Apolloni Vineyards

At Apolloni Vineyards, our wine-tour guide, John, brought us a tray of nibbles and placed them on the wine bar. My partner, Kathleen, and I were first-time visitors to Apolloni Vineyards, and the salami, nuts, olives, and cheeses made me think I shouldn’t have had that extra waffle for breakfast. It was our first wine-tour foray into the famed Willamette Valley, and we made the smart choice of choosing Grape Escape as our chauffeur and tour company. Turns out, our Grape Escape tour guide (John) had considerable experience in Europe managing U.S. military-dependent schools in places like Germany and Spain before returning to America. While there, John experienced the ultimate wine 101 training venturing to Bordeaux and Burgundy. We realized early on that John did the tour gig not because he had to, but because he wanted to.

As I munched on almonds, John noted that the wine label I was staring at was the Apolloni family coat of arms. He remarked that the distinctive label reflects owner/winemaker Alfredo Apolloni’s core values: family, tradition, and legacy. The black eagle emblazoned on the label got my attention and had me thinking of how cool it would be on a baseball cap. It is definitely an emblem of strength. John broke my musing with a comment that the family’s winemaking tradition goes back 150 years.

Apolloni Vineyards’ estate wines rely on fruit from 45 acres of pinot noir, pinot blanc, and pinot gris from their Forest Grove location. The vineyard is certified by LIVE and Salmon Safe. Although Alfredo learned his winemaking technique growing up in Italy, he has had to adapt to Oregon’s climate and growing conditions. The result is Oregon/Italian-style wines with fresh, crisp, fruit-forward taste. (His whites don’t touch oak and don’t go through malolactic fermentation.) Still, the bottle he uses has the big shoulders used in Italy rather than the slender-shouldered Burgundian-style bottle you would find containing other Oregon pinot gris.

Just when I thought my food foraging was done, the pourer gave me a generous sample of Apolloni Vineyards’ estate pinot noir. Thank goodness there was plenty of white cheddar to pair with this offering. As I savored this combo and listened to the talk around me, I learned that one of Alfredo’s children is named after his winemaking father, Adolfo. I knew then that Apolloni Vineyards is well set for the next generation.