Oregon's Vinous Chessboard: Navigating Quality, Sustainability and Consolidation

The founder of Lingua Franca, Larry Stone MS, spoke lovingly about the “layers of flavor,” the great “finesse,” and the “mineral aspects” of Eola-Amity Hills pinot noir, which makes wine from this Oregon appellation “compelling.” He started the company in 2012 after a long career in wine. 

The American Viticulture Area (AVA) he spoke of lies nested inside the much larger Willamette Valley AVA, near Portland, Oregon. A Master Sommelier, Stone concluded that these superb qualities, linked to a distinct terroir, make Eola-Amity Hills wines “extremely interesting and appealing to a wide international audience.” Indeed, by 2020, dozens of states and 60 international markets carried the Lingua Franca brand, including strong markets in Europe and East Asia. “I think for one who likes Burgundy this is the best place in the world to grow outside of Burgundy.” 

Lingua Franca’s story presents a microcosm of the changes affecting the Oregon wine industry, which reflects major trends nationwide. Coming from California, Stone bought the vineyards and created a vinous powerhouse within eight years. As the Lingua Franca website explains, renowned Bourgogne winemaker “Dominique Lafon took notice of this exceptional vineyard site and joined Larry Stone, alongside winemaking protégé Thomas Savre, to craft uniquely expressive wines harnessing the unique terroir of Oregon.” The crusader of regenerative viticulture, Mimi Casteel, pitched in to help Stone as well. Bourgogne wine producers had in fact taken an interest in Oregon going back three decades when the prescient Domaine Drouhin invested in the Valley, but most Oregon wine producers remain small and quality-oriented.  

In spring 2022, however, Stone sold Lingua Franca to wine and spirits giant Constellation Brands. This is a Fortune 500 company, with brands including Robert Mondavi (acquired in 2004) and its subsets (alongside Coors and Modelo beer). Constellation, too, had implemented strategic shifts in business strategy. The New York State-based company sold most of its “value-oriented” brands to California’s E & J Gallo in 2021 while reorienting towards premium and luxury markets, holding, for example, To Kalon Vineyard Company, The Prisoner Wine Company, Mount Veeder, and Schrader Cellars in its new Aspira Fine Wine & Craft Spirits portfolio. Lingua Franca joined the Aspira roster, which is a standalone, vertically integrated fine wine and craft spirits division formed the same year. Constellation reported results from its fiscal quarter ending Nov. 30, 2023: Net income was $509 million, up 9% annually, on net sales of $2.47 billion, up 1% from the prior year. 

And now, the President of Aspira, Robert Hanson, who Stone praised as a visionary committed to sustainable production, is leaving Constellation. “Robert has been instrumental in leading the charge to reposition our Wine & Spirits business to a higher-end portfolio of brands more aligned with consumer trends, with an expanded focus to include global, omnichannel distribution, with more robust and targeted international and direct-to-consumer sales channels,” Constellation said in a news release. 

​Read the full article at Sommeliers Choice Awards. . . .