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Home > Magazine Archives > Feb. 28, 2014 Issue > Features
Cowboy Philosopher
Pinot Pioneer Rollin Soles looks to the future at his own winery, Roco
Tim Fish
Issue: February 28, 2014
The first thing you notice about winemaker Rollin Soles is his mustache. The way it
unfurls on either side of his upper lip makes it look like something from an old
Western movie. But it suits him. Consider it a signal: A big personality is coming your
way.
Soles is a Texan after all, although his accent has dulled after living nearly 30 years
in Oregon's Willamette Valley, his adopted home. Since he helped found Argyle
Winery in 1986, Soles has been a crucial player in the rise of the Willamette Valley,
part of a second generation of winemakers who built on the foundation laid by
Oregon pioneers such as Dick Erath and Dick Ponzi and ushered in a golden age of
Pinot Noir in the region.
In 2013, Soles stepped away from his role as Argyle's general manager and lead
winemaker to focus on his own winery, Roco. The name is a combination of Rollin
and Corby, Soles' wife, and for him represents what he has long wanted: his own
slice of Willamette Valley. While Soles harvested grapes from around the valley for
Argyle, he relies on his 7-acre home ranch vineyard on the southern slopes of the
Chehalem Mountains to make Roco wines. He bought the property in 1987, but due
to time and financial constraints didn't plant vines until 2001. "We called it Wit's End,
because that's how we feel when we're home," Soles says with a laugh. The
vineyard features high-density planting-2,200 vines per acre-and Soles likes to say
that he used what he considers "the three sexiest Dijon Pinot Noir clones available."
Soles, 57, continues to consult for Argyle, and leaves behind a long and outstanding
track record of wines. Argyle is the only producer to make Wine Spectator's Top 100
in three separate categories: white, red and sparkling.
View the entire table of contents
for the Feb. 28, 2014 issue
See Also
Finger Lakes: Riesling Succeeds in
2012
Finger Lakes Alphabetical Listing
The Year in Wine 2013 in Review
Rating the Year in Wine
Argyle's Extended Tirage bottling is consistently among the top domestic sparkling
wines, and the Nuthouse Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are reliably outstanding. The Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays from Roco,
meanwhile, are already challenging the best of Oregon. Roco Pinot Noir Chehalem Mountains Private Stash No. 8 Wits' End
Vineyard 2010 scored a classic 95 points on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale; the Chardonnay Eola-Amity Hills 2012 earned
91 points.
From the Dundee Hills, about 30 miles southwest of Portland, Soles looks out over the lush Willamette Valley as it rolls east
toward snowcapped Mount Hood. It's a fair and breezy day in early summer and Knudsen Vineyards is striped with crimson
clover. "I came to Willamette the first time in 1979 and fell in love with it," Soles says. "I knew it was where I was meant to
be."
Thirty-four years later, Soles is all but a native. Knudsen is the first stop on our tour around Dundee, and Soles seems to
have a ready story for every winery, vineyard or winemaker that comes up. At one point he plows his all-terrain vehicle
through a field of towering grass, wryly adding, "There's a path here somewhere."
His frankness and sense of humor have made Soles a popular figure in Oregon wine. Of one prominent figure in the wine
business, Soles says, "Dude, that guy is a psycho!" Véronique Drouhin-Boss, chief winemaker for Domaine Drouhin Oregon
and her family's winery in Burgundy, recalls the first time she met Soles. "He said, ‘I come from Texas, the place where you
find the most beautiful women and faster horses.'!" Winemaker Dick Erath puts it this way: "He's a fun guy to be with socially,
but he's serious when he has to be about wine."
Indeed, Soles is downright scholarly on the topics that interest him, from the struggles to ripen Pinot Noir in Oregon in the
early years to the optimal vine-density for specific vineyards to how the Missoula Floods of the last ice age formed the soil of
Willamette Valley.
"I've always had a natural curiosity, that's for sure," Soles says. "I'm not a scientist but I love looking into details and finding
out what those details mean." Soles inherited his inquisitive streak from his parents. His mother, a teacher, spurred his desire
to learn, and his father was an airline pilot, which allowed Soles to become a well-traveled explorer.
