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Dispatch · Saturday, October 16, 2021

Del Rio Vineyards and the Old Rock Point Stage Hotel

Dave Grohl's KFC-and-Champagne story, a tribute to R. Stuart's Maria Stuart, and a Southern Oregon visit to Del Rio Vineyards.

I think it was Tuesday morning when I took Globgor out for his daily walk when I gave up all hope for any sort of sun until those magical two weeks in February. It was thirty freakin fours degrees outside. All of the leaves on the trees and vines are turning colors of gold. It is pretty, but the impending doom of winter is knocking on the door. Good thing I already started my indoor Peloton bike rides again. If you want to follow me on Peloton, I am OregonWine.

I finished Dave Grohl’s memoir “The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music.” I didn’t want it to end, and I won’t bore you to death too much, but I do have to share one story about wine from the book I adored over and over.

As we boarded our first plane, I was greeted by the familiar smell of a hot bucket of KFC emanating throughout the cabin. This was no accident, mind you. The Foo Fighters have one very peculiar indulgence that we request every now and then for special occasions (and there are many special occasions): KFC and champagne. This tasty combination is something that we inadvertently discovered on a tour of Australia years before. One night, as we were driving to soundcheck, I saw a KFC out of the corner of my eye and said to Gus, "Hey, Gus, can you get a couple buckets of chicken for after the show?" I hadn't had Kentucky Fried Chicken in years, and I was overcome with the need for that secret blend of herbs and spices. He obliged, ordering enough food for an army to be waiting for us in our dressing room. I'll never forget walking offstage that night, soaking wet with a towel draped over me, the aroma of fried chicken wafting down the hall from our dressing room fifty yards away. I collapsed in a chair and tore into that bucket like a raccoon in a dumpster, devouring piece after piece, ravenous from the hundreds of calories I had just spent onstage. After a few pieces, I was parched, and the only liquid within reach was a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice. I popped it, took a sip, took a bite of chicken, took another sip, took another bite of chicken, and screamed, "OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS, YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS!"

You have to pinky promise me if you have the opportunity to meet Dave Grohl one on one and have the ability to plan a little, let me know! I will get you a bottle of Oregon Sparkling and some killer Portland fried chicken for Dave and yourself.

Have you heard of the winery R. Stuart and Co.? If you haven’t, it is located in McMinnville on 3rd street. The winemaker is Rob Stuart, and his wife Maria Stuart is the head of PR, Marketing, and Hospitality. Online, she is known as Pinotmom, and here's her blog. In February of 2020, she was diagnosed with cancer. This past week, the Wine Community lost a fantastic person. Maria was IPNC Director for a stint while being a leader for the community. If you are in Mac, stop by the winery, grab a glass of wine and soak in what Maria brought us to cherish for years upon years to come.

We never know what the day will bring us, and Dave Grohl sums it up beautifully with the words, “every day is a blank page.” We don’t know what will or will not happen to us daily. Waking up every single morning is like a new chapter in a book. Looking more on the positive side of life, I try to embrace every day to its fullest potential even though some days I seriously need to be a sloth on the couch, letting my brain ooze from my ears.

Other days I browse the wine selection at New Seasons and talk to random strangers about none other than wine. A month-ish or so back, I was conversing with another random stranger and come to find out she was in the industry working as the Regional Sales Manager at Del Rio Vineyards located in Southern Oregon. To say I was shocked is putting it mildly. I mentioned how I just visited a couple of weeks prior for the Wine Media Conference, and I adored the winemaker, Jean-Michel Jussiaume. Mikayla said how Jean-Michel’s Sparkling just received some great accolades. I concurred how amazing it was he got 99 points from the Sunset Wine Competition.

The conversation continued a little more, but it wasn't easy with masks in a crowded store. I mentioned my IG handle and noticed that she followed me and signed up for the newsletter a little later. On her IG feed was a QR code to watch a video about Del Rio’s tasting featuring Hattie’s Haunt. I am pretty sure you can guess what I did next. Yup, I went down a bunny hole.

Hattie T Beach Haymond was born April 25, 1845, and died June 16th, 1891, at the age of 46. She is buried next to her blacksmith husband of 23 years, Benjamin Haymond, and next to him is the gravestone of Benjamin’s second wife, Rose. Benjamin died in 1906, and Rose, who was born in Missouri, passed away in 1943.

The year of Hattie’s death, the railroad was expanding and was looking for a path from Rockpoint and Gold Hill. As legend has it, the day of Hattie's death was an unusually rainy day in June. She wandered over near some farm equipment, and this is where her body was found with a single bullet wound in her back.

