A Visit With Oregon Wine Histoy

Doyle Hinman greeted me at the door of his Eugene house, tucked in a secluded corner of town, where he does marketing for Henry Estate Winery and for his own company, DW Hinman Cellars,LLC. He named the wine Five H for a couple of reasons: to avoid confusion with the winery he founded in 1979, and to honor the other four family members involved.
We spoke for an hour about the history of wines here in Oregon and how when he and partner David Smith planted back in1979 he made friends with David Lett, Bill Fuller, and Bill Blosser. He spoke of opening the market in China and about the challenges facing wineries today: price point, volume, perceptions, and costs.
I plan on doing a series of interviews with him over the next year and posting the videos here so keep an eye out.
Their '08 Riesling is made in a very German style and has just a hint of the petrol nose famous in the best Rhine Rieslings and a crisp dry fruit on the pallet. Very good!
The '07 Syrah is full of tobacco, leather, dark fruit,and chocolate in the nose with a plum, black cherry, and coco pallet. Nice lond aftertaste. Like this one a lot.