Liquid Learning
Van Duzer
Oregon
This is pretty in depth material but we also have a huge Oregon section. to help us explain oregon to customers, we have attached the Guild Somm compendium. The quiz this week will cover more broad topics from the reading below and the video, diving into this will really enhance your understanding of one of our favorite wine regions.
While Oregon is primarily regarded for its Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, there are a few other noteworthy wine regions. On the northern boundary with Washington, east of Portland, there are four AVAs: the shared AVAs of Columbia Gorge, Columbia Valley, and Walla Walla Valley, and The Rocks of Milton-Freewater AVA, which sits on an old riverbed within Walla Walla Valley, entirely on the Oregon side. This AVA, established in 2015, earned its name for a topsoil of basalt cobblestones that draws comparisons to the galets of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Producers are just beginning to explore the potential here for Rhône-style wines. On the extreme eastern side of the state, a single vineyard is planted on the Oregon side of Idaho’s arid Snake River Valley AVA. Finally, Southern Oregon is steadily growing in size and stature, celebrating diversity among grapes and styles.
Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which stretches 120 miles southward from Portland, between the Cascades and the Coastal Range, is synonymous with quality Pinot Noir production. David Lett of The Eyrie Vineyards and Charles Coury of Charles Coury Vineyards were the first to explore its potential, traveling northward from California to plant Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley in the mid-1960s. Dick Erath, Dick Ponzi, and others followed not long after. Lett’s 1975 South Block Reserve Pinot Noir achieved outstanding results in a French competition and brought vindication to the efforts of these early trailblazers. Soon after, in 1987, the Burgundy négociant Maison Joseph Drouhin purchased a Dundee Hills property, further validating the up-and-coming region. Today, the valley’s Pinot Noir wines are a steppingstone between California and the Côte d’Or: lighter in style and earthier than the former, riper and more forward than the latter. The cool, temperate climate of the valley invites further comparisons to Burgundy, and vintages are more variable than in Sonoma or Santa Barbara.
In the mid-2000s, efforts to understand differences from site to site in the Willamette Valley resulted in the creation of six smaller AVAs within it: Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, Ribbon Ridge, McMinnville, Yamhill-Carlton District, and Chehalem Mountains. Five new nested AVAs were created more recently, bringing the total number of sub-AVAs to eleven: the Van Duzer Corridor AVA was approved in 2019, followed by the Laurelwood District and Tualatin Hills AVAs in 2020, Lower Long Tom in 2021, and Mount Pisgah Polk County Oregon in 2022. With these new divisions, winemakers could more closely explore (and identify with) different elevations and soil structures in the valley. For instance, Jory, a well-drained soil series of volcanic origin, is common in the "red hills" of the Dundee Hills AVA, while marine sedimentary soils like Willakenzie are more prominent on the valley's westernmost slopes, such as in Ribbon Ridge. As tasters often ascribe a denser style of wine and darker fruit to Willakenzie soils and more elegance to Jory, style profiles for the AVAs themselves are beginning to emerge. Climatic influences vary from one nested AVA to the next as well. Pacific winds funneling through the Van Duzer Corridor, a gap in the Coastal Mountains that separates the valley from the ocean, directly impact McMinnville and the Eola-Amity Hills, generating more tannic styles of Pinot Noir. The Chehalem Mountains AVA, on the other hand, has a number of north-facing vineyards that are among the valley's coolest sites. In the US, it is rare to have a winegrowing area like this, where all of these subtle differences can be viewed largely through the prism of one variety—Pinot Noir. It is the only red variety of any consequence in the Willamette Valley, but there are significant plantings of white grapes, including Pinot Gris (vinified in dry and off-dry styles), Chardonnay, and Riesling.
While the Willamette Valley connects Portland in the north with Eugene, the Southern Oregon AVA stretches from just south of Eugene to the California border, encompassing the AVAs of the Umpqua Valley, Elkton Oregon, Rogue Valley, Applegate Valley, and Red Hill Douglas County. A wide range of varieties is planted throughout Southern Oregon, including Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, and Chardonnay. Applegate Valley AVA is the warmest and driest growing region west of the Cascades in Oregon. Overall, Southern Oregon is still an underdeveloped wine region, lacking a nearby large market like Portland or San Francisco to drive interest and investment.
Varietal wines from Oregon—excluding those produced from white and red Bordeaux varieties, major Rhône grapes, Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Tannat, and Tempranillo—must contain a minimum 90% of the stated variety rather than the standard 75%. Oregon also maintains stricter state laws for labeling by region: a wine labeled by an AVA within Oregon must contain a minimum 95% of grapes grown in the respective appellation, rather than the 85% mandated by federal law.