Advocate Jan 2014

46 VOL. 72 PART 1 JANUARY 2014
THE ADVOCATE
western territory and find a route to the Pacific coast, which they reached
in 1806. But for wine lovers the important pioneers came much later: the
families Lett, Sommer, Erath, Ponzi and Adelsheim, among others, purchased
land in the north part of the Willamette Valley in the mid 1960s and
early 1970s, planted Pinot Noir and started to develop what would later
become a respected region known for wines in the Burgundian style.
There are many events that brought recognition to Oregon wines, but a
few are notable. Eyrie Vineyards’ 1975 Pinot Noir won second prize in a
blind tasting of top French Burgundies at the Gault/Milau “Wine Olympics”
in 1979. In 1987, Robert Drouhin, of the Beaune-based winemaking family,
purchased land in the Dundee Hills, appointing his daughter Véronique as
winemaker and lending validation to the notion that fine Burgundies could
be produced in Oregon. In 1985, wine critic Robert Parker Jr. visited Oregon
and is said to have “discovered” it in his influential magazine, the Wine
Advocate. But this probably gives too much credit to wine critics and not
enough to the wine makers. (Note that Parker owns, with his brother-in-law
Mike Etzel, an interest in Les Beaux Frères vineyard near Newberg.)
Currently, there are about 400 wineries in Oregon. The state has four
main American Viticultural Areas, or “AVAs”: Columbia Valley, Snake River
Valley, Southern Oregon and Willamette Valley. As the premier AVA in
Oregon, the Willamette Valley has been divided into six sub-appellations:
Chehalem Mountains, Eola-Amity Hills, Dundee Hills, McMinnville,
Ribbon Ridge and Yamhill-Carlton.
The Willamette Valley is cooler and wetter than most grape-growing
regions. Its “growing degree days” (a climatological measure of heat during
the grape-growing season) are similar to those in the northern part of the
Okanagan Valley, but far less than those in the southern Okanagan, Sonoma
or Napa. Hence it has become known as a place where an early-ripening
and difficult grape (Pinot Noir) is grown under difficult conditions.
But Oregon isn’t just about Pinot Noir. It also produces Chardonnay and
Alsatian varietals such as Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewürtztraminer and
Riesling.
If wine tasting in the Willamette Valley is on your itinerary, you will
travel southwest from Portland on Highway 99, where vineyards, wineries
and tasting rooms are clustered in and around the towns of Newberg,
Dundee, Lafayette and McMinnville.
In less than 45 minutes, you will arrive in the Willamette, and when you
do, you may well ask yourself why you’ve not travelled there before. With its
bucolic blend of lush evergreen forest, fertile farmland and rolling hillside
vineyards, it is a feast for the eyes. Unlike other wine regions, the Willamette