Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He was nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones (2009). Tucci's other recent celebrated roles have been in The Devil Wears Prada and Julie & Julia. He has been nominated three times for Golden Globes, and won twice — for his title role in Winchell, and for his supporting role as Adolph Eichmann in Conspiracy, both from HBO films. He also received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Winchell. He was nominated for Broadway’s Tony Award as Best Actor in a Play for his role as Johnny in the 2002 revival of Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.
Stephanie Caraway
Stephanie, a Certified Sommelier, began her career in New York working at a number of notable establishments such as Balthazar and the Cub Room. Moving on to Arizona, Ms. Caraway studied in the cellar of Peter Kasperski, while managing the Wine Spectator Award winning wine programs of Cowboy Ciao, Kazimierz, and Sea Saw. Subsequently, while with of Fox Restaurant Concepts, she was the steward of a quarter million dollar wine program and was responsible for the education of the staff of not only one restaurant, but several different restaurant concepts. Stephanie was honored by Food and Wine Magazine which named her one of the Top Sommeliers of 2010. She currently holds a position with Southern Wine & Spirits.
Emily Bergl
Emily Bergl was born in Milton Keynes, England but grew up in the U.S. from the age of six. She has enjoyed a successful career in film, television and theatre. Her first job on camera was the lead in The Rage: Carrie 2. For two years, Emily played Annie on ABC’s Men in Trees, and she is about to begin a third season on TNT’s drama Southland, where she plays the eccentric photographer Tammi. She was most recently seen as Beth Young, the newest housewife to Wisteria Lane, on the ABC hit series Desperate Housewives.
Joe Bastianich
Restaurateur-winemaker Joe Bastianich, along with partners Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali, operates 3 wineries in Italy, as well as 18 successful restaurants across the country, including Babbo and Del Posto in NYC, and Carnevino in Las Vegas. December of 2010 marked their first overseas venture with the opening of Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza in Singapore. He has co-authored 2 award-winning books on Italian wine, and just released his third book, Grandi Vini, an opinionated tour of Italy's 89 finest wines, which will no doubt be the go-to source for the best Italy has to offer. He is currently a judge on FOX’s reality TV hit, MasterChef, with Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot.
Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi has portrayed some of the most unforgettable characters in film and television. His acting credits include Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Armageddon, Ghost World, The Sopranos, the Oscar nominated The Messenger, and Youth In Revolt with Michael Cera. He was nominated for a Lola (German Academy Award) for his work in John Rabe, directed by Oscar-winner Florian Gallenberger. Currently he is starring in the HBO drama Boardwalk Empire, which recently garnered him a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. He will be seen next in On The Road opposite Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, and Kirsten Dunst. Buscemi has also worked extensively as a writer and director, with film directing credits including Trees Lounge, Animal Factory, Lonesome Jim, and Interview. In addition, he is an Emmy and DGA nominated television director for his work on The Sopranos, and has recently helmed episodes of 30 Rock and Nurse Jackie.
A to Z
Adelsheim
Benton Lane
Boedecker Cellars
Domaine Drouhin
Scott Paul Wines
Willamette Valley
Established in 1984, Oregon's Willamette Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) extends north-to-south from the Columbia River to just past of the city of Eugene to the Calapooya Mountains. East-to-west, the region stretches from the Cascade Mountains to the Oregon Coast Range. It is the state's largest AVA, with roughly 5,200 square miles that encompass the V-shaped drainage basin of the Willamette River. More than 20 varieties of grapes are produced in some 200 Willamette Valley vineyards, but it is the elegant Pinot Noir that has won the region international recognition.
The Willamette Valley lies at almost the same latitude as France's Burgundy region. A little over 40 years ago, pioneers of Oregon's wine-making industry brought Pinot Noir grapes to the area hoping they could survive and yield spectacular wines such as those the French had been producing for centuries. The climate seemed appropriate--long daylight hours, with overall mild conditions, including rainy, cool winters and dry, warm summers. The diurnal temperature swing of warm days and cool nights would allow for a longer growing season, necessary for development of flavor and complexity as well as retention of natural acidity.
Ironically, most soil of the Willamette Valley is not suitable for growing Pinot Noir. The Valley's basin terroir is too rich. The great Pinots of the Willamette Valley all grow at elevations above 300 feet. These higher areas escaped the fertile marine deposits of the Missoula glacial floods that occurred between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago. Where the Pinot Noir grapes are grown, the soil is volcanic, not sedimentary. It tends to be silty and reddish from clay, and only between 4 and 5 feet deep--as opposed to half a mile deep in the basin.
The first Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs were planted in the late 1960s in the Dundee Hills, about 30 miles southwest of Portland. It wasn't until David Lett--one of three original planters of Pinot Noir in the region--entered his Oregon Pinot Noir in the Gault-Millau French Wine Olympiad in 1979 that most of the rest of the world came to know Oregon as a great wine-making region. Lett's wine won third place, beating out many of France's finest labels. The Willamette Valley officially became an AVA five years later. Since then, the area has become one of the premier wine-producing regions in the world, renowned for its exquisite Pinot Noir.
For more on Wilamette Valley Pinot Noir, click here.
Photo of Willamette Valley by Ron Kaplan.
• The first winery in Oregon Territory was the Valley View Vineyard in the Rogue Valley, established in the 1850s, a few years before Oregon became a state. Valley View was owned by Swiss immigrant Peter Britt. To learn more about Oregon wine country visit www.oregonwine.org.
• Most Oregon vineyards, including those in the Willamette Valley, are located on the western, “wet side” of the Cascade Mountains. To the north, In Washington State, the opposite is true. Vineyards there are located east of the Cascades, on the mountain range’s “dry side.”
• Pinot Noir is an ancient grape variety, known to have been used to make wine in Burgundy as early as the first century, A.D. Its name means “black pine” in French. The grapes are very dark, considered “black,” and the clusters are cylindrical, resembling large pine cones.
• Some experts were pessimistic about bringing Pinots to Oregon. Often called “finicky” (and worse) by frustrated growers, the Pinot Noir vine or grape can be easily destroyed by cold, heat, wind, disease, insects, and myriad other viticultural calamities or even mild disturbances.
• The Pinot Noir variety is prone to spontaneous genetic mutation, more so than almost any other grape. As a result, there are hundreds of slightly different clones of this particular grapevine cultivated worldwide. Each clone has its own subtly unique DNA.
• The 2004 film Sideways starring Paul Giamatti impacted wine sales in the United States. Paul Giamatti’s character (wine aficionado Miles Raymond) raved about Pinot Noirs throughout the film, but he made disparaging remarks constantly about Merlots. In the year after the movie’s release, sales increased 16% for Pinot Noir wines, while Merlot sales dropped 2%.