Oregon’s Expanding Palette of Wines

BY JOSH RAYNOLDS | FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Fueled by steadily increasing production of first-class Rieslings and Chardonnays, Oregon’s wineries are proving that they can do much more than just make great Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir’s primacy as Oregon’s dominant variety is in no danger of being challenged any time soon. With more than 20,000 planted acres, Pinot Noir constitutes a whopping 64% of the state’s vines, and almost 80% of that total is in the Willamette Valley. So, barring some crazy climate or disease event, Pinot Noir isn’t going to be taking a back seat to any other variety in the foreseeable future. However, a steadily growing number of serious white wines and a handful of non-Pinot Noir reds have begun making the case that there’s much more to Oregon wine than its most famous and ubiquitous variety.

Early August in the Dundee Hills

Riesling and Chardonnay in particular appear to have the greatest potential to grab the wine-buying public’s attention, especially that of consumers looking for white wines that privilege finesse and tension over weight and power. It wasn’t long ago that too many examples of those varieties were either treacly (Riesling and Chardonnay) or overoaked (Chardonnay), with little to offer, frankly, except for the fact that they were “different.” That’s no longer the case, as was made clear to me, again, this year by the largest number of graceful, delineated, well-balanced examples of those varieties that I’ve ever experienced from Oregon. That performance was especially impressive given that 2016, 2015 and, especially, 2014 are among the warmest vintages since the Oregon wine industry was founded in the mid-1960s. 

Chardonnay: More Refined, Burgundy-Inspired Wines Than Ever Before

Chardonnays from experienced producers of this variety such as Domaine Drouhin Oregon, Roco, Stoller, Walter Scott, Antica Terra, Arterberry Maresh, Brick House and Bergström, showed extremely well this year. So did those from relative newcomers to the high-end Chardonnay game, such as Lavinea, Big Table Farm, Haden Fig, Lingua Franca and Elton. What’s exciting about the best Oregon Chardonnays is their ability to marry fruity exuberance with energy and precision in the manner of textbook white Burgundies. The use of new oak is more conservative than ever before here, while fewer and fewer producers are beating the wines up in barrel through excessive lees-stirring than in the past.

As a poignant aside and a statement of what’s happening in Oregon, I poured the 2016 Bergström Sigrid and the 2016 Lavinea Lazy River Vineyard Chardonnays, blind, alongside 15 big-name, high-quality wines from Burgundy, Australia and California (from the likes of François Carillon, Pierre-Yves Colin, Peay, Talley, Giaconda, Bindi and Vasse Felix) to a group of seasoned wine writers and winemakers in Melbourne, Australia in November. The overwhelming majority of attendees guessed that the two Oregon Chardonnays were from Burgundy, such was the poise, detail and energy of those wines. The fact is that consumers are now spoiled for choice when it comes to high-quality Oregon Chardonnay, even if the wines are usually made in small quantities and require diligent searching. Most important is the fact that wineries are quickly learning that if they don’t get serious about the variety soon, their lesser examples are going to start standing out – and not in a good way.