Oregon's Willamette Valley

South of Portland, Oregon, running for 150 miles alongside the Willamette River, is the  famous Willamette Valley and its world famous wine.  For years, fruit wines brought attention to the Willamette, but by the mid-20th century, a new breed of winemaker began  making America's world class Pinot Noir. 

The name Willamette comes from the French pronunciation of a Native American village, although some say it's an indigenous word meaning either "still water," or "west bank."

Columbia River route along the Oregon Trail

Willamette's fertile valley nestles between mountains on three sides.  The welcoming environment in the west attracted pioneers in 19th century Missouri  to endure the hardships of the Oregon Trail.  Over the decades the pioneers settled in what today are Oregon's five largest cities in the valley.  Portland and Eugene are at the two ends of the valley, with Salem forming the dividing point between north and south Willamette.  More than 70 percent of Oregon's population live in the five major cities.

Willamette Valley is home to a wide array of  crops and animals, including hops, mint, hazelnuts, cattle, Christmas trees, poultry and, of course, wine grapes.  Most of the vineyards are west of the Willamette River.  Today, there are 700 wineries, most of them in Yamhill County.

Pinot Noir tops the Willamette's wine list, with Pinot Gris, a pinot family member, growing in popularity, although it has a way to go before taking over from Chardonnay as the valley's top white wine.  Presently, there are 193 Chardonnays made in the Willamette compared to 69 for Pinot Gris.  The demand is so strong for Chardonnay, that Pinot Gris will be waiting in the wings for quite a while.

Other Willamette Valley wines of interest, include Syrah, Gamay Noir, Pinot Blanc, Riesling and Tempranillo, plus about 30 others.  Still, Willamette's moderate climate is a limiting factor for some grapes, like Cabernet Sauvignon, so the emphasis is focused on what works best, like Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay.  Willamette Syrah embraces the cool climate style, with leaner bright fruit, and a little black pepper.

Papa Pinot

Wine making in Oregon can be traced back to the 19th century. By the time Prohibition was finally over, a thriving fruit wine industry had set the pace for new  growth in Oregon wine, populated in large part by Californians migrating north to find a more hospitable climate for vinifera grape wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

In 1961, Richard Sommer was one of the first Californians to come north, at least as far as the Umpqua Valley, in southern Oregon, where he established Hillcrest Vineyard.  Against advice that wine grapes couldn't be grown in cool, wet Oregon, Sommer planted Pinot Noir. It was a valiant effort, since the southern Umpqua was better suited to Cabernet Sauvignon. 

David Lett followed Sommer to Oregon, continuing on to the Willamette Valley, a spot he knew was more suitable for Pinot Noir and later, Chardonnay.  In 1965,  Lett planted the first vinifera vines in the Dundee Hills.  David Lett was a pinot pioneer in the Willamette and for that, he became known as "Papa Pinot." 

About the same time, Dick Erath and Sokol-Blosser set up shop.  It would be 18 years, though, from the time of  Lett's arrival in the valley, before the region was recognized with an AVA.  Eventually, 11 sub-AVAs were  added, including Enola-Amity Hills and Chehalem  Mountains in 2006, proposed by David Adelsheim, Dick Ponzi and Paul Hart of Rex Hill Vineyard.

Pinot Noir

Satisfied with the quality of Pinot Noir from test sites in the Dundee Hills, Burgundy's Robert Drouhin opened Domaine Drouhin in 1987, installing his daughter, Veronique as winemaker.  Some observers pointed to Drouhin's arrival in Oregon as proof that the Willamette Valley was the premiere spot in the United States for Pinot Noir.

 The "Left Coast" Comparison  

Wine people are protective of their own corner of the wine world.  Comparisons  of these various places are usually ignored, except, for some reason, for the inevitable match-ups  that linger of Oregon Pinot Noir to red Burgundy and Napa Cabernet Sauvignon to red Bordeaux. 

While writing this piece on the Willamette Valley, it occurred to me, how many things in common, besides a vibrant food scene and relaxed lifestyle, there are between Oregon's Willamette Valley and California's Napa Valley:  

* Signature grape and wine - Pinot Noir in the Willamette, Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa.

* Central wine town - McMinnville in Willamette, St. Helena in Napa.

 * Closeness to major metropolitan area - Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, Calif. 

  * College-level wine programs - Linfield University, McMinnville, Napa Valley College, Napa.

Wine is an integral part of the Willamette Valley and the hundreds of wineries are waiting to welcome visitors with a thirst for Oregon Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. 

Next post:  Pleasurable Port

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Gift Wine Books

                                                            

Recently, my Copy Editor and I had lunch with an old friend and his wife.  We meet now and then to swap past wine stories, talk about family and generally enjoy each others company.

At the end of our meal, Gerry surprised me with a generous gift of eight wine books.  Not just any wine books, but old ones that are probably long out of print.  The authors are mostly familiar to me: H. Warner Allen, Paul Lukacs, Maynard Amerine, Thomas Matthews, Don Kladstrup, Pierre Galet, while Barry Woelfel and Gordon M. Shepherd are not.

