High Pass Winery shines just northwest of Eugene

High Pass Winery is located in the Coast Range foothills just west of Junction City. This is Ken Kesey country, home to armies of cows, sheep and intrepid mushroom hunters. Between Dieter Boehm’s excellent wines and his winery’s beautiful location deep in the woods, High Pass is definitely worth visiting.

High Pass Winery is best known for: Pinot noir, white wines made from exotic Germanic grape varieties, reasonable prices and stunning views of endless forest.

Innovation: Boehm quickly found riesling and gewürztraminer vine cuttings when planning his High Pass Vineyard in the early 1980s. He couldn’t find German grape varieties such as Bacchus, comtessa, huxelrebe and scheurebe. Boehm remedied the situation by personally transporting cuttings from his native Germany back to Oregon. “It was illegal, but it has been such a long time, I don’t care,” Boehm said.

A “must try” current release: 2019 High Pass Winery “Crazy 8″ ($18). This white wine is not inspired by the card game or named in honor of the 1980s band fronted by Todd Duncan. It is a blend of eight grape varieties: scheurebe, huxelrebe, silvaner, Bacchus, Siegfried, gewürztraminer, comtessa and gutedel.

The “Crazy 8″ is floral as all get out, with scents of hyacinth, papaya, pineapple and an earthy note reminiscent of wet hay in the field. The flavors of honey, almond paste and Meyer lemon might remind you of baklava. While off-dry, the wine is sweet-tart, with bright, tangy acidity. On a 1-10 sweetness scale, I’d place the “Crazy 8″ at a solid six.

Biggest failure or success: Boehm said that while there were many failures to choose from, he was confident he learned something valuable from each one. “My biggest failure early on was spreading myself too thin, and I definitely suffered for it,” Boehm said.

I will add a recent event to his “biggest success” column. After four years of paperwork and jumping through bureaucratic hoops, Boehm was instrumental in getting his part of the southern Willamette Valley its own sub-AVA. The Lower Long Tom AVA was finalized by the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau on Dec. 10.

Last book read: A collection of poems by the German poet Heinrich Heine. The steepest portion of High Pass vineyard is named in honor of German writer Thomas Mann’s novel “Der Zauberberg,” or “Magic Mountain.”

History: Boehm grew up in Beierfeld in southern Germany’s Ore Mountains. His father owned a restaurant there, which helped Boehm develop an appreciation for wine early in life.

Unfortunately, Beierfeld was behind the Iron Curtain during Boehm’s younger years. At the age of 25, disillusioned with the East German system, Boehm and a friend escaped across the East German-Czech Republic border and traveled through Austria on their way to West Germany.

Boehm landed in Eugene in 1979, working at a Christmas tree farm and then planting trees for a cooperative. He purchased the property for his estate vineyard on High Pass Road in 1984. Vines were planted the following year. After several years of selling his fruit to other wineries, Boehm released his first commercial wine from the 1994 vintage.

In addition to Hillcrest Vineyard, Boehm owns Union School Vineyard and a new vineyard called Hildebrand Ranch. He also leases from Priddy and Hazel Smith vineyards. Approximately 80% of the fruit is sold to wineries as large as King Estate in Eugene and as small as Helioterra Wines in Portland.

What you don’t know: Boehm planted more than 100,000 trees in the Pacific Northwest during his days at the tree cooperative.

Epiphany moments: While living in Eugene, Boehm realized how similar the area’s climate was to Heidelberg, the last place he lived in Germany. He knew the areas along the Neckar River near Heidelberg had vineyards, so why not here in his new home?

On a drive up High Pass Road one summer, Boehm spotted a steep, south-facing hillside covered in golden grasses. That was the precise moment he said “This is it.”

Where to buy: Boehm makes 2,000 cases of wine annually that he sells almost exclusively from his website and tasting room. The winery ships wine to 23 states, from Alaska to Rhode Island.

The best retail spots for High Pass wines are Market of Choice in both the Eugene and Corvallis locations, as well as on the shelves at Sundance Natural Foods and Capella Market in Eugene.

Please use this scarcity of retail options as an excuse to visit High Pass Winery. The drive will take about as long as a day trip to wine country around The Dalles.

highpasswinery.com or 541-998-1447.

— Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine.