Oregon

Oregon, on the Pacific coast between California and Washington, makes most of its wine in the Willamette Valley, south-west of Portland, between the Coast Range and the Cascades. Its cool climate suits Pinot Noir, the grape that made the valley’s name.

Pinot Noir since February 1965

Oregon wine is young. The Oregon Wine Board dates its Pinot Noir era from February 1965, when David Lett rooted the first cuttings near Corvallis. Dick Erath, the Knudsens and the Sokol Blossers planted many of the state’s first vineyards in the Dundee Hills soon after.

1. 1979: The Eyrie Vineyards’ 1975 South Block Reserve Pinot Noir places in the top 10 of a blind tasting at the Gault-Millau Wine Olympiad in Paris.
2. 1983: the Willamette Valley becomes Oregon’s first American Viticultural Area (AVA).
3. 1987: the Burgundy house of Joseph Drouhin establishes Domaine Drouhin Oregon in the valley. Véronique Drouhin makes her first vintage there in 1988.

Eleven AVAs inside one

The Willamette Valley holds more than two-thirds of Oregon’s wineries and vineyards, and eleven smaller AVAs are nested inside it. Volcanic activity, marine sediment and the Missoula Floods gave each its own soils.

• Dundee Hills: an AVA since 2004, on volcanic soils of the Jory series, with about 900 hectares planted.
• Van Duzer Corridor: an AVA since 2019, named for a break in the Coast Range that brings afternoon winds 40 to 50 percent stronger than elsewhere in the valley.
• The others: Chehalem Mountains, Eola-Amity Hills, Laurelwood District, Lower Long Tom, McMinnville, Mount Pisgah, Ribbon Ridge, Tualatin Hills and Yamhill-Carlton.

Oregon beyond the wine

• Portland: known for its food carts, gathered in pods across the city, and its craft breweries.
• The coast: oysters.
• Orchards and fields: hazelnuts, most of the American crop.

Where the estates sit

• Addresses: the wineries in this guide are in Dayton, Newberg and Salem, the state capital.