Wineries ... in Astoria?

Mike Wallis opened The Cellar on 10th seven years ago as a premium wine shop with an emphasis on smaller boutique wines from the Northwest. It has become a gathering spot for wine aficionados.

“People come in because they want to learn,” he says. “They want to find out what’s new, what’s hot.” The Cellar also has an excellent worldwide wine selection, many less expensive “second label” wines and a great variety of gift baskets and gourmet foods. In fact, winemaker David O’Reilly says, “There is no better wine shop between Vancouver, B.C., and San Francisco.”

“But if you want to tour winery tasting rooms,” Wallis says, “there are only two options in Astoria: Shallon and Flying Dutchman.”

Of those two, only one actually produces wine within city limits. I doubt there’s a soul in town who hasn’t driven by the Shallon Winery at 1598 Duane St. But how many have ventured in? Over the 29 years the winery has been in existence, owner and winemaker Paul van der Veldt has had 55,000 visitors. A third of these are returning visitors, but relatively few are from Astoria. None are cruise ship passengers. When a cruise ship is in town, van der Veldt puts up a “By Appointment Only” sign. He is a one-man operation; what would he do with a hundred tourists?

When you visit, take a moment to glance at the memorabilia on the walls. You’ll find among other things quotations from Jefferson and Franklin, and a letter from poet Gary Snyder: “I was absolutely ravished by your blackberry wine.” Then you will get exactly the same talk and tour that the last visitor got. Exactly. Van der Veldt has practiced for years. He will say such things as, “If I can’t afford to sell it retail, how could I possibly afford to sell it wholesale?” He will admit to being a terrible businessman. With a production of 250 cases per year, he has never made a net profit.

Part of this is because van der Veldt is a perfectionist. For example, he wanted to use a particular label, but that label had to be applied with a $1,000 labeler. Instead of changing labels, he bought the machine. He found it impossible to make a stable peach wine without purchasing one of two winery centrifuges in Oregon.

Another reason he remains small is that no one has heard of whey wines, which is his primary product. Whey is the watery part of milk that remains after the formation of curds for cheese making. You may at this moment be turning to the next article, but wait! These are good wines. Really good wines, with flavors that come from real peaches, berries, even oranges and chocolate. Nothing artificial. Yes, he makes a chocolate orange wine.

“The ultimate creation of my older years,” he says. “I know of nothing like this on the face of the earth.” There are those who call van der Vandt eccentric – and he is – but when my wife tried the chocolate orange wine she called him “a national treasure.”

The other winery tasting room, the Flying Dutchman Winery, is in the Red Building, in front of the Cannery Pier Hotel. The first thing you see upon entering is the “No Wine Snobs” sign, and the woman behind the counter, manager Katie Martushoff, is anything but a wine snob. “I enjoy socializing,” she says, “and I love talking about wine.” She has also been responsible for bringing a variety of gift items and apparel into the tasting room.

The wines Martushoff pours are exceptional, and they’ve won medals. Among others there is a barrel-fermented chardonnay, two pinot noirs, a cabernet franc and a world class reserve cabernet sauvignon. There are usually a dozen or more wines being poured, including two dessert wines.

Flying Dutchman wines are produced at Otter Rock, eight miles north of Newport. Dutchman’s 2,500 cases makes the winery much larger than Shallon, but still tiny by industry standards. The winery building is not much larger than their neighbor, Mo’s Famous Chowder.

“Because we’re so small,” Martushoff says, “we can really focus on quality.” It also means that virtually every drop of Flying Dutchman wine is sold either at the winery or the Astoria tasting room.

Owner and winemaker Richard Cutler uses “wild” yeast (the yeast present on the grapes, rather than an inoculation of a particular yeast strain), which results in a slower fermentation. Since the fermenters are outside on the Oregon Coast, the cool temperatures also slow down fermentation, but it is the winery’s location atop a high cliff which is responsible for Cutler’s trademarked “Salt Air Fermentation. “The salt mist from the ocean further retards fermentation,” Cutler explains, “which is why we are able to extract so much flavor and color.”

Christmas is approaching and the Flying Dutchman and the Cellar on 10th are bringing in additional gift items for those who wish to give something in addition to a premium wine. But not Paul van der Veldt. After all, what could make a better present than chocolate orange wine? And he has the only one in the world.