Friends spending a month or so in Oregon recently invited my wife and me up for a few days to do some wine tasting at some top-end wineries in Willamette.
We learned some interesting things on the trip. First and foremost is that many of the producers are not going to produce a 2020 vintage. The huge fires in the area in 2020 infused the grapes with taint from the smoke that impacted the flavor of the wines. The wineries are either going to dump the juice or as one winery put it “It will be coming to a box wine near you”. Because of that many of the wineries were not pouring their less expensive offerings because they needed to stretch those out for an additional year to cover for the lack of a 2020 vintage. We did not complain as we got to taste some amazing single vineyard and limited production wines.
Another thing we learned is that economics is causing fewer and fewer growers to produce Pinot Gris, which at one time was the signature white wine of Willamette. Producers simply make more money selling Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (Oregon Chardonnay is growing leaps and bounds in popularity) so they are replacing Pinot Gris with the more profitable varietals. I found this disappointing because Oregon Pinot Gris is one of my favorite white wines.
It was in the upper 90’s lower 100’s for most of the time we were there. No doubt that climate change has and will continue to impact the flavor profile of wines in the region.
We wanted to visit some places we had heard a lot about but never visited. Some of them offered great value but most of them were on the upper end of the price spectrum.
We visited Alexana, Anam Cara, Antica Terra, Archery Summit, Beaux Freres, Colene Clemens, Lange, Roco, and Shea. They all did an outstanding job of producing your prototypical Willamette Pinot Noir and I would recommend visiting any of them. Below I am going to highlight some wine and wine tasting experiences that I found stood out from the rest. We decided to visit places we had not been to or had not visited in a while. As a result, we did not visit three of my personal favorites Ayoub, Big Table Farms, and Soter. If you visit the area all three of those should be on your list. I will discuss the three of them as well to some extent in this post.
Top Overall Experience: The most amazing wine/wine tasting experience we had was at Antica Terra. It did not start that way. You park your car in a parking lot that could use some repairs outside of an older industrial building. You walk inside to a dimly lit storage area and you start wondering why you paid $90 for this. But then you look to the left and you see a chef preparing the food to pair with your private tasting and then when they open up the door to the candle-lit barrel room and you are immediately happy you decided to overpay. We tasted 8 wines priced between $65 and $130 a bottle paired with 4 dishes prepared by the chef to go with the wines being tasted. They not only serve you wines that they produce but wines produced by others that they think are outstanding. I rated all of the wines that we tasted 90 points or higher with the highlights for me being the 2018 Antica Terra Auarata Chardonnay ($125) and 2018 François Mikulski Santenods Du Milieu Volnay (Pinot Noir) 1st Cru ($130). The Chardonnay had a touch of butter and oak but showed more citrus, stone fruit, and minerality. Perfectly balanced. (93 Points). The Volnay provides amazing aromas and follows that up with a complex but perfectly balanced mixture of cherry, black pepper, floral, and chocolate flavors. Wonderful acidity and supple tannins lead me to believe this wine will age gracefully. (92 Points).
Honorable mention: Ayoub for an up-close and personal tasting at the owner's kitchen table.
Most Picturesque Tasting Room: Soter. High on a hill, you taste either in a beautiful lodge-like main tasting room or in one of their private tasting huts. Sometimes clouds below you there are amazing views wherever you look.
Honorable Mention: Colene Clemens. You taste on their back patio that offers amazing views of the trees and valley that surrounds the tasting room.
Best Value: Colene Clemens. All their wines we tasted were between $40 and $68 and would compare favorably with wines costing twice as much. One that stood out for me was the 2017 Adriane Pinot Noir. Peppery, cherry cola, with a great nose and a lingering finish $52 (91 Points)
Honorable mentions: Ayoub: Their Memoirs Pinot Noir ($47) is consistently amazing and is the perfect expression of Willamette Pinot. (91 Points). Big Table Farms: Their Wild Bee Chardonnay ($30) is a balance of tropical fruit and citrus with just a hint of oak (91 Points).
Other Wines of Note:
Top Pinot Gris: Lang 2019 Pinot Gris Reserve ($28) Partially aged in a cement cask it is an elegant wine with flavors of Mango and Pineapple with medium-plus acidity. (91 Points)
Other Top Pinot Noirs: 2017 Lang Estate ($70). Lush Red Fruit, elegant, balanced, with a touch of minerality and spice. (93 Points). 2014 Colene Clemens Adriane Complex layers of black fruit, ripe tannin, and a long and earthy finish. (91 Points). Archery Summit 2019 Summit Vineyard ($150) Raspberry, cinnamon and minerality, co-exist in perfect balance (91 Points). 2015 Archery Summit Arcus Vineyard ($125) amazing nose abundant fruit flavor but balanced with some minerality and vegetal flavors. (92 Points).
Willamette is one of my favorite places to go wine tasting and if you are planning a visit I hope this post helps you plan your visit.
Please comment on this post or email gasperthewineguy@gmail.com if you have any questions about any of the wines or wineries mentioned above or about anything else!