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A Sense of Place

Emerging Pinot Noir AVAs of Oregon

By Harry Peterson-Nedry

The Dundee Hills, looking north from Stoller Vineyards up the spine of the AVA known for deep, basalt-based red soils.

The quality of Pinot noir and the other cool climate varieties we grow are influenced by the following factors, in order of importance:

Growing Climate
Vintage
Microclimate/AVA
Winemaking Style

Although decisions that influence style, either in the vineyard or in the winery, can be made annually, the other three we either cannot influence at all (vintage) or can only once, when we decide where to put down roots. Given an established rather than an infant industry, we need only look to our neighbors and the family of wines they have created to know our potential. These families, or AVAs, if well-defined can help winemaker and consumer alike understand what to expect.

No grape variety is as reflective of climatic and site differences as Pinot noir. That is why it demands a cool climate to excel and why small distances in the valley often yield big differences in the wines. General attributes that make the Willamette Valley suitable for cool climate grapegrowing include the weather protection afforded by the Cascade Mountains to the east, Coast Range mountains to the west and a series of lower hill chains to the extreme north of the valley. Almost all grape growing is done on lower hillsides, avoiding deeply fertile alluvial soils and cooler hilltop microclimates.

Six Proposed AVAs
Dundee Hills
Eola Hills AVA
Chehalem Mountains AVA
Yamhill-Carlton District
Ribbon Ridge
McMinnville

In a recent collaborative action, grapegrowers and wineries in Oregon's Northern Willamette Valley defined what they saw as "family" homelands and submitted petitions to the TTB to further define the large Willamette Valley AVA with six more-specific AVAs. The Willamette Valley is 3,438,000 acres, 10,149 planted to grapes (or 74% of Oregon's total vineyard acreage), with 6,058 acres in the six new AVAs.

Although there is never a perfect time to begin bureaucratic approval processes, a group of winemakers, who had met several times over the last couple decades to discuss unique areas and timing for formal recognition, decided in 2001 that the consumer now could benefit from the additional specificity that sub-Willamette Valley AVAs would provide. We felt that as wineries multiply there is a need to begin assembling wines with family resemblances that could logically be associated with locales and their geographies or geologies or climates. Plus, we sensed a pressure to navigate the painful political process before increasing numbers of constituents made consensus impossible. We brought grapegrowers together for work sessions to craft the petitions, many meeting formally for the first time.

On March 15, 2002 all six petitions were FedExed together, concluding a painstaking, but successful, collaborative process. Subsequent delays at TTB (the new BATF) due to 9/11 fallout and negotiations kept the AVAs from approval until January 2005—since that time all but Chehalem Mountains AVA and Eola Hills AVA have been approved (note: only these two AVAs must carry the "AVA" tag as a formal part of their names, a result of a compromise with TTB on naming).

AVAs have begun binding neighbors closer together, with grapegrowing principles as well as regional marketing strategies bringing sub-valley groups together—in a lot of ways similar to the early days of the industry, in the 70s and early 80s, when all the pioneers and newcomers jammed the fire stations or extension offices to understand the insanity we'd gotten ourselves into.

AVAs attempt to identify families of wines. Ideally, wine similarities within AVAs need to be stronger than between AVAs, to be of long-term utility. Only time will validate the process used in this initial attempt. Going forward we need to not only recognize the family resemblances, but assign a causal relationship that etches a meaningful boundary in the dust of interconnected valleys. Geographic, geological and climatic characteristics have given each of these regions uniqueness that ideally should be discernible in the final wines. At minimum, these AVAs should prompt discussions on where the wines were grown within this 150 mile long valley. At best, they may serve to assure consumers of wine characteristics they should see based on place.

Obviously, stylistic winemaking variability makes definitive judgments more difficult, but the thread of geographical and soil differences should be apparent with a large enough sampling of wines, over a number of vintages. Hey, now there's your challenge!

New Willamette Valley American Viticultural Areas (AVAs)

Map showing new Willamette Valley American Viticultural Areas (AVAs)

(Link to the map itself -- should you want to print it separately)

DUNDEE HILLS (12,500 acres)

Volcanic soils (Jory and Nekia)
Deep, moderately rich, good water-holding capability
Red fruit with brightness and core of sweetness
Light spices, earth, truffles, cola

EOLA HILLS AVA (39,200 acres)

Volcanic soils (mainly Nekia)
Shallower, rockier, well-drained soils, with good water-holding capability
Van Duzer Corridor through Coast Range cools western flank giving good night acid retention
Primarily darker fruit—black cherry, plum, blueberry, with a firmness, full body and bright acidity
Earth, mineral, spice, dried flowers

CHEHALEM MOUNTAINS AVA (62,100 acres)

Geographic focus, with all three major soils present:

Volcanic (Jory and Nekia)
Sedimentary, ocean (Willakenzie)
Sedimentary, blown glacial silt— loess (Laurelwood)
Protected areas climatically
Diverse range from elegant red fruits to deep, firmly structured black fruits
Additional earthy, brown spice, mineral, white pepper, briery elements

YAMHILL-CARLTON DISTRICT (58,200 acres)

Soil focus—Willakenzie series ocean sediments
Quickly drained and shallow, giving drier, water deficit grapegrowing
In the rain shadow of the Coast Range
Red-to-black fruit of raspberry to blackberry
Dark non-fruit hints of tobacco, espresso, chocolate, wood smoke and flowers (violets, lavender, rose), with broad tannins from drier conditions

McMINNVILLE (40,450 acres)

Geography and soil distinctions—ocean sedimentary soils on eastern and southern Coast Range foothill exposures
In the rain shadow of the Coast Range—less than 33 inches of rain annually
Black fruited and earthy wines with strong tannin and acid backbone
Highly pigmented and tannic from drier conditions
A newer region with potential as new sites are sought (Go West, Young Man, Go West!)

RIBBON RIDGE (3,350 acres)

Soil focus, with very uniform uplift of Willakenzie series ocean sediments
Quickly drained soils with few irrigation waters
Black fruited wines—black cherry, blackberry, black currant, with some blue or huckleberry or plum
Protected climatically by Chehalem Mountains, Coast Range and Dundee Hills, moderating temperature and rainfall—Sub-AVA of Chehalem Mountains AVA
Range of wines elegant and silky to roughly rustic and tannin-framed
Wood spices of clove, nutmeg, cinnamon