In his youth, Soles lived in Spain with his family while his father worked out of Jerez de la Frontera, in the heart of Sherry
country. "My folks loved to visit the bodegas," Soles recalls. Later, when they returned to Texas, wine was a regular feature at
family meals. "That all left an imprint on me," he says. "It had an impact."
After graduating from high school in 1974, Soles pursued a degree in microbiology at Texas A&M. It was there that he made
friends with two future music stars: Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett. The trio has remained friends ever since. Keen and
Lovett have been darlings of the Americana and alt-country scene for 30 years. Lovett is a four-time Grammy winner known
for his quirky movie roles, wry sense of humor and hair as tall as a 10-gallon hat. Keen and Soles were neighbors, and other
musicians often came over for impromptu jams on the front porch or to listen to a newly purchased LP. "Rollin had the best
stereo," Lovett says with a laugh during a phone interview from his Texas home.
Even in college, Soles knew he wanted to make wine, recalls Lovett, who described his friend as exceptionally focused,
confident and tenacious. "He has a mind like a steel trap," Lovett says. "And he's one of the most positive and can-do people
around."
Soles' first wine job wasn't in Texas or Oregon, but Europe. He planned to backpack around the continent the summer before
his senior year at A&M, but a biochemistry professor arranged an internship for him at a vineyard in Switzerland instead. After
graduation, he decided to get his master's degree in enology and viticulture at the University of California, Davis. Soles
followed that with stints at Wente Vineyards and Chateau Montelena in California, and then settled in Australia for three years
to work at Petaluma Vineyards with founder Brian Croser.
Visiting Australia in the early 1980s was an eye-opener for Soles. "I was totally California-centric," he says. "I just believed
California was the center of the universe." The Australian wine industry was more advanced in vineyard practices than
California at the time. "It opened up my mind. I learned so much about viticulture in Australia that I know I wouldn't have in
California." Wineries Down Under were also better equipped to deal with white wine oxidization-then a concern in Californiaand growers were already planting vineyards more densely to improve quality and control ripening.
In 1985, Croser offered Soles the head winemaker's job at Petaluma, but Soles reluctantly turned him down. "If I'd had my
way, I would have moved to Willamette Valley right after UC, Davis. That's where I wanted to be." Knowing that Croser was
looking to expand abroad, Soles saw his chance and convinced his boss to make wine in Oregon.
Argyle launched the next year, with Soles, under Croser's employ, buying a run-down nut-drying facility in the heart of
Dundee. "I kept it dilapidated but put a winery inside," jokes Soles, who has updated and expanded the facility over the years.
Rather than produce Pinot Noir right away, Soles, concerned that consumer demand for domestic Pinot was limited and that
Willamette had yet to produce quality bottlings vintage to vintage, decided to first make sparkling wine from purchased Pinot
and Chardonnay. "We were struggling to get the damn grapes ripe," he recalls.
Since sparkling wine grapes are harvested early to preserve acidity, ripeness was less of an issue-but cash flow wasn't.
Argyle had four years worth of inventory in the bottle before it released its first bubbly, which delayed the producer's ability to
buy vineyards or land.
Fortuitously, Soles met Oregon Pinot pioneer Cal Knudsen, an original partner in Erath Winery before going off on his own in
1987. The Knudsen family's vineyard-now about 130 acres-has been a prime grape source for Argyle ever since. Knudsen
would later invest in Argyle and serve as company chairman for 17 years. It was not until 1996 that Argyle bought its first
vineyard, Lone Star, the source of the winery's highly regarded Nuthouse bottlings. Situated in the Eola Hills south of
Dundee, Lone Star encompasses about 116 acres of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling.
While Argyle soon followed its sparkling wine with releases of Chardonnay and Riesling, Soles concedes the early results at
the winery were less than ideal. He gives much of the credit for turning the operation around to the Drouhin Family, which
established its Willamette Valley winery in 1988. "We learned so much about viticulture from those guys," Soles admits.
The Pinot Noir vineyards in the region were too vigorous, with sprawling canopies and vines that yielded far too many grapes
for successful ripening. In response, Soles began opening up the canopy of leaves and dropping young clusters. More
importantly-and at no small cost-vineyards were replanted over time with new clones and more vines per acre.
