1961

Year that Richard Sommer, an Army veteran with a degree in horticulture from the University of California, Davis, planted pinot noir at his Hillcrest Vineyard in the Umpqua Valley, the first pinot noir planted in Oregon. Six years later, Sommer quit his day job to make wine full-time, bottling 6,000 gallons of juice for Oregon’s first vintage of pinot noir.