There are six sub regions in the Willamette Valley AVA’s. (American Viticultural Areas). Chehalem Mountain, Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, McMinaville, Ribbon Ridge, and Yamhill Carlton. I managed to cover all the AVA’ s during a 2 week visit.
The Willamette Valley is a 240 km long valley just 30 mins south of Portland, Oregon. Surrounded by 3 major mountain rangers and a chain of lower hills it is 70 kms from the Pacific ocean. Subsequently the valley has cool wet winters, and warm dry summers. The temperate climate combined with the ocean influences, combined with old volcanic and sedimentary seabed deposits with gravel and silt, provide excellent drainage, similar to the quality wines made in Central Otago, NZ.
To cover the AVA’s we stayed in two locations – Allisons Inn and Spa in Newberg (exceptional quality hotel with first class food and wine) and Chehalem Ridge B & B located up a windy mountain with lovely views. The hostess Kristin, I found, was often rude, uncooperative, antagonistic, inhospitable, and cantankerous and was straight out of Faulty Towers but not funny! Not a good choice.
THE WINERIES
BELL’s UP. Smallest of the 700 vineyards scattered throughout the valley. Dave the winemaker sources his grapes from micro growers north of the valley. Every wine was named after a piece of classical music – nice, but it’s what in the bottle that counts! Dave admitted he is still learning his trade.
Meet Dave at ‘Bells Up’ the smallest of the 700 vineyards in the Willamette Valley.
At VIDON in the Chehalem Mts, winemakers Don and Dave showed us a delightful 2012 pinot. The 2014 scored 94 in Wine Spectator. Matt Hunter winemaker at at J CHRISTOPHER at Chehalem AVA provided great 2008 and 2014 pinots. One of the few wineries making Sauvignon Blanc based on the Sancerre style. Not bad either. ARAMENTA vineyard at Ribbon Ridge AVA is a family farm converted to a winery in 2002. Specialised in small run individual single clone runs. Dan at UTOPIA vineyard – also Ribbon Ridge makes only 200 cases of pinot, Chardonnay, and a lovely dry Rose. Good value.
Simple but inviting at Patrica Green.
PATRICIA GREEN is another quality Ribbon Ridge producer. A blender using many local growers across all the AVA’s. Sadly Patty who showed us her wines died suddenly recently after suffering a fall. Lovely lady. BERGSTROM wines. A lot of hype, “you must visit without fail”. Sorry, but this was an expensive show with pinots starting at US$90 – $250. Better quality and value elsewhere.
BEAUX FRERES vineyard was the highlight in the valley for quality elegant pinots that we tasted. But, all were priced US$75 up. Standouts here were the Upper Terrace and Valley vineyard pinots. Silky and vibrant with dark purple colour, black currents, full bodied and made for 10 years plus. Pity we can’t get them in Aust or NZ. SOKOL BLOSSER at Dundee AVA. Emille – with the delightful front of house title of ‘Event Captain ‘- entertained us in a very flash architecturally designed tasting room with a deck to boot overlooking a spectacular view of the valley. It past muster on the pinots with the 2015 Peach Tree Block US$80 the pick.
Best view in Dundee Hills from White Rose Estate
WHITE ROSE ESTATE in Dundee Hills had a very pokey dark tasting room but made up for it with probably the best view of the valley. There was a coach drop area for tourists to snap merrily away. Unfortunately the wine was way short of the view in quality. WINDERLEA vineyard, Dundee Hills. Scottish John, who had a title to rival mine called himself “lead tasting room ambassador” showed us an excellent 2015 pinot blanc and chardonnay. But with 10 different straight cloned pinots it was overload. I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Fortunately the last visit of the day!
Scottish John – lead tasting room ambassador’
Mo Ayoub at his AYOUB vineyard, Dundee Hills – now what a super salesman this bloke is. Showed his 6 pinots on his kitchen table. The 2015 estate pinot scored 94pts with Wine Spectacular magazine. Appointment only and beware the hard sell. Starts at US $55.
Mo Ayoub. Sells pinot from his his kitchen table.
EMINENT DOMAINE vineyard has a flash multi million dollar tasting room. Another great flight of 4 pinots each of a different clone. Affordable average price point of US$45. We were hosted at NATIVE FLORA in Yamhill by Denise, President of the Dundee Hills Wine Association. She showed us her wines in her secluded house, hidden away up in the Dundee hills. Her 5 wines poured under Coravin were restrained and of a higher acid style.
The vineyard at Colene Clements. Excellent examples of pinot noir.
COLENE CLEMENTS, Yamhill. Right up with Beaux Freres in quality. The 2015 Victoria pinot was sensational. A tasting here will cost you US$10 each and a premium flight US$50 per head! Four beautifully made pinots and highly rated in the US.
SUMMARY
I found the area covered a variety of styles, from light fruit driven wines to more concentrated examples from older vines. These displayed intense fruit flavours, earthy mushroom notes, fine grain tannins and acidity. Much more fleshy than Burgundy pinots and more along the Central Otago style.
The cost of the wines is comparable to Aust and NZ but US$40 upwards. The sad part is that it is difficult to access the very best of Oregon pinots in Aust or NZ. The US unit cost, state laws, marketing, transport, storage and distribution costs among others means that on the shelf it is just too expensive when compared to Tasmanian and Central Otago products. I concentrated on the smaller producers – most were accessible by appointment only. Most places hit you with a tasting fee which can cost you US$10 per head.
Wonderful 2 weeks!
Above: fake wine about to be crushed!
