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America's Other Wine Country
Oregon’s Willamette Valley | By Kevin Pelley
America’s Wine Country...it conjures thoughts of leaving San Francisco and heading north over the Golden Gate Bridge to the vineyards in Napa and Sonoma. However, there is another Wine Country emerging in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The Willamette (which rhymes with dammit, as the locals will tell you) Valley is an easy 45-minute drive from the Portland airport and is an extremely accessible, desirable and rapidly emerging tourist destination. It is here, in this valley between the Coastal Range and Cascade Mountains, where America’s finest Pinot Noir is grown.
The Willamette Valley is comprised of several smaller sub appellations including the Yamhill Carlton District, the Eola-Amity Hills, Chehalem Mountains and the Dundee Hills, to name a few. Perhaps the most profound area, just 30 miles from Portland, is the Dundee Hills. This area is famous for its red clay soil, known as Jory, and its fabulously aromatic Pinot Noirs. It is in these Dundee Hills where David Lett of Eyrie Vineyards planted Oregon’s first Pinot Noir vineyard in 1965. Since then, many more have arrived in the Dundee Hills including Domaine Serene, Archery Summit, Lange and Domaine Drouhin (of the famous French winery Joseph Drouhin).
Having just returned from my yearly pilgrimage to the Willamette Valley, I urge wine lovers to consider visiting this lesser known, but charming wine region. Though lacking the glitz and glamour of Napa Valley, you are more likely to meet an owner or winemaker in the Willamette Valley, like when Jesse Lange (winemaker at Lange Winery & Vineyard) was pouring his wines in the tasting room overlooking a beautiful view atop the Dundee Hills.
Here are a few highly recommended Oregon wines:
2006 Hamacher Rose of Pinot Noir $19.95 | Eric Hamacher is one of Oregon’s leading winemakers. In addition to his Hamacher label, he makes wines for several other producers and owns and operates the Carlton Winemaker’s Studio – a hip tasting room and winemaking facility that is home to ten different wineries. This 2006 Rose is as refreshing as wine can be with fruit flavors of cherry and strawberry, hints of rose petals and finishing with a dry finish.
2006 Lange Pinot Noir $21.95 | Good affordable Pinot Noir is hard to come by. However, this Willamette bottling from the esteemed Lange Vineyard and Winery offers the sophistication and elegance of a wine twice its price. Ripe with red raspberry, cherry and boysenberry fruit flavors and balanced by bright acidity, minerality and savory herbs, this may be the best value Pinot Oregon has to offer.
2005 Domaine Serene ‘Evenstad Reserve’ Pinot Noir $59.95 | Oregon Pinot does not get any classier than Domaine Serene. Perched atop the Dundee Hills, Domaine Serene has one of the most spectacular views and best vineyard sites in the valley. Named after the owners Ken & Grace Evenstad, the Evenstad Reserve is the first wine Domaine Serene produces each year. It is composed of fruit from their estate vineyard sites and is a marvel in new world Pinot Noir production. Silky, sexy and sublime, the Evenstad Reserve may be Oregon’s most famous Pinot Noir.
2006 Archery Summit ‘Premier Cuvee’ Pinot Noir $45.95 | Archery Summit makes bold, spicy and distinctive Pinot Noirs. Dark berry fruit and cherry compote flavors mingle with exotic spices of clove, star anise and mulling spice. Intensely perfumed and breathtaking, Archery Summit does not produce Pinot Noir for the faint of heart. The fruit is entirely from their steeply planted estate vineyards in the Dundee Hills. You can literally smell the soil and minerals in the glass. Superb.
—Kevin Pelley, Certified Sommelier
Wine Merchant: Bern’s Fine Wines & Spirits
Wine Director: SideBern’s Restaurant
www.bernsfinewines.com
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