OK, first I had to clear up a likely misperception/bad rumor.

“Someone said that your winery was pronounced “Pahn-ZAI,” I asked Maria Ponzi Fogelstrom before she had had a chance to get comfortable at the Red Stag Supper Club the other day. “Uh, no,” she said, chuckling softly and charmingly. Whew; reports that Bernie Madoff might have prompted a pronunciation change were indeed unfounded. “We’ve always been PAHN-zee,” she added.

And always is a pretty good while in this case, since Maria’s father, Dick Ponzi, started the northern Oregon winery in the early ’70s. In the early years, she said, the family “traveled all around Europe to wineries where Dad asked all these dumb questions like ‘How do you trellis?’ and ‘How do you drive in a stake?’ ”

Dick must have been a quick study, as Ponzi started releasing impressive wines right out of the gate, with the 1974 pinot noir. A commercial turning point arrived “when Mr. Parker discovered us in the mid-1980s,” Maria said.

Luisa Ponzi, Maria’s sister, has been winemaker for the past 15 years, but Dick is still active, she said. For his 74th birthday recently, they pulled out some ‘74 pinot noir and “we couldn’t believe how good it was. I think it’s a testament to having the right grape in the right place, because there was not a lot of winemaking expertise going on at the time.”

As for the current releases, the $17 pinot gris has lovely citrus and melon flavors, and like all the Ponzi wines, a lovely and lengthy finish. The $17 pinot blanc is stony and tarter (lime) than I expected. The $25 chard is juicy and lush but light on the oak.

I also enjoyed three pinot noirs: the $25 “Tavola” has classic cherry flavors an surprising smoothness. The $35 “regular” pinot is lusher and loaded with blue-fruit flavors, and the $60 reserve is quite smoky but quite velvety.

All the Ponzi wine provide seriously swell quality-to-price value.

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