the world finally noticed Oregon.
