David Lett, Eyrie Vineyards, Yamhill County

Oregon’s wine industry is no longer our little secret. Viticulture has helped define Oregon agriculture across the country and around the world. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the birth of the wine industry in Oregon than one of its pioneers, David Lett. His determination to produce a world-class wine grape in the Northern Willamette Valley has helped shape the present and future for all Oregon wine growers.

After growing up in Utah, David studied viticulture and enology at University of California at Davis, when he began a lifelong fascination with the wine variety Pinot noir. After graduating in 1964, David went to Europe to study the climate requirements for Pinot and became convinced that Oregon’s Willamette Valley, not California, offered the best American climate for these varieties. His former professors said he was all wet– or at least his grapes would be. Too cold and too much rain they all said. He set out to prove them wrong.

So at age 25, David Lett arrived in Oregon with 3,000 grape cuttings and a theory. In 1966, David and his wife Diana established the Eyrie Vineyards outside of Dundee in Yamhill County, planting the first vinifera vines in the Willamette Valley since the early 1900s. What was once a prune orchard in the Red Hills became all the proof David needed that he had found the right spot for his passion. Pretty soon the entire young family got into the act and by 1970, the vineyard enjoyed its inaugural crush, which soon led to its first corking and uncorking of the wine. Eyrie Vineyards had produced the Willamette Valley’s first Pinot noir and Chardonnay, and then the first Pinot gris in the United States.

Within a few years, wine tastings in France had brought international attention to Oregon. For the first time, Oregon was recognized as the new world home for Pinot noir. No longer was the grape nearly exclusive to Burgundy in France. All this because David Lett was convinced Oregon could produce a quality grape and that others would follow in building a wine industry with an impeccable reputation. Over the years, the awards and the recognition have deservedly come David’s way.

David has put tremendous effort in promoting the wine industry as a whole at shows and tastings, working with other determined wine growers in building an even bigger name for Oregon wine.

David has also served on a number of boards and has been very active in supporting Oregon land use laws that help protect farmland. With so many of Oregon’s vineyards so close to urban development, he sees the importance of keeping the land in agricultural production.

The Eyrie Vineyards have now been around for more than 40 years. David and Diana remain as active in keeping what was once just a dream very much a reality.  David Lett has been a founding father, paving the way for many others who continue to follow in his footsteps to create and refine Oregon’s wine industry.

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These are authentic stories from real farmers.  Any editorial content does not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the Agri-Business Council of Oregon or our members.