75th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2009 Regular Session
 
NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
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 LC 3410
 
                 Senate Concurrent Resolution 9
 
Sponsored by Senators JOHNSON, BOQUIST, Representative WEIDNER
 
 
                             SUMMARY
 
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.
 
  In memoriam: David Lett, 1939-2008.
 
                      CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
  Whereas David Lett was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1939 and
died on October 9, 2008, at his home in Dundee; and
  Whereas David Lett had moved to Oregon more than 40 years
before with a vision of Oregon as a preeminent wine-producing
region; and
  Whereas in 1964, after graduating from the Department of
Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis,
and interviewing grape growers and vintners during a tour of
several European winegrowing regions, David Lett concluded that
pinot noir and other cool-climate wine varieties could possibly
reach their highest potential of flavor and value not in
California, but in the cooler, more difficult climate of Oregon's
Willamette Valley; and
  Whereas David Lett gathered 3,000 vine cuttings from research
vineyards in northern California, including pinot noir, pinot
meunier, Riesling and gewurztraminer, chardonnay cuttings from
the Draper family's heirloom French vines, and 160 pinot gris
cuttings from the four existing 'mother vines' at the University
of California ampelography collection; and
  Whereas in January 1965, at the age of 25 years, disregarding
advice from his professors, David Lett loaded the cuttings into
his uncle's horse trailer and moved north to the Willamette
Valley to look for his ideal vineyard site; and
  Whereas David Lett rented a 100-by 200-foot plot from a Benton
County ryegrass farmer to serve as a nursery for the cuttings to
root while he continued to search for vineyard land and
christened the young vines with a bottle of pinot noir from
Burgundy; and
  Whereas early in 1965, David Lett helped his classmate, Charles
Coury, establish plantings near Forest Grove, setting a precedent
of collaboration that has helped define Oregon winegrowing; and
  Whereas in his search for a vineyard site, David Lett
considered the Red Hills of Dundee a prime viticultural area and
purchased a 20-acre former prune orchard at the south end of the
Dundee Hills; and
  Whereas David Lett and his new bride, Diana, dug up the rooted
vines in the nursery plot, transported them to Dundee and heeled
 
them in until planting time, spending their honeymoon year
planting and tending the first five acres; and
  Whereas David and Diana Lett named their endeavor the Eyrie
Vineyards, in honor of the red-tailed hawks who nested in the
tall fir tree at the top of the property; and
  Whereas in 1970, the Eyrie Vineyards produced its first
vintage, the Willamette Valley's first pinot noir and other
varieties, including America's first pinot gris; and
  Whereas in the 1970s, David Lett began his lifelong advocacy
for farmland protection by lobbying for the preservation of
hillside lands for viticulture; and
  Whereas David Lett was active in the Oregon Viticultural
Development Committee, helped found the Oregon Winegrowers
Association and contributed significantly to the development of
the highest standards and strictest wine labeling laws in America
to ensure the quality of Oregon wines; and
  Whereas in 1979, unbeknownst to David Lett, a bottle of the
Eyrie Vineyards 1975 South Block pinot noir was entered into
GaultMillau's 'Olympiades' international wine competition in
Paris, where it scored in the top 10 pinot noirs; and
  Whereas in 1980, French winemaker, Robert Drouhin, director of
the famed Burgundian wine firm Joseph Drouhin, challenged the top
pinot noirs from the Olympiades to a rematch in Beaune, France,
against vintages selected from the cellars of Drouhin; and
  Whereas in the competition in Beaune, David Lett's 1975 South
Block pinot noir came in second, only two-tenths of a point
behind Drouhin's 1959 Chambolle-Musigny, and brought the first
international recognition of Oregon as a new world home for pinot
noir; and
  Whereas in 1987, David Lett was one of a small group of Oregon
wine pioneers, local restaurateurs and wine consumers to found
the annual three-day International Pinot Noir Celebration in
McMinnville, attracting a sell-out crowd every year of 550
winemakers and wine aficionados from Oregon, France, California,
New Zealand and throughout the world; and
  Whereas in 1987, David Lett, fellow Oregon winegrower, David
Adelsheim, and Eyrie's vineyard manager, Joel Myers, were
instrumental in finding land and assisting Robert Drouhin in the
purchase of a vineyard site in the Dundee Hills for the
establishment of Domaine Drouhin Oregon; and
  Whereas in 2007, 9,850 acres were planted in pinot noir in
Oregon, as well as 7,541 acres of pinot gris, chardonnay and
other varietals, providing fruit for winemaking and spectacular
rural beauty; and
  Whereas in 2008, 375 Oregon wineries produced mostly
hand-crafted, internationally-acclaimed wines, directly employing
more than 5,800 people industry-wide and generating $1.4 billion
for Oregon's economy; and
  Whereas in July 2008, David Lett formally retired as winemaker
at the Eyrie Vineyards, and proudly passed the Eyrie torch to his
son, Jason, with a tasting of pinot noir reserves from all his 39
vintages; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  That we, the members of the Seventy-fifth Legislative Assembly,
extend our condolences to David Lett's wife, Diana, their sons,
Jason and James, and their granddaughters, and honor David Lett's
vision, dedication and decades of effort to lay the foundation of
the Oregon wine industry and his bequest to it of the values of
quality, purity and finesse in wines and of individualism,
collaboration and respect for site, soil and grape in winemakers.
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