Eventually, Soles found his target: vines planted every 5 feet in rows 5 feet apart-radically denser than the pattern by which
the vineyards had been set up in the mid-1980s. "You can't change a vineyard overnight," he says. By 1992, Soles was ready
to make Pinot Noir. And while there were hit-or-miss vintages, by the late 1990s Argyle was producing some of the most
impressive still wines in Oregon.
Along the way, Soles' personal life had its complications. His first marriage ended in 1995 and he became sole custodian of
his daughter, Alexa, who is now 25 and lives in Portland, Ore. In 1999, Soles married Corby Stonebraker, previously a coowner of Panther Creek Winery. Joining the extended family were Stonebraker-Soles' sons from her previous marriage to
winemaker Ken Wright: Cody Wright, now 33, and Carson Wright, 29. The family spent summers camping, exploring and
hiking.
In 2001, with the Oregon wine industry thriving, Petaluma was acquired by food-and-beverage conglomerate Lion Nathan;
Argyle was part of the deal. As a minority partner, Soles didn't become wealthy from the sale. Soles won't admit it, but his
wife believes he was disappointed that his years of hard work failed to pay off. "He created Argyle, built a very successful
winery and ran it like it was actually his place," she explains. "But it wasn't. It was extremely hard for him to let go." Soles
remained at the winery and continued to oversee grapegrowing and winemaking. But as the corporate culture became more
ingrained, he began to see the writing on the wall and decided to create a more personal legacy at Roco.
"It was time for me to focus on Roco," Soles says of his decision to step away from full-time work at Argyle. Located on Red
Hills Road-named after the region's red clay-loam soils-north of Dundee, Roco's winery is a long and handsome barn built
with no-nonsense winemaking in mind.
The winery and the vineyards it sources are certified sustainable. Although 2003 was the first release, Soles made the wine
at Argyle until the Roco facility was completed in 2009. About 5,000 cases of Roco were made in 2012, the bulk of it Pinot
Noir, plus a few hundred cases of Chardonnay.
Roco is a husband-and-wife show. Stonebraker-Soles handles marketing, distribution and finances, allowing Soles to focus
on winemaking and sales. Expanding production is not something that interests Soles as much as finding-and meeting-new
winemaking challenges.
Over the decades, Soles has developed a distinctive approach in the cellar, something he brought from Argyle to Roco.
Fermentation takes place in 1.6-ton plastic bins, originally designed for cherry picking, that are placed inside wooden crates
and covered with plastic and cardboard for insulation. "It looks Rube Goldberg all to heck," says Soles, while explaining that it
allows him to micromanage fermentations.
Soles continues to consult on growing decisions and final blends at Argyle, which is now part of Distinguished Vineyards &
Wine Partners, the U.S. wine division of Lion (formerly Lion Nathan). Soles' former assistant Nate Klostermann is winemaker.
Stylistically, Argyle and Roco are similar, but Cody believes Soles is pushing the envelope with Roco. "The Argyle wines are
gorgeous and well-built, but a little precise. That was his scientist side," he says. "At Roco, he's playing a little more, and I
think it's an expression of his true style."
Cody was assistant winemaker at Roco until he decided two years ago to focus on his own well-regarded label, Purple
Hands, which he makes at Roco. Carson, who works for a major bottle supplier, just started a label named Alumni, also
produced at Roco. Troy Altobell is now Soles' assistant winemaker.
"You need to set things up for the second generation because you only get one chance a year to make wine," Soles says. "In
a winemaking career, you might have 50 chances to make wine-that's it." While the adult children know Roco is part of their
legacy, Cody and Carson are following their individual paths. "Our sons have chosen to say, ‘I'm going to make my own
reputation,'!" says their mother.
For his part, Soles says he'll keep running Roco as long as he's having fun, particularly now that Willamette Valley has
established itself as a world-class producer of Pinot Noir. Recent investments by influential companies such as Jackson
Family Wines and Burgundy-based Maison Louis Jadot only reinforce the belief that Oregon has come of age.
"In the future, we're going to be known for Chardonnay as much as Pinot Noir," says Soles, who is now working on making a
bubbly at Roco. "And it's my dream that we'll be known for méthode Champenoise as well," he adds. It may be wishful
thinking on his part, but that's Soles for you: part scholar, part cowboy. As his friend Lyle Lovett says, "Rollin makes you feel
like you can do anything."​