Willamette Valley
Cool maritime
Oregon's Pinot Noir heartland: cool, green, rain-shadowed hills that produce Burgundy-inspired wines.
Overview
About Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley runs for over a hundred miles south from Portland and holds most of Oregon's vineyards and wineries. It became an AVA in 1984, and Pinot Noir is the most planted grape, followed by Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Riesling. It has more than ten sub-AVAs, including Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, Yamhill-Carlton, Ribbon Ridge and Chehalem Mountains.
Burgundy's Drouhin family arrived in the late 1980s, an important vote of confidence. The valley's wines are usually more delicate and perfumed than California's Pinot Noirs, with red cherry, forest floor and spice.
Willamette Valley is marked on the map.
United States of America
Shaded: Oregon. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Cool maritime
Cool and maritime, sheltered from Pacific storms by the Coast Range. Dry, warm summers with cool nights, and rain that can arrive at harvest.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Volcanic Jory soils on hills like Dundee, marine sedimentary soils in the west, and wind-blown loess (Laurelwood) in the north, each giving a different style of Pinot Noir.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
The Willamette Valley is an AVA, a geographic boundary. Oregon's labelling rules are among the strictest in the US.
AVA Willamette Valley
At least 85% of the grapes must come from the area to use the name.
Sub-AVAs
Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, Yamhill-Carlton, Ribbon Ridge and others, each a smaller named area.
Oregon varietal rule
A varietal wine must be at least 90% of the named grape, higher than the national 75% standard.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.