About Oregon

(from the Oregon Wine Board)

Oregon is a place where winemakers are stewards of the land; where quality reigns, sustainability is a lifestyle and where artisan producers believe that careful attention to detail and delicate nurturing produce incredible wines.

It's a place where pioneers and a new generation of winemakers, together, rhapsodize about the fruits of the land. Oregon land. A land whose rich geological legacy and varied climates nurture a wine country where cool-climate and warm-climate varieties grow mere miles from one another.

Oregon is a magical place whose borders encompass 362 miles of rugged coastline, white-peaked mountains, deep river canyons and endless amounts of green right alongside high-desert prairies and volcanic rock formations.

Mostly, Oregon is a place that makes exquisite wine without any pretense. A place where visitors are always welcome and where the winemaker is never far away…

Industry Origins

Not long ago, when Europe dominated the wine market and California vines were still quite young, no one believed it was possible to successfully grow wine grapes in Oregon. Then a few pioneers came along and changed the world’s mind forever.

In 1961, winemaker Richard Sommer ignored whispers of discouragement from his University of California at Davis cohorts and trudged north to the Umpqua Valley to plant his roots—more specifically, to plant Riesling and small amounts of other varieties. Soon after his successful establishment of Hillcrest Vineyards near the Southern Oregon town of Roseburg, other winemakers migrated to this warm, dry growing region and, in 1969, the Oregon Winegrowers Association was founded nearby.

Farther North in the Willamette Valley, three other UC Davis refugees also ignored the grumblings of their naysaying colleagues and trekked to the Willamette Valley. Here they believed they could successfully grow high-quality cool-climate varieties.

Between 1965 and 1968, David Lett, Charles Coury, and Dick Erath and their families ventured north and established vineyards in the North Willamette Valley. They were the first in Oregon to plant Pinot noir. They also planted small amounts of related varieties, including Pinot gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling.

These modern wine pioneers truly believed that Oregon would one day become an important wine-growing region. Other believers were not far behind. Within the next decade, David and Ginny Adelsheim, Ronald and Marjorie Vuylsteke, Richard and Nancy Ponzi, Joe and Pat Campbell, and Susan and Bill Sokol Blosser all planted roots in the North Willamette Valley.

These families were hard workers. Each held additional jobs—teacher, doctor, salesperson—to support their winemaking endeavors; they toiled in a collaborative spirit, sharing advice, humor and encouragement, as they began writing history by producing superior wines in Oregon. Though, it wasn't until David Lett entered his Oregon Pinot noir in the 1979 Gault-Millau French Wine Olympiades and won top Pinot noir honors against France’s best labels, that the world started to take notice of Oregon as a serious winemaking region.

In just 40 years Oregon has evolved into a world-class wine growing state with 15 approved winegrowing regions, and more than 300 wineries producing wine from 72 grape varieties. As a wine region we’ll, no doubt, continue to grow and evolve, but Oregon will always be a place where small, handcrafted wines reign, where collaboration and community are key. And where the growers and winemakers are never far away from the tasting room.

Terrior, A Sense of Place

When it comes to wine, place matters. Wine grapes have an amazing ability to draw flavors and attributes from the place in which its vines grow. Put your nose in one glass of red wine and you might get flavors of black cherry and anise. Taste the same variety from a different vineyard and you could get subtle hints of pine and spice.

Indeed, many natural aspects of a place affect the quality of both grapes and wine: soil types, climate, location, and topography, to name a few. The French call these collective aspects terroir. In Oregon, we refer to it as our "sense of place".

And we have many different “places” here. Oregon is blessed with one of the most diverse geo-climates in the world. Vintners can successfully grow superb cool- and warm-climate varietals, all within one state.  Oregon’s varied geological legacy has created a diversity of soil types perfectly suited for growing high-quality grapes.

Within just one growing region, visitors can taste and compare a huge variety of exquisite wines.

Craftmanship

Oregon is a special place with a commitment to producing high-quality wines. On a national scale, Oregon is third in the number of wineries and fourth largest in wine volume, but we still remain focused on producing small-batch artisan wine. In fact, most Oregon wineries are relatively small, producing on average only 5,000 cases a year.

Keeping wine production small ensures that our winemakers have the time and energy to nurture each and every vine, cluster and barrel into wines of superior flavor and concentration worthy of the Oregon stamp. Also, it allows our winemakers time to collaborate with one another, experiment with new varieties, practice earth-friendly growing techniques and—perhaps best of all—directly share their results with the wine enthusiast.

In Oregon, it’s often the winemaker behind the counter pouring the wine. And in many cases, visitors get to taste small-batch vintages only available in the winery’s tasting room.