RESURGENCE OF TERROIR TASTING OF RIESLING WINES IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY, OREGON, USA

Terroir is a wonderful French term used all over the world to express differences in flavors of wines based on their grape type, geology, soil, climate, soil water holding capacity, soil biota, and elevation/aspect of the site. I like to call it the “taste of the place”. It is best expressed in cool climate grapes like riesling, pinot noir (a thin-skinned red grape), and chardonnay. The heavy red varieties like merlot also show differences in terroir, but to a lesser extent because the varietal characteristics overshadow the nuances in flavors. The state of Oregon is third in the United States in the number of wineries and fourth in the amount of wine production.

In the early days of Oregon wine-making from 1965-1990, all vineyards had riesling grapes in them because the German style grapes grew well in this cool climate region of the Willamette Valley AVA. In the 1990’s many of the riesling plants were grafted over to pinot gris grapes because the amount of money received for a pinot gris bottle was twice the price of a riesling bottle. In the next twenty years major flavor differences were noted in the pinot noir wines produced on the three main soil types: volcanic soils of the Jory Soil Series on Columbia River Basalts; marine sediment soils of shales and sandstones of primarily the Willakenzie Soil Series; and heavily weathered loess soils with pisolites in them on volcanic bedrock of the Laurelwood Soil Series. In the past ten years, wineries are finding that they taste similar differences in the riesling wines on the three major soil types that are seen in the pinot noirs. One now finds wine tours concentrating not on pinot noir wines, but terroir differences of riesling wines as a resurgence has begun in this type of wine! Wine makers, like Trisaetum Winery, now produce 9 riesling wines in a year: dry, half-dry, and traditional (3% residual sugar) for each of the three main soils. This grape is making a major come-back.