To establish Dehlinger Wines as a quality mark, I bade Eva Dehlinger pull two gold-embossed presidential dinner menus out of her attic. Her family’s pinot has been served at The White House at least twice, during Yeltsin-era Russian diplomacy and a meeting of all U.S. governors during Obama’s reign. The wine helped establish harmony among battling interests.
Dehlinger added that their wines had graced the cover of Wine Spectator magazine as a “top 10 wine of the world.” That’s world-class. But at heart, Dehlinger wines remains a small, local, family-run business in a time of transition. “Consistency” is their watchword as estate control flows from founding father Tom Dehlinger to daughters Eva and Carmen.
CH: Eva, I prompted you to show me some of your blue ribbons, but what commendations are most meaningful to you?
ED: What I am proudest of is that we have just celebrated our 50th vintage. To survive in the industry that long, the quality of the product has got to be there. And that is a distinction independent of any tastemaker or critic. Another internal accolade point is the longevity of our staff. We have many people who have worked for us with a long tenure—often measured in decades.
CH: That denotes a consistency of product and a happy work family. Eva, in our pre-interview, you impishly suggested that sometimes the vaunted year on year variation in a label is not climatic variation but difficulty maintaining staff. A key team member leaves, and the wine changes. Eva, tell me what are the hallmarks of a Dehlinger wine?
ED: Consistency. Also, we are estate bottled. “Estate” is a technical term, codified and protected. It means grapes were grown on the same land by the same people that made the wine. We are an estate, and quite vertically integrated.
CH: And vertical integration means that you have control over every aspect of the process. Exacting control.
ED: That’s right. And that harkens back to consistency.
CH: And you mean the consistency of a good friend rather than the unit uniformity of MacDonald’s hamburgers rolling off the line.
ED: We have been able to survive as a small artisanal producer so long because of personal relationships and personal patronage. We sell direct to our customers and have cultivated relationships that have lasted decades.
Learn more. This holiday season, toast loved ones with wine fit for a grandee. It will better establish harmony. Dehlinger’s price, like their makers, remains humble. linktr.ee/dehlingerlinks.
