Hood Crest goes from whim to solid rock ‘n wood winery

Patrik and Tess Barr, who are lead guitarist and lead singer, respectively, in the Tess Barr Blues Band, founded Hood Crest six years ago on little more than a whim.

The 7,800-square foot building (5,500 on the ground floor including spacious tasting room-kitchen area) was built and designed by Patrik with help from architect David Bearss of Hood River.

Award-winning wine is not the only art happening on the property; the Barr band rehearses their music and records their CDs on the property.

The winery with the wide, three-sided porch, and is open daily summers with panoramic views of Mount Hood, the east hills, and the vineyards, all framed by a large roll-up garage door.

The building is constructed of trees harvested on the property and field stones pulled from the ground to make way for grapes.

Just off the front steps is a massive, shady oak.

The oak had to stay, Patrik relates.

“We did the property line adjustments, building plan changes, we did all kinds of things to make sure we had this building lined up right there. It was part of my vision,” he said.

“We hired a lot of local people to work on the project, a lot of them were really interested in being part of the project,” Tess said. While Patrik did most of the work himself, he credited Sean Palmieri with the framing.

Patrik designed a bi-level barrel room for production and storage, the upper areas strong as the concrete floor.

They brought in a 14-foot fermenter/storage tank (through a 12-foot door), which they said is larger than any in the valley, and have ordered 12 tons of grapes to fill it. (Their Cabernet Sauvignon took gold at last week’s Bite of Portland.)

Next to the tank is a private tasting room, with room for eight, where Hood Crest reserve wines are stored. “It’s a little more spendy to have your party in here,” Tess said.

The tasting room contains, along with the chandelier, another bit of Tess’s whimsy: an eight-foot statue of Neptune. “I wanted to have a statue of a naked man in here,” she joked. From a four-sided central bar and kitchen bar, Patrik and son Otis, along with Cassidy Phelps, turn out delectable pizzas. The winery has 8-10 seasonal employees, and the tasting room is overseen by Jill Cabral Schinn.

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So those are the details. But the back story is that of the Barrs walking backwards into a labor of love.

Tess tells the story of Hood Crest with the slow amble of one of her better blues compositions, adding humor and irony as the number rises.

The song might be called “You Can’t Miss It.” Get there via Tucker Road: take a left on Orchard Road and go about 100 yards. The new building is just east of the Barrs’ home and the former tasting room and winery, which started as Patrik’s woodshop.

“Six years ago, we built that building and I was designated a 10-by-10 foot room with a cool medieval door where I would make my wine,” Tess tells it. “I started with three barrels, then it was five, and pretty soon 11 barrels and it was really full and I was out of room.” She was making the wine, including sparkling wine from apples, and serving it to friends.

“Everyone was liking the wine and someone said, ‘You should open a winery,’” she said.

“The winery has taken on a life of its own,” comes in Patrik with a side chorus.

“People said, ‘Having a winery is your dream,’” Tess said. “Well, no it wasn’t, we just let happen what happened.”

Meanwhile, people were looking into Patrik’s wood shop and seeing what he could do with wood. But the wine was turning from back beat to melody, so they went with it.

“Patrik told me I could take over the woodshop and see if we like this winemaking thing and see where it goes,” Tess said. “I told him, ‘Give me five years.’ Starting a winery, the main thing is exit strategy, and then you have your exit strategy, and the number three most important thing is exit strategy.” The woodshop was always the backup plan.

“We had said, ‘If people like it, if we’re enjoying it, we’ll have to expand, and I’ll move everything back and you can have your woodshop back,’” Tess said.

This was five years ago.

“It’s had a life of its own and we’ve been along for the ride, pretty much,” Patrik said.

“We’re just caretaking it.”

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The Barrs moved to Hood River 13 years ago from Port Townsend, where they were making champagne-style wine out of apples.

“Everybody loved it, and we got down here and moved in on Orchard Road, and met the Bentons (neighbors John and Suzie) and suddenly one day they showed up with a pickup full of Ryan’s juice and said, ‘Let’s make that sparkling wine you we tried of yours,’” Tess said.

“So we went on a ginormous scale, it was a little rough at first, and we had few little mishaps,” Patrik said, “but people in the local wine-making community had tried our champagne, and said, ‘Look, if you guys can make sparkling wine like this, you can grow grapes right where you’re at, and you’ll make great wine.’”

Tess said, “They said we should just make still wine and open a winery.”

Along came Wy’east Vineyards’ Dick Reed who said, “You need a tasting room.”

“I told him, ‘I don’t know how to make a tasting room,’ and he said, ‘You just need some chairs and tables on the patio and open up the garage door,’ and that’s how we started over there.

“That was the best advice we ever got. Over there, we put up a big garage door and some tables out there, and now here (at the new winery) we’re just following the same advice.”

The business is Hood Crest, but the new structure is simply “building number four” after the house, recording studio, and woodshop.

What defines the new winery — besides the Sangiovese wine and Marguerita pizza — is the wood, much of it from 30 pine trees, some over a century old, that were beetle-infested fire hazards and had to come down.

“The ones that didn’t run out and jump out on the rocks we turned into paneling,” Patrik said. Pillars, stacked on large rocks, and overhead posts, are made from the pine trees, milled in Glenwood.

Trimming the exterior are salvaged boomsticks. For those, like the reporter, unfamiliar with the term, boomsticks aren’t used in drumming, but rather in shipping. The boomsticks, salvaged from the Columbia River, are the lengths of fir used to secure logs “boomed” together and towed upriver.

We also mentioned the rocks, ranging in size from cowbell to bass drum — all field stones collected during planting.

“Every time we plant a grape vine we find a rock,” Patrik explains.

“We call this ‘rock ranch,’” Tess said.

The rocks, are used to form the berm around the amphitheater for music events, just off the west porch.

Wherever you stand or sit at Hood Crest is a stunning view, and wine tours and large parties have discovered the place.

“There are people who come out every weekend from Portland because they love it so much, and a lot of local people who are showing up on a regular basis. It’s super-exciting for us,” Tess said.

“You get to sit in the vineyard and look at Mount Hood,” Tess said. “It’s pretty spectacular.” Mount Hood or Adams views are hardly unique at local wineries, but the Barrs like the “hills of Tuscany,” look to the east, and the central location of Hood Crest. “You really are sitting in the middle of the Hood River Valley.”

Also in view are five acres of planted grapes, in addition to three-quarters of an acre just down the road: including Pinot Neunier, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, planted in blending ratio for making Champagne-style sparkling wine.