Mystic Wines

Don’t you love visiting a tasting room housed in an old Craftsman-style farmhouse? For those of us who do, a trip to Mystic Wines in the rolling hills west of Salem provides that pleasant experience. With a glass of wine in hand, you can comfortably ensconce your weary bones in an oversized chair and relax. No doubt, the farmhouse’s original owner had no clue in the 1920s that visitors to his home in the next century would be swirling and sipping in a winery tasting room!

Mystic Wines is a small, family-run Oregon winery established in 1992 by owner/winemaker Rick Mafit. His background includes a degree in enology from University of California–Davis and winemaking duties at various wineries. Then, in the early ’90s, Rick came north from California to make big red wines using grapes primarily from The Dalles region in the Columbia Gorge. That said, if your goal is sampling pinot noir, Mystic Wines may not be the place for you. Rather, this is the place to experience Rick’s merlot, cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, syrah, and barbera. These wines are ready to drink upon release, yet will also benefit from additional cellaring.

With production at approximately 2,000 cases per year, each handcrafted batch is aged two years in the barrel. By the way, check out the beautiful monochromatic labels designed by Rick’s son Dillon. Here’s what Mystic Wines literature has to say about those labels, “Printed on actual ‘cork’ paper, the idea emulates reserve bottlings of many small wineries in Portugal. Each label varies with the patterns created by the natural cork and the way it absorbs the sepia ink, creating a uniquely attractive package.”

Behind the tasting room is the new winery building, completed for the most part by Rick and friends. In a space this large, Mystic Wines can easily produce more than 2,000 cases annually. Fortunately for Rick, he’s kept his day job as a sales representative for Scott Laboratories — one of the nation’s largest producers of winemaking supplies. All Rick’s fermentation, filtration, and packaging needs can readily be met. I suspect he gets a company discount.

Still, even with the opening of the new production facility, Rick notes, “The goal is to stay small, handle the wines and winery ourselves, and produce outstanding hand-crafted wines in limited quantities.”