WILLAMETTE VALLEY, OREGON: BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD TO TASTE THE DIFFERENCES IN THE TERROIR OF PINOT NOIR WINES

The Willamette Valley in Oregon extends south from Portland to Eugene and is bounded on the west by the Coast Range and the east by the Cascade Mountains. This valley has been granted the Willamette Valley AVA for wines. Four major geological units make up this AVA: Missoula Flood sediments on the valley bottoms of mainly silts and sands, Columbia River Basalt (Miocene age basalt that originated from eastern Oregon), uplifted marine sediments on the western edge of mainly sandstones and siltstones, and Columbia River Basalts that have well weathered loess deposited on them. The associated soils with these four geological units are: Missoula Flood sediments (Woodburn and Amity Series), Columbia River Basalts (Jory and Nekia Series), uplifted marine sediments (Willakenzie and Melbourne Series) and loess soils on basalt (Laurelwood and Cornelius Series). The Willamette Valley is best known for growing excellent Pinot Noir grapes, and their wines are world famous because this is a cold climate area. Pinot Noir is a “transparent” grape that exhibits its terroir well. Most of the grapes are grown on side slopes in the valley because the Missoula Flood soils are too nutrient rich. It is hard to reduce the vigor in these vines, a necessity for the production of fine wines. Most of the vineyards do no irrigate so reduction of vigor comes from using soils low in nutrients (most are Ultisols and Alfisols which are old, weathered soils low in nutrients). Winemakers know that they can have grapes from the three leading geological units from the same year and make wines using the same vineyard and winery techniques and come out with different tasting wines. The difference is in the soil! Few wine regions have such a big difference in such a small area. Wineries are now selling “terroir series” of wines from the three regions.