Pinot gris
David Lett, from Eyrie Vineyards, planted the first American Pinot gris vines in Oregon in 1965. Hoping to increase sales, Lett started to graft Riesling vines to Pinot gris in 1979. The grape originally had difficulties finding a sustainable market until Lett began marketing the wine to salmon traders as a good match to the fish. The wine's popularity only increased slightly until the mid-1990s when well-capitalized larger producers entered the picture with enough volume to warrant expensive marketing. In 1991, King Estate Winery was founded with a mission to produce enough high quality Oregon Pinot gris to develop a sustainable national market for the wine. They are credited with bringing the Pinot gris grape varietal into national consciousness in the US Today they are the world's leading producer of premium Pinot gris and farm the world's largest contiguous organic vineyard which contains over of Pinot gris grapes.