Owen Roe winery is named after Owen Roe O'Neill, a 17th
century Irish Patriot from County Cavan, Ireland where winemaker David O'Reilly,
one of 12 children, was originally from. Despite an age-old clan rivalry
between the O’Neills and the O’Reillys, the two families were united in the
opposition to Oliver Cromwell’s English tyranny over Ireland in the 1600’s. The
photographs on all of his wine labels commemorate sites in Ireland where
O’Neill lived, fought, and died.
Adorned on the label is a giant picture of a severed left
hand which turns out to be his own family’s crest. It tells a story of a rowing
competition between the O’Reilly’s and the O’Neills. Whoever touched land first
after rowing across the lake was to be rewarded with the land he touched.
Lagging behind, one of the kinsfolk grabs his sword to cleave his hand and
tosses it ashore to touch land first. He won the land and later ruled over it
as king. Each wine and each label depicts
a different chapter in the Owen Roe saga, utilizing the back label to convey
the story.
Owen Roe is committed to practicing the highest standards of
winemaking. Since the first vintage in 1999, Owen Roe winery has been working
to produce exceptional wines from fruit sourced from small vineyard sites in the
Willamette Valley in Oregon and the Yakima Valley in Washington State, a place
where the fruit ripens slowly and fully, resulting in excellent acidity and
balance, in an effort to showcase the best expression of each variety.
The interest in these areas is further
enhanced by the remarkable diversity of soil types within each region; allowing
them to create wines with distinctive and unique personality, even within the
same varietal. They employ as natural practices as possible in the vineyards. The principle of good earth stewardship is
very important to everyone they work with, so no herbicides or pesticides are
used in these vineyards. David O'Reilly is a firm believer in the principle
that great wine comes from great grapes. All of the grapes are hand harvested,
handled with minimal processing, small-lot fermented, and aged in French Oak
barrels.
Typically they are racked only once after malolactic fermentation. Once
in the winery, only minimal and traditional handling practices are employed to
gently coax the most authentic expressions of each varietal.
"Everything we do is meticulous," said O'Reilly.
"What we do is totally uncompromised. It is a lifestyle that includes hard
work, but the product is thoroughly rewarding."
As someone who believes in working with the best, O’Reilly
insists on feeding his crews in Oregon and Washington at lunchtime with fresh
food. He hires a cook to serve lunch daily. The crew sits down for the meal and
talks about the work of the day or things they hear in the industry. If
O’Reilly is in town, he joins them for a meal.
Everything O'Reilly does is also thoroughly Irish. "I
like to tell people that I got involved in the business to follow an Irishman's
dreams," said O'Reilly with a wink and an Irish brogue that comes and
goes. "Imagine making a living by drinking!" He jokes of course, because O'Reilly is dead
serious about wine making. Although he enjoys the high ratings bestowed on his
wines, O'Reilly says he is more satisfied with great taste.
In a relatively short time these spectacular wines have
built an excellent reputation among the restaurants and shops of not only
Washington State, but also New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. His wines generally sell out every vintage,
and his beautiful labels are immediately recognized by consumers.
Owen Roe's 2010 Sinister Hand blend is a
Chateauneuf-du-Pape-style blend composed of 71% Grenache, 24% Syrah, and 5%
Mourvedre. A small crop of intensely flavored fruit in 2010 means fewer
bottles than usual of an especially big Sinister Hand. Deep purple. Dark fruit
aromas are accompanied by juicy raspberry and cranberry preserves, with herb
and savory spice accents. The first sip of this wine surprises the palate with
soft, supple flavors of raspberry jam and currant. The mid-palate opens up to a
complex layering of minty eucalyptus, black pepper and leather and finishes
with a structured backbone of earth and spice. The overall palate is vibrant
and lush, with fine tannin structure and a medley of earth, hint of coffee and
baking spice accenting the layers of fruit. Syrah adds pepper, Grenache adds raspberry
jam. Medium to full-bodied with crisp acidity, smooth tannins, and a long
finish.
It's not an unfamiliar sight to see O'Reilly touring the
hills surrounding the Yakima Valley in his Ford Explorer, scouting out
vineyards. Although a designated appellation, the Yakima Valley has been under
the radar for many years, with the Walla Walla and Columbia Valley appellations
garnering most of the attention. O'Reilly, a stickler about fruit, is convinced
that the Yakima Valley has yet to yield all its gems in the hills surrounding
the desert floor. With a cool, dry climate and shallow soils on top of volcanic
rock, Yakima Valley vines produce smaller grapes with high acidity and lower pH
levels - exactly what O'Reilly wants for a balanced wine.
There is no shortage of grapes here, but at times it has
been a battle to convince local growers that less fruit of higher quality will
be their best fiscal bet. Eastern Washington crop farmers are used to big
yields - 5 to 10 tons of fruit or more per acre.
The Columbia Valley AVA is Washington's largest viticultural
region covering just over 1/3 of the land mass of Washington state. Within the
Columbia Valley AVA lie all of the AVAs of Washington except the Puget Sound
AVA and part of the Columbia Gorge AVA. Many different micro-climates are found
within this larger region and these influence quite heavily the Syrah, Cabernet
Sauvignon, Riesling and Chardonnay grown here. The arid soils, warm days and cool
nights provide perfect conditions for fruit forward balanced wines.
Story compiled from excerpts from Christina Kelly at AvalonWine.com, and other sources found on the web including;
http://www.avalonwine.com/
http://www.northwest-wine.com/
www.winepeeps.com
www.owneroe.com
http://www.avalonwine.com/
http://www.northwest-wine.com/
www.winepeeps.com
www.owneroe.com