If my life had taken a different path, I might be growing wine grapes today instead of writing about them.  So, when I got back to my office and unpacked the book bag, Galet's "A Practical Ampelography," was the first book I leafed through.  The last grape in the index of grapes was Valdiguie, an almost forgotten variety I had mentioned in my November 15 post about Gamay.

I was being snarky in that post by suggesting a grower might have second thoughts about   planting Valdiguie, since "who's going to buy a wine labeled Valdiguie?"  I was second guessing growers and should have noticed there are dozens of varietal California Valdiguies and Valdiguie/Gamay blends on retail shelves.   

A reader of this blog and a friend also pointed out that he found J. Lohr 2022 Wildflower Arroyo Seco Monterey Valdiguie at his local wine store.  That friendly note jogged my untrustworthy  memory that J. Lohr has been making Valdiguie for years.

Anyway, with the holidays coming soon, there may be a book lover, especially with a fondness for wine books, on your list.  Although, as I noted, the eight books are probably out of print, but check your local used book store or run a neighborhood want ad to see if any of the books turn up. 

And to help in the search, here are a few lines about each of the eight gift books: 

The Pierre Galet book on ampelography, 1979, is an abbreviated edition, with new additions, of his massive four-volume book on wine grapes of France. The Galet is a standard reference of 150 American and European grape varieties, supplemented by hundreds of illustrations.   American viticultural consultant, Lucie Morton, provided the translation and the late Leon Adams, "Dean of American Wine Writers," wrote the Foreword.

Another seminal text on grape cultivation and wine making is "Wine," by retired UC-Davis professors Maynard Amerine and Vernon Singleton, second edition, 1977.  This update  expands on American wine while including chapters on European and Australian wine, plus sections on wine making and grape growing.  "Wine" should be in every wine lovers library.

"A History of Wine," H. Warner Allen, 1961, is an engrossing read, subtitled, "Great Vintage Wines from The Homeric Age to The Present Day."   Allen was a British author and journalist who died in 1968.  He wrote numerous books on many subjects and has an impressive way with words.  Part One of this history is titled "The First Golden Age of Vintage Wines."  Part Two captures "The Fall of the Roman Empire, through the "Dark Ages of Vintage Wine." And Part Three follows the transition to the Silver Age, which Allen sees as a decline in vintage wines.  Allen's travels through the history of vintage wine is food for thought.

"Inventing Wine," 2012, by the late Paul Lukcas, is a more modern look at the history of wine and what we think of it.  In nine chapters, the author takes the reader on a wine journey from the Middle Ages to the New Millennium.  Paul Lukacs was a college professor with a solid knowledge of wine and a talent for sharing that knowledge in words. 

"Wine & War" was published in 2001 and I read it shortly after.  This well-written history book with a wine connection, is by journalist Don Kladstrup and his wife Petie, a freelance writer.  Kladstrup is an award-winning television news correspondent.  The engrossing story the Kladstrups tell is about the French Resistance, many of whom were winemakers, and how they hid thousands of bottles of valuable wine from the Nazis in Paris.  It's a great read.

The three gifted wine books, now on my reading list, are "A Village in the Vineyards," Thomas Matthews, Photographs by Sara Matthews, 1993, is an account of a year spent by the couple in a small wine town in Bordeaux; "Neuroenology," Gordon M. Shepherd, 2017, a Yale professor of neuroscience, examines  how the brain creates the taste of wine; "Through a Glass, Darkly," 1984, edited by Barry Woelfel, is a fascinating anthology of 13 tales of wine and crime, by such authors as  Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur C. Clarke, Roald Dahl and O. Henry. 

There's something here in this short list of wine books for every wine drinker, find the right book and gift it to someone you know. 

Next post: Oregon's Willamette Valley

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Chardonnay and Pinot Noir

                                                                                                               Freepik image

When wine drinkers gather for a meal, the collaborative plan is to first select white wines that will go with the first course. Then, in natural progression, the call is to decide on the red wines that arrive later in the meal.  

Matching a white wine to a red wine has long been a common practice. Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc is a traditional example.  For me, though, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir is one of the most successful pairings.

Both grapes have been associated with the Burgundy region of eastern France since the Middle Ages, and they remained exclusively in France for centuries, before heading out to wine regions around the world.  The two varieties had a symbiotic, though unknown, relationship until the 20th century when DNA profiling disclosed the ancestry of Chardonnay to be none other than Pinot Noir.

Today, Chardonnay is a global brand.  Pinot Noir, however, stays more on a regional basis, owing to the grape's sensitivity to climate and vineyard propagation. Chardonnay's adaptability has allowed growers to plant it under a range of climate and soil conditions. Pinot Noir, on the other hand, stubbornly proved difficult to grow and sensitive to make.

