emember “A Boy Named Sue,” the old Johnny Cash recording about tough times growing up as a male kid with a girl’s name? Well, try this one: Sweet Cheeks, a small winery with a funky name in Crow, Oregon, just down the road from King Estate.

It took a lot of guts for Sue to earn some respect, although he got a lot of attention. And when your wine label is Sweet Cheeks and your logo features an ominous-looking black crow, well, it also gets attention. Sometimes, the respect comes later.

I live in Georgia, so this report is based on my one and only visit to Oregon’s wine country. I’m no tenured expert on the wines of Oregon and the Willamette Valley; but on a recent tour, tasting and luncheon, Sweet Cheeks got my attention, as well as my respect. In fact, SC’s Dry Riesling and Pinot Gris were some of the tasting highlights of a 400-hundred-mile, weeklong trip through the Oregon wine country.

North to Oregon!

Daniel Smith, the owner of Sweet Cheeks, moved to Oregon from California in 1976 and went into the refrigeration business, something he had trained for in the Navy. Smith’s business brought him into contact with some pioneers in the Oregon wine business, most notably when he served as a founding board member of Willamette Valley Vineyards. His involvement led to the design and engineering of the Fire and Ice portable chiller, which could either heat or chill wine tanks and was installed as far away as Australia.

In 1989, he bought 30 acres of land and vineyards and added plantings of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. In the early 90s, in addition to acquiring more land, Smith added Riesling to his portfolio. After much success as a grower, he saw his first crush in 2006 at his newly built winery near Eugene. Based on the unique contours of the terrain, the property had become known as Sweet Cheeks. In 2008, Daniel Smith plans to crush over 100 tons.

For his new winery, Smith hired a young Aussie winemaker by the name of Mark Nicholl, a relative stranger to Oregon wines, who faced the challenge of arriving right at the beginning of the ‘06 harvest.

“I had made or assisted with 14 vintages of wine from McLaren Vale to Coonawarra and Burgundy to Apulia, but I had never tasted an Oregon wine,” Nicholl said. “But that changed very quickly! I’m here because I’m working with a very unique piece of dirt and equally unique microclimate. I’m just getting to know the vineyard, but I know I have world-class Riesling, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay to play with and develop. As for Pinot Noir, watch this space!”

Although he came to Sweet Cheeks from Corton André in Burgundy, Nicholl was trained at the University of Adelaide and the University of Technology in Sydney and brings a decidedly Aussie perspective to Oregon. “Here it rains!” he said. “Rain makes the grass grow; and where I grew up, that’s a positive thing.”

This Aussie attitude is apparent in his wines, especially the Pinot Gris, which was my favorite. The rich Oregon soils and abundant winter rainfall (many summers see little or no precipitation) show well in this wine, bringing pleasing aromas of citrus and a mineral undertone that showcases the lively fruit, with hints of lemon, delicate but still rich.

“I guess my style of winemaking is a mélange of new and old world techniques,” Nicholl said. “I feel you need to produce wines with character that reflect the style of the fruit the vineyard and season has provided.”

Nichol loves food and cooking, so it is important to him that his wines are food friendly. He feels the wines should be balanced and approachable with food, as well as cellarworthy, goals made easier because the vineyard produces fruit with excellent phonological ripeness in terms of flavor and phenolics while still retaining good levels of the natural acidity essential for making balanced wines. The vineyard’s eastern orientation also provides a moderation of afternoon temperatures in the mid to late growing season, which helps to enhance and protect the aromatic fruit characters that this vineyard does so well.

“In the winery, I borrow from the old world,” he said. “I like to minimize contact with the fruit and build complexity and structure through extended skin contact and whole bunch fermentation.

“There’s always a never-before-seen challenge with each harvest,” Nicholl said. “Our immediate goal is to increase our 2007 production of 7500 cases to 10,000 cases in 2008. Plus, we have an additional 20 acres we will be planting.”

The Front Office

Lorrie Norman, general manager, feels the marketing challenges for Sweet Cheeks and Oregon wines.

“All of us in Oregon need to educate wine drinkers and potential wine drinkers about the quality and prestige of Oregon wines,” said Norman. “We need to work to get more of our wines judged and awarded on the national and international level - that would be a great start. So far, we have relied on our own marketing efforts to move the limited quantities of product we have, focusing our sales channels on self-distribution to local restaurants, wine bars and wine shops.”

The vast majority of the remainder of their sales is through their tasting room and wine club. They are fortunate to have an amazing local fan base, with a wine club that continues to grow, as do their events at the winery.

(At this point, I couldn’t resist suggesting that new signage might help. I had driven past the place twice - but maybe the locals find it a lot more easily?)

The future of Sweet Cheeks will likely go beyond the present vineyards. Nicholls and Norman are developing relationships with growers from other regions of the Northwest to enhance their wine portfolio and include some warmer climate labels. It probably won’t be long before the funky label with the black crow will include such varietals as Tempranillo and Syrah.