Why working dozens of Willamette Valley vintages taught this Oregon Wine Pioneer to be optimistic.

Vineyard Light interview with Dick Ponzi, Oregon Wine Pioneer, whose first Willamette Valley vintages were in the early 1970s.

This is Ponzi's Mountain Home Road vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains with dramatic views of the Willamette Valley, located between Scholls and Sherwood, Oregon.

"It makes me feel good to walk through the vineyard. It’s like a hike in the mountains. Refreshing. After I take a 20-minute hike through the vineyards around our home, I come back refreshed, reinvigorated.

Fall colors on Ponzi's Mountain Home Road vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

"The vineyard has also made me optimistic, rather than being a pessimist. There is the rebirth that happens every year. 

"After experiencing the variation of many vintages, I’ve learned that if things don’t go well this year, they will go better next year. I guess too that if there is a series of good years, there will be a bad year."

Dick Ponzi,  Oregon Wine Pioneer,  Ponzi Vineyards, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Winter in Ponzi's Mountain Home Road vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley, Oregon. The tall white building in the background is an old walnut drying barn.