There's more to both of these varieties, but before delving a little deeper into each, I'll pause here for a brief aside. While writing this post, I took a moment to read this funny bit about wine writing in Tom Wark's Fermentation:  "While learning grape varieties and regions can be fun - in the sense that staying home on Saturday nights to watch documentaries on Theodore Roosevelt is fun - it is unnecessary." Joel Stein, wrote that in his "The End of My Career." And while it fulfills my wish for more humor in wine writing, Stein's claim is like saying one doesn't need to know anything about Ernest Hemingway's personality and lifestyle to know what motivated him to write "The Old Man and the Sea, " and "The Sun Also Rises."  Background helps with context.  

                                       

Understanding Chardonnay

Few wines, white or red, have been both lauded and trashed like Chardonnay.  For instance, the Chardonnay grape has been mistaken for Auxerrois, a variety that's more at home in Alsace than Burgundy.

A bit of grape trivia.  In Alsace, Auxerrois is another name for Pinot Gris, which itself was once called Tokay Gris, although it has nothing to do with Hungarian Tokaj.  As if that's not confusing enough, Auxerrois is also known as Auxerrois de Laquenexy in Alsace and Luxembourg.  And nearby, in Germany's Moselle, Chardonnay was once known as Auxerrois Blanc. 

Then, there's the mistaking of Pinot Blanc, a white mutation of Pinot Noir, for Chardonnay.  Despite the confusion, though, since the early years of the 20th century, Chardonnay has been planted just about everywhere and celebrated in even more places.  

But you don't have to be a grape grower to appreciate the charms of Chardonnay (or Auxerrois).  But knowing a little about the growth habits of the grape will surely improve and increase your appreciation of the wine.

Climatically, Chardonnay likes to be right in the middle between cool and warm, especially in clay soils, veined with limestone and chalk.  In cool climates, Chardonnay is lean with racy acidity, while warmer climate Chardonnay can be weak and flabby from low acidity. 

Chardonnay wine making is either cool in stainless steel fermenting tanks or warm in oak barrels.  Because Chardonnay is low in aromatics and distinctive flavors, it usually is accompanied by the toasty smoky notes of oak, mainly French.  Cool climate unoaked Chardonnay leans toward pears, citrus and honey. 

Pairing Chardonnay with food is an easy task, because there is a style of Chardonnay for every occasion.  Leaner unoaked Chardonnay is a good match with simply prepared fish, roast chicken and pork.  Add oak, and the best food matches become more flavorful smoked fish, or roast turkey dark meat and spicy Asian dishes.  

                                                       

Understanding Pinot Noir

Nailing the essence of Chardonnay is easy, compared to the more difficult challenge of  describing the character and flavor of Pinot Noir.  I've had a lifelong fondness for Pinot Noir, but I still struggle to say what Pinot Noir means to me.  I could tick off the places where Pinot Noir shines, like Burgundy, Oregon and California, but it's more than that.

Youthful Pinot Noir overflows with ripe black cherry and strawberries, maturing to deep fruit flavors, accented by leather, wood smoke and enticing exotic spices.  Savoring all of those things together sounds crazy, but before you take a sip, put your nose in the glass and take a deep sniff. 

Don't be swayed by verbal nonsense, like "sweaty saddle." It was once used in place of leathery to describe Pinot Noir and thankfully never caught on.  Then, there's the unfortunate example of bad translations that developed into a minor flap.  A number of years ago, a misunderstanding circulated in wine circles that a noted English Master of Wine had described the smell of Burgundy as "gout de merde."  In fact, the MW had been talking with a maitre de chai (cellarmaster) in Burgundy who, when describing his red wine, meant a barn smell.  To Americans, though, the m-word meant human rather than animal and the story got legs.  

Also misunderstood is the proper color of Pinot Noir.  It should be a medium ruby, not light like rosé, or deep red like Syrah.  With age, Pinot Noir takes on a brick-red color with yellow edges.  

The taste of Pinot Noir is black cherry, spice, earthy and smoky oak. There is no other wood for aging Pinot Noir than French.  American oak is too bold and resinous, while the gentle spice of French oak makes a good partner with Pinot Noir and it blends nicely with the taste.

Before Pinot Noir, from Burgundy or elsewhere, ever gets to that earthy stage, there is the influence of the vineyard.  Pinot Noir is an early-ripening variety that does best in cool climates like Burgundy, Carneros, Russian River and Oregon's Willamette Valley.  The best soils for Pinot Noir are threaded through with limestone and clay, giving the wine a distinct minerality. 

Deciding which grape makes the best wine is a matter of taste.  Devotees of Cabernet Sauvignon say the character of their favorite grape is, by definition, what makes the wine great.  Mature Cabernet Sauvignon/Bordeaux is, without question hard to beat, except for one other wine: Pinot Noir/Burgundy.

Finally, there are classic dishes, like boeuf bourguignon and coq au vin, that are traditional with red Burgundy, but Pinot Noir is great with roasts and grilled meats, mushrooms and vegetables.  And it tastes great with roast turkey, grilled salmon and aged cheeses. 

There are many white and red wines to choose today, but when thinking of one as an aperitif or with dinner, you'll never go wrong with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

 

Next post: Gift Wine Books

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