![]() ![]() ![]() And more winemakers started to see an opportunity. That made them easier for winemakers to work with in Oregon’s climate.Īs these new clones started to rise in popularity, vineyard owners also started planting more chardonnay on better land. These “Dijon” clones had smaller berries and ripened faster. Starting in the 1980s, Oregon winemakers started to explore chardonnay clones brought from regions of France that were more similar to Oregon. “ometimes if you’ll try some early chardonnays from Oregon, they’ll probably still be alive because there was so much acid that nobody can drink them right off the bat,” says Wynne Peterson-Nedry, winemaker for a number of labels, including her family’s Ribbon Ridge winery. That led many early Oregon chardonnays to be very bright and acidic, sometimes overly so, at least for the expectations of the time. As warm weather stretched into fall, chardonnay berries had time to ripen before harvest. Workers harvest chardonnay grapes at Koosah Vineyard on Oct. Vines that did well in California often struggled to fully ripen in Oregon. Oregon chardonnays, by contrast, were trickier.Ĭalifornians had been growing chardonnay grapes since the 1880s, but when Oregon’s early winemakers brought them north in the 1960s, they found a colder and wetter climate. Early Oregon winemakers planted both, drawing inspiration from Oregon’s similar latitude and climate.Īs winemakers learned the intricacies of Oregon’s terroir and what would do well in the market, pinot noir emerged to define the style of the region. The Pacific Northwest has established itself as one of the world's premier regions for chardonnay.Įmily Hamilton / OPB A journey across space and timeĬhardonnay and pinot noir have grown together for centuries in the Burgundy region of France. It took decades of hard work for this moment to arrive. In 2022 the highest ranked Oregon wine on Wine Spectator’s global top 100 was a chardonnay. “It’s not Burgundy, it’s not Australia, it’s not South Africa, it’s not California. The grape - and the wine made from it - calls many places home, but in Oregon it has found its own identity. “Oregon chardonnay is having a moment,” says Chevonne Ball, sommelier and proprietor of Dirty Radish, a wine and hospitality consultancy based in the state. Pinot noir has long been the Willamette Valley’s signature grape, but Koosah Vineyard is on the front lines of a movement that’s put another Oregon wine on the map: chardonnay. Screen captured from drone video.īut there’s a difference. It’s a familiar setting across the Willamette Valley’s premiere vineyards: elevation high enough to cool off each night, slopes angled to catch each photon of the daytime sun, and row upon row of gnarled vines growing grapes that were first developed in the Burgundy region of France.Ĭhardonnay grape harvest at Koosah Vineyard, in the Eola-Amity Hills American Viticultural Area, Oct. ![]()
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