I know it has been a while since I have written anything for Mike’s Wine World, but that does not mean we have not been travelling.   In July of 2022 my wife and I ventured to the great Pacific northwest to visit the Willamette Valley.   This was our first trip there and I must admit it was fantastic visit.   Full disclosure, I spent a few hours in the Valley in 2016 on the back end of a business trip.   On that trip I made a “minor” mistake of texting a picture of a glass of pinot noir sitting in front of a fireplace at Ponzi Vineyards.   She never let me forget that moment and thus we decided to visit together.  

Before jumping into some of the highlights of our visit, I thought it might be interesting to know a little bit about the Willamette Valley.   First, it is an enormous place encompassing over 3.4 million acres of which about 26,000 acres are planted to vineyards.   The area is a massive agricultural region growing several crops that many might not think about.   First, Oregon is the largest producer of hazelnuts in the USA.   In addition, about 30% of all Christmas trees grown in the USA come from the Willamette Valley.   Wheat is another large crop in Oregon, and we also saw a few cattle ranches.   The Valley is located on almost the exact same latitude as Burgundy, France which might explain why it is a great place to grow pinot noir and chardonnay grapes. 

The Valley is approximately 150 miles long and at its widest point about 60 miles wide.   There are 21 AVA’s (American Viticulture Areas) in Oregon with 9 of them nested into the Willamette Valley.  The diverse soil types located in the Valley are there because a large portion of Oregon was located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean for almost 35 million years, accumulating thick layers of marine sediment.   Over time (think several million years) the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate began lifting from the ocean floor and collided with the North American Plate. Western Oregon rose out of the sea and kept rising, creating the Coast Range and the intensely volcanic Cascades Mountains further inland.  During this period of uprising, from about fifteen million to six million years ago, rivers of lava erupting from volcanoes on the east side of the Cascades flowed down the Columbia Gorge towards the sea, covering the layers of marine sediment on the floor of the emerging Willamette Valley with layers of basalt. The Willamette Valley continued to buckle and tilt under pressure from the ongoing coastal collisions, forming the interior hill chains that are typically tilted layers of volcanic basalt and sedimentary sandstone, such as the Dundee Hills and Eola Hills.  You probably would not have wanted to live there while these geologic events were happening!   But wait, that is not the end of these natural calamities.  The next geologic activity to add to the soils was the creation of a layer of wind-blown silt called “loess”.  This started as long ago as a million years and may have continued until about fifty thousand years ago.  The blown silts came from the valley floor in the area, the remnants of the earlier basalts and sediments that had been pulverized by erosion for centuries.  These winds left a fine-grained layer of dust on the northeast facing slopes in the Northern Willamette Valley.

Much, much later, about eighteen thousand to fifteen thousand years ago, at the end of the last ice age, the melting of a glacial dam near the location of Missoula, Montana repeatedly flooded the Willamette Valley, creating a lake up to the 400-foot contour level, with only the tops of the two-tone hills sticking out. This left behind deep silts.

As we flew into Portland, we could see several of the volcanoes which contributed to what is now the Willamette Valley.   While visiting wineries we were also able to see Mount Hood.

During our visit, we stayed at the Atticus Hotel in McMinnville, which is about an hour south of the airport in Portland.   The hotel was built in 2018 but was constructed in a way that fits in with the small-town charm of downtown McMinnville.   We really enjoyed our stay and would recommend staying there if you ever visit.   Numerous tasting rooms and restaurants were within walking distance of the hotel.

As always, I spent the better part of a month planning and coordinating the wineries we decided to visit.   We had a full day every day, but barely scratched the surface, given that there are over 700 wineries in the Willamette Valley.  Most of the wineries we visited were within a 25-minute drive from the hotel, but when planning winery visits in this area I recommend making a reservation in advance.   Also, it is a slightly longer drive to visit the Eola-Amity Hills area and there are not very many wineries located in that area.

While we visited quite a few wineries, our favorites included Alexana Vineyards in the Dundee Hills near Newberg (owned by Dr. Revana, a cardiologist from Houston who also owns Revana in Napa and Corazon del Sol in the Uco Valley of Argentina),

Bethel Heights in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA about 30 minutes south of McMinnville, Penner-Ash Wine Cellars in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA,and Bergstrom Wines located in the Dundee Hills AVA on a hilltop above the city of Dundee.   Each of the wineries we visited had outstanding wines.   In each case, we were amazed at the variety of styles of Pinot Noir that these wineries produced.  However, we were even more surprised with the quality of the Chardonnays being produced.

Our tasting at Alexana Vineyards was done on a large open-air porch located across the back of the entire winery facility overlooking some of their vineyards.   The view was amazing.  We tasted several Alexana Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, as well as a GSM blend from Corazon del Sol in Argentina, all of which were outstanding.   The vineyards were perfectly manicured and were just beginning to show the clusters of tiny grapes.   The area experienced a very cool and wet spring, but conditions improved in July and continued to be ideal afterwards, allowing the fruit to slowly ripen, resulting in excellent quality of fruit but slightly lower yields, for the most part.  I look forward to tasting the 2022 vintage in the future.

Another winery we really liked was Bethel Heights. Located 35 miles south of McMinnville, the winery is perched on a hilltop overlooking their vineyards that cascade down the hill sides in a mosaic of different elevations and soil types.   Their winery has several interesting characteristics.   First, some of the first vines they planted in their estate vineyard were not grafted onto rootstock.   Instead, they stuck unrooted cuttings into the ground and let them make their own rootstocks.   Forty plus years later these vines are some of the last own-rooted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines alive in the world and continue to produce outstanding fruit.   The winery is also located on the east end of the Van Duzer Corridor, which runs east from the Pacific Ocean.  As the sun begins to set in the afternoon, the winds begin bringing in cool air from the ocean, allowing the grapes to rapidly cool off and enhancing their aromatic qualities.  Again, their Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays were outstanding and the view from the winery looking at the hillside vineyards was amazing!

Needless to say, the Willamette Valley is a very special place to experience a wine area that has been making outstanding wines for many decades but has not become quite as commercialized as say the Napa Valley in California.  We tasted world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and enjoyed the small town feel of McMinnville.   I definitely recommend you make a trip to the area.  

Sorry that I sat on this piece for so long, but I finally believe it is time to put it out there.   I hope you guys enjoy it and please give me feedback if you feel so compelled.