Avalon
specializes in "insider wines" --
wines usually only available if you happen
to live down the road from the winery, or know
the winemaker. The best of the tiny production,
personal labels of Oregon's best winemakers
are usually grabbed by people in the wine industry,
saavy chefs, and fellow local winemakers. We
make those hard to get wines available to our
customers.
Michael
Stevenson is winemaker for Panther
Creek Cellars. Michael's personal
label, Stevenson Barrie,
has a strong local following. The wines are
rarely found out of state, selling to local
Oregon restaurants and a close-mouthed group
of loyal fans. Rarely submitted for reviews,
the wines disappear quickly from local word-of-mouth
sales alone.
Michael gets
press every once in awhile, although
he rarely submits Stevenson barrie wines for
review. Matt Kramer, a Wine
Spectator writer who lives in Portland,
writes occasionally about Michael, usually
in the local Oregonian newspaper.
He called Michael's 2003 Freedon Hill Pinot "gorgeous...one
of the standouts of the vintage. It's very
much worth hunting down."
Stevenson-Barrie
is Michael Stevenson’s own label, which he
owns in partnership with Scott Barrie and
has made at Panther Creek since 1995. It’s
exclusively devoted to Pinot Noir from a
selected group of Yamhill Valley sites.
2007 will be Stevenson’s 14th consecutive vintage
at Panther Creek. He hired on as cellarmaster
in 1994, became assistant winemaker in 1998
and was elevated to winemaker in 2000.
Before that, he had worked the crush at Flynn,
now Firesteed Cellars, and bartended at the
Golden Valley Brewery & Restaurant, where
his beer-making knowledge was enhanced by
then-brewmaster John Eliassen, now winemaker
and co-owner of La Bete Wines.
“I
came to Oregon from North Carolina because
this was the mecca of microbrewing,” he said.
“But I ended up becoming interested in wine.
I didn’t know much about it, but I had some
great teachers who have become close friends.”
Those teachers and friends included Terry Casteel
of Bethel Heights, Mark Vlossack of St. Innocent,
Steve Doerner of Cristom and Myron Redford
of Amity.
John Stevenson and Zoe
at Panther Creek Cellars
Stevenson
Barrie follow an unusual barrel regime–they
exclusively purchase year-old barrels from
other highend wineries, to preserve the unique
qualities imparted by the unique terroir of
each of the famous vineyards they work with.
One of the best values on the market, these
wines have it all: great winemaking and grapes
sourced from some of the most highly regarded
vineyards in the Willamette Valley.
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