To this day, Hattie can be seen walking in the cemetery wearing a green cloak, or doors magically open in the tasting room, or pots and pans can sometimes be heard rattling about even though there is no kitchen in the tasting room. Here’s another Del Rio video from many moons ago talking a bit more about Hattie.

I couldn’t find any more information on Hattie’s death. It makes me wonder who shot her and why. Maybe she is looking for her killer, or perhaps she is upset her husband married Rose, who was 30 years younger. Or maybe, it was Rose who killed her. I guess we will never know.

I can’t thank Mikayla enough for a few emails back and forth and one excellent behind-the-scenes look at her construction of a wired Hattie for Del Rio.

I just finished another Hattie recently, and just about gave my neighbor a heart attack. I was walking back in the dark after spray painting her in an empty dirt lot. I was carrying her by one finger so she was floating along next to me. He came around the corner and jumped back three paces. I apologized and said "work project." He said "yeah, sure" as if I was purposely scaring people in the street

I have to tell you when I visited Del Rio earlier this summer, I was stunned by its vast vines spread across 460 acres, including thirteen different varietals and the oldest vines planted in 1997. The pictures I have don’t begin to do it justice. I wanted to get more, but we got caught in traffic from Eugene to Gold Hill, limiting our time.

Open arrival at the vineyard, I got the opportunity to spend all of about 5 minutes in the tasting room. I wasn’t aware the tasting room was the historic Rock Point Stage Hotel. It was built in 1864 and opened to the public on February 8th, 1865, with a grand ball. BTW, February 8th is a glorious date!

Our tasting was outside under an excellent structure with views going on for days and days. Our tour guide through the wines was none other than winemaker Jean-Michel Jussiaume. The previous week I emailed the winemaker letting him know I was visiting as part of the Wine Media Conference and asked if it was ok to get a few pictures of him for inclusion in my Sparkling report. Within no time, his reply was “of course.”

In case you are not aware of Maison Jussiaume Sparkling, it is a side project for Jean-Michel where he meticulously hand riddles every single bottle. I first heard about this project a year ago and opened my first bottle last year on Christmas. I fell in love with his Blanc de Blanc. As I mentioned earlier, he received 99 pts for his Oeil de Perdrix Rose and went home with best of show for Sunset’s Magazine Wine Competition. The overall project is super small with 700 bottles of the Blanc de Blanc, 510 bottles of the Oeil de Perdrix Rose, and 240 bottles of the Cuvee Millesimee, which I haven’t had yet.

Jean-Michel’s family in France transformed their farm into vines in the 60s and 70s and started their own label. At the age of 13 or 14, Jean-Michel was gluing labels onto wine bottles with egg whites. Eventually, Jean-Michel worked in the Finger Lakes region in the states and was referred to Del Rio.

I loved Jean-Michel's French accent, and I had to pay closer attention to our tasting master of ceremony. I know I mentioned this the other week with Weisinger, but the elevation difference between Southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley still floors me. Del Rio is at 1,800 feet still blows my mind. Being out in desert-like conditions, the grapes get the heat of the day while things cool down at night, giving the grapes the time needed to thrive.

The four wines we tasted were:

2020 Grenache Rose
2019 Chardonnay
2020 Pinot
2018 Claret

Before you bombard my inbox asking, “How come you don’t have any descriptions of the wine?” Overall, I had zero issues with any of the wines. I enjoyed the Rose of Grenache, and the Claret was very intriguing. However, I feel the conditions for providing accurate descriptions weren’t available. First off, we showed up a solid hour late, and it was 90+ degrees outside. Even though we were sitting under a covered shelter in the shade, it was still a tad bit warm. I opened a 2019 Del Rio Pinot from Fred Meyer tonight as I am writing this, and I enjoy it quite a bit. It took a couple of hours to open up, but I would easily buy another bottle! If I see the Claret on the shelf, it is mine!

I highly recommend visiting Del Rio if you are in Southern Oregon. I want to go again myself for a multitude of reasons. I want to sit down one on one with Jean-Michel, I want to take in the tasting room, I want to walk to the cemetery where Hattie is buried, I want to taste through some of Del Rio wines properly, and maybe I will get an answer from Hattie on why she is haunting the tasting room. Of course, it would be excellent when you visit Del Rio to tell them, “A.J. sent me,” but they have no clue who in the heck I am. So, instead, have a little fun and say, “I had a dream, and Hattie sent me!”

With Gratitude,

A.J.

PS - Another little tidbit from Dave’s book I picked up was saying, “People inspire people.” How much inspiration does Nandi get from Dave Grohl?

A.J. Weinzettel

Wine journalist & podcaster covering Oregon wine country