HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

David Lett (1939 – October 9, 2008) was the founder and
winemaker A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to dete ...
for
The Eyrie Vineyards The Eyrie Vineyards is an American winery in Oregon that consists of in five different vineyards in the Dundee Hills AVA of the Willamette Valley. In 1965, against the advice of his viticultural professors at the University of California, Davis, ...
in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
. He was a pioneer in the
Oregon wine The state of Oregon in the United States has established an international reputation for its production of wine, ranking fourth in the country behind California, Washington, and New York. Oregon has several different growing regions within the s ...
industry. Lett grew up on a farm in
Holladay, Utah Holladay is a city in central Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area and abuts the Wasatch National Forest. The population was 31,965 at the 2020 census, a significant increas ...
earned a degree in philosophy and pre-med at the University of Utah. In 1964, he graduated from UC-Davis with a degree in winemaking and grapegrowing, and a mission to find an appropriate place to grow Pinot noir outside of Burgundy. In early 1965, against the advice of the professors at the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...
, he moved to Oregon and planted the first Pinot noir, Chardonnay and related vinifera wine varieties in the Willamette Valley. In 1966, he and his wife Diana purchased hillside acreage near Dundee, a small city about 45 minutes south of Portland, and named it The Eyrie Vineyards, after a nest of hawks at the top of the vineyard. They made their first Pinot noir in 1970. David Lett was the first to cultivate both Pinot noir and
Pinot gris Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio (, ) or Grauburgunder is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name, but the gra ...
in Oregon, a pioneering effort which earned him the nickname "Papa Pinot". The Eyrie Vineyards 1975 South Block Reserve Pinot Noir shocked much of the wine world when it showed very well in the Wine Olympiad ("
Wine Olympics A Wine Olympics was organized by the French food and wine magazine ''Gault-Millau'' in 1979. A total of 330 wines from 33 countries were evaluated by 62 experts from ten nationalities. The 1976 contestant Trefethen Vineyards Chardonnay from Na ...
"), first in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
in 1979 and then in Burgundy the following year. In a retirement farewell to David Lett, this wine and every other reserve Pinot noir were poured in a special vertical tasting at the winery in July 2008. The winery itself is in McMinnville. Lett died on October 9, 2008.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lett, David American winemakers Oregon wine 1939 births 2008 deaths People from Holladay, Utah People from Yamhill County, Oregon University of California, Davis alumni