Our wine’s namesake, Vercingetorix, has a modern-day successor in “Asterix” –
the most popular cartoon character in Europe. Not only does his enterprising band successfully bedevil Caesar and his Romans, but also they are often aided by a magic potion that we will claim as the forerunner of today’s pinot noir wine. See the following pages for the connection between our hero and Asterix. (Check Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon, for his many adventure books.)

Bruce Hall (farm’s owner) studied Vercingetorix in “Caesar’s Gallic Wars” while attending a private elementary school near Victoria, British Columbia. Through Bill Hatcher, then manager of Domaine Drouhin in Oregon, he received a letter of introduction to visit Domaine Drouhin in Beaune, France, which culminated, fortuitously, in a fabulous underground journey for Bruce and his wife, in the cellars of what had once been the meeting place of the Dukes of Burgundy. They were led on this tour by an intrepid 5th generation field manager, who paid reverential homage to Vercingetorix and the grapes he spared under his scorched earth policy directed against Caesar. Bruce does not know any Drouhin family members personally, but, as an Oregonian, he is deeply grateful for the bridge they have constructed between the antique French vineyards of Burgundy and their beautiful, gravity flowing vineyard atop the Dundee Hills in Yamhill County, Oregon. You should see it when you visit Oregon wine country.