 By Richard Fencsak
Cool saltwater air and 67 inches of moisture a year don’t bode well for grape vines. So it’s not surprising none are grown on the Oregon coast. But there are coastal wineries producing distinctive wines. Astoria’s Shallon Winery, a modest operation overlooking the Columbia River from the east edge of downtown, has been creating fruit and chocolate wines with catchy names and remarkable flavors for more than a quarter century.
Probably more than any other Oregon winery, Shallon is inextricably identified with its owner and winemaker, 82-year-old Paul van der Veldt, a loquacious coastal native with a close-cropped gray beard, engaging smile, quick wit, and wealth of enological knowledge.
“I have to have totally unique products to compete,” says van der Veldt, who comes from a Dutch–Scottish heritage, but counts a Buddhist sensibility as part of his personality profile. “I try to do things for the right reasons. After 27 years and more than 50,000 visitors, a third of my customers come back.”
Most Shallon visitors probably would concur that van der Veldt is duly proud of his product and exhibits more than a hint of eccentricity. He doesn’t disavow their impressions. “You won’t find wines like mine anywhere else in the world. And yeah, there’s a lot of eccentricity there, but I’m really quite conservative. I’m radical in other ways. Actually, I think I’m quite balanced. That’s what the Buddhism does for me.”
Instead of rising steadily and predictably through the winemaking ranks, van der Veldt, who grew up in the Youngs River countryside south of Astoria, worked in a heavy construction company owned by his father, dabbled as an amateur winemaker, and cooked aboard seagoing tugs traveling between the Columbia River, Alaska, and Hawaii.
His winery, which he estimates must be one of the smallest in the country, takes its name from the Latin name (Gaultheria shallon) for salal, a coastal ground cover. Despite its diminutive size, Shallon nonetheless attracts visitors from throughout the world. The winery is a one-man operation: After meeting and greeting visitors, van der Veldt leads them to his winemaking quarters, an immaculate two-room operation that resembles a laboratory, with stainless steel tanks, test tubes, glass beakers, and a massive overhead surgical lamp.
Following a five-minute spiel, van der Veldt takes visitors back into the tasting room, a cozy nook appointed with a couple chairs, an attractive wooden counter, and a cash register that’s older than its owner. Historic photos and framed newspaper and magazine articles about Shallon decorate the walls.
There’s no tasting fee, yet van der Veldt says he allows visitors to sample 10 percent of his product. While he occasionally crafts a grape wine such as his Under The Bridge Pinot Noir, it’s his Fort Astoria Spiced Apple, Lemon Meringue Pie, Peach, Cran du Lait, and Chocolate Orange wines that elicit the most raves.
“We’re allowed to add water to fruit and berry wines, but I never do that,” asserts van der Veldt, who adds that he’s the world’s sole maker of whey wine, which took him 35 years to perfect. With the Lemon Meringue, he serves wine crackers, which he claims makes the wine taste similar to lemon meringue pie.
Usually van der Veldt saves the Chocolate Orange for last, touting the libation as “the ultimate creation in my old age. There’s nothing like it on the face of the earth.” The wine is concocted from six different chocolates from four countries, and he serves it in a mini ice cream cone.
By his own admission, van der Veldt “talks a blue streak,” at times so rapidly his words are difficult to understand. Still, his guests appear mesmerized, such as a couple from Reno who stay for almost two hours and end up buying half a dozen bottles.
“I want visitors to see the winery first, before they taste the wines. I won’t even let them buy a bottle of my wine before they taste it. I’m adamant about that,” says van der Veldt. “I’m not a wine shop, I’m a winery.”
What’s left unsaid is that van der Veldt is an idiosyncratic character worth seeking out while visiting Astoria, and his unique wines are sure to pique your interest. (503-325-5978; shallon.com)
Richard A Fencsak of Astoria is a food, travel, and fitness writer. He contributes regularly to several newspapers. His restaurant column “Mouth of the Columbia” appears weekly in the Daily Astorian. |
