Otis Kenyon Wine

I was contemplating the silhouette of a man wearing a derby on a bottle of cabernet sauvignon when the tasting-room pourer asked, “Are you familiar with the Otis Kenyon story?” I mumbled something about a criminal past involving an ancestor in Milton-Freewater, but quickly came to the end of my recollection. As he poured me a sample of Otis Kenyon 2007 “Matchless Red,” he wove a remarkable story — a story waiting to be told Hollywood style. Here’s the 411.

In the early 1900s, James Otis Kenyon was a struggling dentist in nearby Milton-Freewater when a new dentist moved into town and became instant competition. Having a wife and two kids to fend for, James came up with the harebrained idea to burn down his competitor’s dental office. As I was imagining James striking a match to flambé his nemesis’s practice, the pourer noted that the derby-capped silhouette on the bottle is an image of old James Otis Kenyon himself.

The authorities arrested James, but rather than serving time in jail, he was “sentenced” to practice dentistry at a nearby hospital. During this time, his wife abandoned him and gave their two young sons the distinct impression that their father was dead. The wife and kids relocated to Walla Walla. As an adult, one of the sons, Robert, never spoke of his father, even to his own son, Stephen Otis Kenyon. However, as a young adult, Stephen discovered that, in fact, his grandfather was alive and living on the Oregon coast. Nearly 50 years to the day of the torching incident, James Otis Kenyon got a call from his grandson. Understandably, James was hesitant to meet him, but Stephen succeeded in reconnecting with his grandfather, and happily, James became a significant member of a family he had never known existed. James lived to age 101 — long enough to witness the birth of his first great-grandchild, Muriel, who now runs the winery’s tasting room in downtown Walla Walla.

Today, owners Stephen Otis Kenyon and Deborah Dunbar produce small-lot premium wines, relying primarily on fruit from the Walla Walla area (including their own 10-acre Stellar Vineyard). Local winemaker Dave Stephenson handcrafts the wines for Otis Kenyon Wines with a clear focus on Bordeaux and Rhône varietal wines. Even crazy dentists with a penchant for torching things would love these wines.