Growing Wine Grapes in the Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley provides an inviting temperate climate, combined with coastal marine influences, which creates ideal growing conditions for cool climate grapes, such as the Pinot noir for which the region is famous. Vineyards located here are planted in complex soils with diverse origins, and the result is small-batch artisanal wines with pure expressions of terroir. The term “terroir” refers to the unique aspects of a place that influence and shape the wine made from it. The terroir of any given wine can be influenced by four terrestrial factors: temperature, climate, soil composition and topography.
The Willamette Valley climate boasts an extended, gentle growing season: warm summers with cool evenings, a lovely autumn and mild winters followed by long springs. In addition to supporting the growth of Pinot noir, wineries in the region also produce Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Melon, Gewürztraminer, sparkling wine, Sauvignon blanc, Syrah and Gamay, among other lesser-known varieties.
Our majestic region is designated an American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). The Willamette Valley AVA is a fertile triangular zone spanning more than 100 miles long and up to 60 miles wide. What’s more, eleven smaller AVAs are nested within the Willamette Valley AVA. The Willamette valley AVA was officially designated in 1983, and it boasts 736 wineries, 931 vineyards, and a planted area of 27,202 acres.
David Lett was among the first founding vintners to plant grapes in the region for winemaking. In 1965, Lett planted the first Pinot noir vines to be rooted in the Willamette Valley. Lett entered his 1975 Reserve Pinot noir in the 1979 Gault-Millau French Wine Olympiad and placed in the top 10 in a blind tasting among the finest Burgundies. Due to our unique geography, our wines rival some of the best-known winemaking regions; we share the same latitude and similar growing conditions as the famous Burgundy region in France.
What’s so special about our soil?
The Willamette Valley region contains at least 15 distinct soil types, and many of them are nutrient rich due to their origin. For example, geologists estimate some 40 floods occurred between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago as part of the Missoula Floods. These events left up to 200 feet of rich fertile sediment on the Willamette Valley floor and hillsides. Many large boulders (called erratics) are assumed to have hitched a ride on floating ice sheets, and were left stranded in the hills when the floodwaters subsided. These and other cataclysmic events left giant deposits of nutrient-rich material which became the soil in which we plant today.
