Barking Frog Winery

While you are in Carlton, be sure to hop in to the Barking Frog Winery’s diminutive tasting room. According to Native American lore, the barking frog is a symbol of prosperity as it is said he signals to humankind that all is well with the environment. I leaped at the chance to experience this winery.

To understand Barking Frog Winery is to know Ron Helbig. First, you need to know his background. He came out of California’s Silicon Valley during the heyday of the computer and aerospace phase. In the early ’90s, he made his way north to Oregon and became a college instructor. However, it wasn’t long before Ron’s amateur passion for winemaking steered him to assisting noted winemaker Laurent Montalieu in creating fine wines. While keeping his day job as a college professor, Ron took classes himself at Chemeketa College’s winemaking program in Salem. It wasn’t long before Ron launched his own winery under the label Barking Frog.

However, in Oregon the challenge for winemakers is to differentiate their product. To distinguish Barking Frog, Ron focused on a combination of warm- and cool-weather grapes. He sources his warm-weather grapes — including syrah, cabernet sauvignon, and sangiovese — from small vineyards in Washington state, and his pinot noir from Blakeslee Vineyard Estate in Chehalem. He chooses to work with small vineyards because he feels they pay more attention and take more care in growing premium grapes. Another distinction is his bottling, which relies on a revolutionary glass-closure technique called Vino-Seal. There ain’t no taint, because there ain’t no cork.

He must be doing something right. In 2008 alone, he garnered 24 ribbons for his wines. That’s a definite sign of prosperity for Barking Frog Winery.