SALEM, Ore. — All-star winemaker Joe Dobbes, a lifelong fan of the Portland Trail Blazers, was overdue to call a time-out for himself.
Aside from college, the serial entrepreneur had worked almost non-stop since he was a 12-year-old in the Willamette Valley and started his first business — selling blackberries to Smucker’s.
So after resting on the sidelines for two consecutive harvests, Dobbes got back in the game and ended up producing a string of gold medals and A-student scores for his young Iterum Wines project.
The almost-instant success and attention from critics prompted Great Northwest Wine to name Iterum Wines as the 2023 Oregon Winery to Watch.
“I feel like a debutante!” Dobbes chuckled. “After all these years in the industry, and I’m a ‘winery to watch.’ I love it. I’m tickled pink!”
At this point, the only thing that might slow him down a bit is a knee replacement surgery this spring. Walking the rows at his meticulous Orchard House Estate Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills will help facilitate that rehab.
“I had two years to reflect on what I wanted to do when I grew up,” Dobbes says. “I knew I wasn’t done making wine. For one, I needed to make wines from my own vineyard. And two, I knew that I had not yet made the best wines of my life.
“I had not yet farmed organically, produced methode traditionelle sparkling wine, felt comfortable fermenting with indigenous yeasts nor employed some additional proprietary production methods.”
Orchard House Vineyard site provides 3 varieties
The early returns are impressive. The Iterum Wines 2019 Orchard House Vineyard Estate Chardonnay ($75) earned a gold medal last fall at the Great Northwest Invitational. Another gold for that Chardonnay came the same month at Sip Magazine’s Best of the Northwest Wine Competition, where his 2019 Orchard House Vineyard Clone 115 Pinot Noir also garnered gold.
Critics have fawned over those debut wines and others — the 2019 Orchard House Vineyard Clone 114 Pinot Noir, the 2021 Oak Grove Vineyard Old Friend Sauvignon Blanc and 2020 Symonette Vineyard Old Friend Pinot Noir. The first writer Dobbes shipped samples to was celebrity reviewer James Suckling, who in the summer 2021 applauded the 2019 Clone 114 Pinot Noir, Clone 115 Pinot Noir and that 2019 Chardonnay.
“I worked my ass off to get here, and I still have to work my ass off because I’m a new brand,” said Dobbes. “People say, ‘I’ve had your wines,’ and I tell them, ‘Well, you haven’t had Iterum.’
“I truly believe I’m making the best wines of my life, and the press has been figuring that out,” he continued. “We’ve been receiving some great compliments from our guests during their visit to our vineyard tastings. I’m just thrilled to death, and I’m having the time of my life renewing old friendships and making new friends. This is a perfect combination of lifestyle and business.”
His charming wife Patricia — pronounced puh-TREE-see-uh — serves as the equally engaging brand ambassador, just as she did for Dobbes Family Estate.
Dobbes still pays attention to the brand he spent 15 years building in Dundee after departing Willamette Valley Vineyards in 2002 to strike out on his own. Much of the team assembled by Dobbes when he needed his break in 2017 now works with Derek Einberger, and Dobbes sat in on Einberger’s final interview.
“I want Derek to make the most kick-ass wines possible, and I’m sure he will,” Dobbes says. “I still own half of the company, and my name is on the label.”
And when told that Dobbes Family Estate will be the 2023 Oregon Winery of the Year, the founder quipped, “Well, then this is like a double-banger for me, isn’t it?”
Iterum translates to ‘once more’ in Latin
Those who studied Latin and know Joe’s story can appreciate the name Iterum, suggested to him by a friend who does know the story.
“I wanted one word that’s strong — something that’s simple and makes people think,” Dobbes says. “I wasn’t going to name it after myself. I’ve done that before. So he tells me, ‘You should call it Iterum – which means again – afresh – once more.”
If you make the required prepaid appointment to Orchard House Vineyard and pronounce it “EE-tier-um” you won’t be turned away. And while the 21-acre vineyard isn’t well-known yet, the site along what Dobbes has dubbed as “the Eola Bench” first caught his eye in 1990 — before it became Cost Vineyard.
“I made wine for the Cost family from the estate for several years starting in 2005, so I had a strong connection and understanding of the site,” Dobbes says. “I then leased the vineyard through 2012 for Dobbes Family Estate.”
He bought it in 2018, and it came with clones 114 and 115 of Pinot Noir and clones 76 and 548 of Chardonnay.
“The two clones that I would have planted were 76 and 548, which was crazy,” Dobbes says.
It’s also worth noting that Dobbes wasn’t spending all of those two years just fishing because in 2017 he started Dundee Mobile Bottlers, which has grown. And during the pandemic, he planted Sauvignon Blanc — a variety that’s long fascinated him — and plans to prove it deserves to be viewed alongside Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Willamette Valley.
But then, he’s been exploring the edges of Oregon wine since he helped his late father, Dr. Joe, turn Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from cardboard totes into wine, stomping inside a 55-gallon trash can.
“Yeah, my dad made some strawberry wine, and I brought it to a grade school party and got in a whole bunch of trouble for that,” Dobbes says with a twinge of regret.
At Southern Oregon University, Dobbes considered pre-med but settled for a biology degree in 1983. Inspired by helping Dr. Joe establish Marquam Hill Vineyard near Molalla, he found work at Elk Cove Vineyards. His desire to experience Europe led to internships in Germany and Burgundy — and got him hooked on winemaking. Dobbes never looked back, and he has been credited as the first in the state to make Viognier, Grenache Blanc, semi-sparkling Muscat and ice wine.
“I’ve always thought, ‘How do I set myself apart from the crowd?’ That’s been by pushing the envelope,” he says.
‘Old Friend’ tier spotlights longtime Dobbes sources
While Dobbes uses Iterum to cast a spotlight on his estate fruit that previously went to large-production, big-name producers, he’s made a point of folding some of his long-standing vineyard relationships into Iterum. Those include Quailhurst, a longtime favorite of Dobbes, and Arlyn, a young Biodynamic planting near historic Adelsheim that’s owned by former Disney executive Janis Pate.
And there are three sites not far from Iterum — Oak Grove, Symonette and 50-year-old Eola Springs. Dobbes incorporates all five within his “Old Friend” series, which are produced in 50- and 100-case lots.
“There are more Old Friends to come,” Joe says.
Total production from the glorious 2019 vintage resulted in 850 cases, which he matched in 2020 with upcoming releases of sparkling Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
“My goal with this is to NOT get on an airplane to sell wine,” he says with a hearty chuckle. “I’m having fun getting to have these high-touch experiences with our customers. I will have a few of my wines in select places nearby and places that I want to travel to. That could be Hong Kong.”
This year, he’ll bottle 1,200 cases from the 2021 harvest in order to slake the thirst of his growing Full Circle Society.
“If I can’t sell 1,200 cases of those 2021 wines, then I’m in trouble already,” he chuckles.
- Iterum Wines, 5917 Orchard Heights Road NW, Salem, OR 97304, IterumWines.com, (503) 779-8840.
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