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Would You Like to Review Some Willamette Valley Wines?
This spring, I received an email from Willamette Valley Wineries Association inquiring whether I would be interested in sampling some wines. I’m a big fan of Oregon wines in general so of course I agreed, anticipating 3-4 bottles of wine.  I posted a video with the surprising number of wines that initially rolled in.

Disclosure: The wines pictured in this post are samples provided by Willamette Valley Wines.

As spring progressed, they kept coming! I had a couple of projects in process and now I’m ready to start, but what an array of wines! No worries, we’ll just take our time working our way through them. In the coming weeks and probably months, I’ll include “Willamette Valley Wines” in the post title.

Willamette Valley Wines
The Willamette Valley AVA is in the northwest quarter of Oregon, starting just south of Portland. The valley is protected from effects of the Pacific ocean by a coastal mountain range, although cool afternoon breezes do funnel in through several gaps in the mountain range.

(click on either image below to see a full size slideshow)

Grapes are grown in many parts of Oregon. Willamette Valley is the most famous. image courtesy of oregonwinepress.com

Willamette Valley AVA and sub-AVA’s. image courtesy of willamettewines.com

The Willamette Valley sits at the same latitude as the Bourgogne region of France, so it would make sense that the two regions both excel with the same grape varieties of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Because American AVA’s don’t specify grape varieties, you’ll see wines made from other varieties in the Willamette Valley, including Pinot Gris, Riesling, Müller-Thurgau and a few assorted others.

While Oregon is at the same latitude as Burgundy, the coastal mountains in Oregon ensure a drier summer season, and the soils are not like those in France. This means Oregon wines stand on their own merits and show their place of origin as different from those in France, or from California for that matter!

Keep your eyes open over the coming months, we’ll be looking at Willamette Valley wines priced from $14 to $70 including Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Muller-Thurgau and who knows what else!

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