Lemstrom

MILTON-FREEWATER — Los Rocosos Vineyards has opened a second wine tasting room at 500 E. Broadway Ave. in Milton-Freewater. Los Rocosos on Broadway offers tastings and hospitality Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, plus small bites inside and on its covered patio area. Reservations and drop-ins are welcome.

The original tasting room at 84038 Eastside Road also is available, by reservation only, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, for those seeking a vineyard and winery experience.

“There is a multitude of reasons for adding the second tasting room,” owner and vigneron Roger Lemstrom explained. “The vineyard tasting room is tiny, but well-appointed. It’s 13 by 13 feet, the smallest in the Walla Walla Valley. It’s a two-season room, spring and fall, when the temperature is moderate.”

The difficulty in finding the 7.2-acre vineyard is another reason for setting up a new tasting room just two blocks off Highway 11, Lemstrom said. Los Rocosos on Broadway also is more spacious, heated, air-conditioned, accessible to guests with disabilities and offers adequate off-street parking.

Lemstrom established Los Rocosos Vineyards in Milton-Freewater’s Rocks District in 2017. It grows grenache, syrah, mourvedre, grenache blanc and viognier. All grapes are sustainably grown.

“For me, it’s all about the grapes,” Lemstrom said. “This is a late third career for me. I went to Southern Oregon Wine Institute in Roseburg at age 60. Winemaking is less exciting to me than growing grapes.”

Los Rocosos produces less than a thousand cases of its estate- and neighbor-grown wines a year, he said, and also sells fruit to a number of local wineries that value its careful approach to viticulture.

“The Rocks District rocks,” Lemstrom enthused. Its grapes are noted for their minerality and concentration of flavors, due to its unique terroir, according to Los Rocosos’ website.

The Rocks American Viticultural Area is perhaps the most interesting and challenging region in which to grow grapes, the website stated. Vintages produced by this AVA’s wineries have consistently won awards, and offer premium wines to people who know what they want.

“In the Willamette Valley, pinot and chardonnay predominate,” Lemstrom noted, “but the Walla Walla Valley has 47 types of wine grape. There are 6,000 varietals in the world. Two of my varietals have written records for 4,000 years.”

High fuel costs don’t seem to be hurting tourism in the Walla Walla Valley, Lemstrom reported.

“A couple cooped up in Bellingham in a 600-square-foot condo for two years want to get off the couch and on the road,” he said.

Lemstrom was, however, shocked by how much he had to pay to make a delivery to Rogue River Valley in Southern Oregon. But surging agricultural chemical prices have not harmed his operation’s bottom line, he said, while some of his orchardist neighbors have been hammered.

“We’re organic, so that helps,” he said.

Wineries have however been affected by supply chain issues, such as glass, Lemstrom reported.

Staff shortages plaguing so many small businesses also have not affected Los Rocosos either.

“Being such a small operation, my significant other and I do 90% of our own work,” Lemstrom said. ”A friend recently came to our aid. For agricultural procedures, such as pruning, we hire reliable people who have full-time jobs, but help us out on evenings or weekends.”

Lemstrom also operates without a line of credit, paying as he goes out of receipts.