Wine Touring on the Lewis & Clark Trail
By Eric Degerman
Thomas Jefferson would be proud of the wine country that Lewis and Clark unearthed while looking for the mythical Northwest Passage. Jefferson, the third president of the United States, spent much of his life in Virginia attempting -- and failing -- to cultivate European wine grapes.
And 200 years later, what Jefferson called “the Columbia Country” is producing world-class wines from European varieties. It’s no stretch to toast Jefferson for helping to get this started in the Northwest . . .
. . . On Oct. 16, 1805, the Corps first sighted “the great Columbia River.” They stopped to camp and rest at what is now Sacajawea State Park, two miles east of Pasco. On Oct. 17, Clark took two men to explore up the Columbia River and got as far upstream as Bateman Island, where the Yakima River -- which the Indians called “Tap teel” -- empties into the Columbia. The confluence is within view of Richland wineries Bookwalter and Barnard Griffin, less than three miles away from Bateman Island. A few days after the Corps of Discovery left the Snake River and drifted past Canoe Ridge, the Columbia River grew treacherous. From Oct. 25-28 1805, the explorers stayed at what they called Fort Rock Camp, which would become The Dalles, Ore., after rafting through what modern canoeists would categorize as Class V rapids, according to Ambrose. At certain points, the Columbia River channel was only 50 yards wide.
Robert Thomas painted a mural in 1993 that features Lewis and Clark surveying the Columbia River near The Dalles. The mural can be found on the corner of Second and Federal in downtown The Dalles and also on Maryhill Winery’s Fort Rock Red 2001 table wine (rated Outstanding in this issue).
“I’ve sold a bunch of the Fort Rock Red just because of the label,” said Maryhill co-owner Vicki Leuthold. “Some weren’t even red wine drinkers but thought it would be a fun gift. Label designs can get a little involved, expensive and labor intensive, but it’s well worth it.”
Maryhill Winery, which is near the Maryhill Museum and overlooks the Gorge, plans to continue with the Fort Rock label through 2006.
Wineries along this part of the trail are the most active in commemorating the Corps of Discovery. Marshal’s Winery in Dallesport, Wash., and the Goodwillies at Wind River Cellars in Husum, Wash., are among those gearing up for the bicentennial.
“We hear all about it, and I was thinking, ‘I’d better do something.’ They are talking about such huge numbers of people coming through the area,” said Kris Goodwillie, who also serves on the Klickitat Tourism Advisory Board.
So Wind River Cellars is working with Craig Spaeta, a White Salmon artist, for the label on their Chardonnay. They produced 600 cases of the 2002 vintage, more than double their usual Chardonnay bottling, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Lewis and Clark Education Center at Maryhill.
Wind River’s Port of Celilo -- an award-winning Lemberger port-style wine -- has helped raise the awareness of Celilo Vineyard, which is named for Celilo Falls, the rapids just above those that Lewis and Clark encountered near The Dalles. The landmark, near where Oregon’s Deschutes River empties into the Columbia, became inundated by the construction of The Dalles Dam in 1958.
The Goodwillies hope to get enough Gorge wineries to produce special Lewis & Clark labels and create a collectors box set of wines.
Just downstream from the Columbia River Gorge is English Estate, a quaint 2-year-old winery founded at a 100-year farm in Clark County near Vancouver, Wash., that is in the planning stages for a special bottling. The Pinot Noir producer will be engraving a Lewis and Clark commemorative picture on magnums of its 2001 Reserve Pinot Noir. The Corps passed through here Nov. 4, 1805, and first tasted wapato, an underwater plant with edible roots. . .