As I mentioned
before, in the past few years I have broadened my love of wine past the white zinfandels
and merlots to other wonderful dry reds.
One of my favorite wines now is Pinot Noir. Since we have ventured into California a few
times, we thought it might be fun to head to Oregon and try some fabulous
wines. Beth and I and our husbands will
be traveling next week to one of Oregon’s major AVA’s-Willamette Valley, near Portland. With this in mind, I thought I’d read up a
little and do some research about Oregon to be prepared. According to Kevin Zraly who wrote “Windows
on the World-Complete Wine Course “because of its climate, Oregon is becoming
well known for Burgundian-style wines (referring to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir),
the major grapes planted in Oregon.”
Since Willamette Valley is a major AVA in Oregon we have decided to
focus our trip in that area. Zraly has
listed several good wineries to visit, so we have included some in our tours
and ventures. I also read that most
wineries in Oregon are relatively small- producing on average just 5000 cases a
year. According to the Oregon Wine
Country website “While you can increasingly find many Oregon wines online or in
knowledgeable wine stores, there are many offerings that are only available in
Oregon at the wineries' tasting rooms, which are sprinkled along country roads,
tucked into the foothills of mountains and situated high above vineyards with
breathtaking views of the landscape below.”
We are looking forward to finding those little jewels!
Below is a little “Wine History” I found on line also from
the Oregon Wine Country: Modern winemaking in the Willamette Valley dates back 40 years with the genius of three UC Davis refugees who believed that Oregon was an ideal place to grow cool-climate varieties. Between 1965 and 1968, David Lett, Charles Coury, and Dick Erath separately forged their way to the north Willamette Valley despite negative rumblings from their Davis cohorts who told them it was impossible to grow wine grapes in Oregon. 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 wine pioneers whole-heartedly 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, Susan and Bill Sokol Blosser and Myron Redford all planted vineyards in the Willamette Valley. These families worked 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. The Willamette Valley became an official AVA in 1984. Today, it is recognized as one of the premier wine producing areas in the world. It is most widely known for its award winning Pinot noir, but consistently earns top honors for other such cool-climate varieties as Pinot gris, Dijon clone Chardonnay and Pinot blanc.
….to
be continued…….
No comments:
Post a Comment