Happy 40th Anniversary, Willamette Valley

40 years of great pinot noir, riesling, pinot blanc and gris (and sometimes chardonnay)

Officially established as an American Viticultural Area in 1983, Oregon’s Willamette Valley is 40 years old this year. The valley grew from a beginning by pioneers David Lett (1966), Dick Erath (1968) and Bill Blosser and Susan Sokol (1971) — all starting vineyard and wineries in the Dundee Hills — to a region of more than 700 wineries and 10 sub-AVAs. Beginning just north of Portland and ending 170 miles south around Eugene and extending from the Oregon Coastal Range in the west to the Cascade Mountains in the east, the Willamette Valley AVA encompasses about 5,360 square miles, though most of the vineyards and wineries lie west of the Willamette River, on the leeward slopes of the Coastal Range, between 300- and 1,000-feet elevation. Overall, the appellation has a mild climate, with cool, damp Winters and warm, dry Summers.