Back Label - 1 Station Wagon, 1 Crazy Bet, The Birth of Oregon Wine

2026-05-20 · 3 min · episode 326 · 14 entities

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concepts 10

mentioned Society & Culture concept

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mentioned Arts concept

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mentioned food concept

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mentioned Leisure concept

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discusses Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v5
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discusses Arts concept

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evidence rules-v5
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discusses food concept

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discusses Leisure concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Leisure
discusses Places & Travel concept

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persons 2

mentioned Forrest Kelly person

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hosted by Forrest Kelly person

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websites 2

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Episode description as stored

David Lett didn't discover the Willamette Valley — he invented it as wine country. When he arrived in 1965, Oregon was timber and berries. Nobody was planting Pinot Noir there. Nobody serious, anyway. Lett and his wife Diana set up in the Dundee Hills and did it anyway, with no roadmap, no guarantee, and no backup plan. For years they were written off. The market wasn't interested in Oregon wine. If it wasn't French or Californian, it didn't matter. But in 1979, Lett entered his 1975 Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir in the Wine Olympiad in Paris — and when the results came in, his wine ranked among the best in the world. Just like that, a region nobody respected demanded a second look. What Lett built in the Dundee Hills didn't just put Oregon on the map — it rewrote the map entirely. Today, the Willamette Valley is one of the most respected Pinot Noir regions on the planet. All because one man decided the biggest risk wasn't failure. It was listening to people who thought they already knew everything. @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.