Overview of The Pacific Northwest Wine Region
Oregon and Washington State make up the 2 largest regions of the incredible Pacific Northwest. In episode #41 of The Wine CEO Podcast I give an overview of Oregon and everything you need to know about this growing wine area and then in episode #43, I take a look at Washington State, as well as Idaho and British Columbia.
Oregon
So when you think about Oregon, a lot of people think of the city of Portland, maybe a rainy climate, and a lot of beautiful nature. (The state has a lot of mountains for hiking, really pretty national forests, and great fishing along the coast of the Pacific Ocean.) But there’s a lot to the wine scene in this state located in the Northwestern Corner of the United States.
Main Regions/ AVAs
There are five main wine regions across Oregon - Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue, Applegate, and Walla Walla (Walla Walla actually crosses between Oregon and Washington). To be more specific, the TTB (U.S. Tax and Trade Bureau) has named 17 official AVAs in Oregon. American Viticultural Areas are designated wine growing regions with specific geographic markers that make a region unique. Now this number of AVAs is a little misleading as Oregon shares another 3 AVAs with Washington state and 1 with Idaho - so technically 21 in total.
Here’s the link to the official TTB list of approved AVAs in case you want to check it out.
Image credit: Winefolly.com
And to make things even more confusing some of these AVAs are sub regions within Willamette Valley AVA, like Eola-Amity Hills, which is just north of Oregon’s state capital Salem.
The main wine AVA that most folks are familiar with in Oregon is called Willamette Valley. It’s located in the north western side of the state around the city of Portland and it’s where the majority of winemaking occurs in the state. In fact 75% of the wines made in Oregon come from Willamette Valley. So although there are some wineries located in the north, south, and east - Willamette on the west side is definitely the main scene in town.
Image Credit: Oregonwinepress.com (*Maps have not been updated with 3 new AVAs that joined Willamette Valley in 2019 and 2020: Van Duzer (‘19), Tualatin, and Laurelwood.)
Geography
For a little geography, Willamette Valley is unique because it falls in between 2 mountain ranges. There’s a mountain range along the coast of Oregon called the Coast mountain range (super original, I know) and a mountain range a few miles east called the Cascade Mountain Range. These mountains create a climate condition called a “ Rain Shadow Effect”. Basically, in this condition, the mountain range traps cool, rainy conditions along the coast and prevents everything on the other side of the mountains from getting precipitation. So the Coast Mountains keep the heavy rain and cold weather along the Pacific Ocean coast and the Cascade Mountains make the whole east side of the state of Oregon like a dry desert. Smack in the middle is a valley which gets its namesake from the river that runs through it - the Willamette. So the valley gets a lot of cool, rainy weather trapped between the two mountain ranges and this cool climate is perfect for growing thin skinned grapes. (Remember that bolder, thick skinned grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon need a lot of sunlight hours to ripen and develop fruit flavors. But thinner, lighter grapes like Pinot Noir do really well in cooler climates where they can develop more acid and ripen slowly. )
Image Credit: Winefolly.com
Grape Varieties
In case you haven’t guessed it yet, Pinot Noir is king in Oregon. It’s the main grape varietal grown here because of this cool, wet coastal climate. And believe it or not, this unique climate that is so perfect for growing Pinot Noir, is actually what deterred viticulturists from growing grapes in Oregon for a long time. Original American wine producers in California believed that you needed a lot of sunlight hours to ripen grapes, so they discounted the wet coastal region of Oregon.
But David Lett, a graduate from University of California at Davis believed there was hope. He planted the first pinot noir grapes in Oregon in the mid 1960s. Shortly after, folks realized that the climate was oddly similar to Burgundy, France - which made it a natural place to grow Pinot Noir and later Chardonnay. In fact, you may have heard me talk about the 1976 Judgement of Paris in previous episodes. This was a blind tasting in Paris where a few humble California wine producers beat top French wines in a blind tasting. This catapulted California wines onto the international scene and legitimized California to the rest of the wine world.
Around the same time, a blind tasting occurred in Burgundy France and a promising bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir from Eyrie Vineyards won the blind tasting. It didn’t put Oregon on the map as much as California, but it did cause more winemakers to move to Oregon to plant grapes. In 1970 there were only 5 wineries in the whole state, but today there are almost 500. We continue to see the addition of more AVAs and sub AVAs, with 2 new sub AVAs in Willamette Valley approved by the TTB as recent as June of 2020. This recent addition shows that the wine industry is growing and thriving in Oregon. It shows that the area is highly regarded as an American wine region making really distinct and high quality wines. I would argue that although there was growth in the 70s and 80s, it still wasn’t really until the early 2000s that the world wine industry really started to give this region a second glance for true, quality, wine production. So that means that the region is fairly young and still has a lot of opportunity to grow as a world renowned wine region.
The Pinots in Oregon are very different from those in California, Burgundy, and New Zealand. The Pinot Noirs from this region are really light in body, but rich in flavor. They tend to have notes of mushrooms, vanilla, raspberry, and tart red cherries. Oregon wine producers are known for growing smaller crops, often organic, that express the unique terroir of the region. (Remember that terroir is just a fancy French term for all of the climate and geographic features that make up a wine growing area.)
Although pinot noir may be king, I do want to mention that some whites are grown in the state as well. Chardonnay, pinot gris, and riesling are all found across Willamette Valley and other AVAs. You can find a few other grape varieties scattered across the state, but these are the main ones to be familiar with and the ones that the state is most known for. A lot of people are saying that Chardonnay is the next big thing in Oregon. There were some clones brought over from Dijon (Burgundy, France) that have been doing really well over the past few years, so I think we’re going to see more attention around Chardonnay from Oregon in the future.
Oregon Wine Laws
One thing that makes Oregon really unique is that its wine laws are much more strict than the rest of the U.S. Believe it or not, when you buy a bottle of wine from the store, according to US law, that wine only has to be 75% of the grape varietal listed on the bottle. So for example, if the wine says “Chardonnay”, only 75% of the grapes used to make the wine must be chardonnay. The other 25% can be pinot gris, riesling, etc. So even though the wine is technically a blend, if it has at least 75% one variety, you can label the bottle as that variety. Crazy, I know, but it’s the current law. There has been a lot of criticism around labelling, so the industry has started self-regulating this a bit. We’ve started to see a lot of winemakers these days include all of the grape varietals on the bottle, even though they technically don’t have to. Oregon didn’t like this law, so they made their rules more strict. In Oregon, if you are going to put a varietal on the label, as the winemaker, you have to include 90% of that varietal in the wine. So if the bottle says it’s a pinot noir from Willamette Valley Oregon, you know that the grape makeup in that wine is at least 90% Pinot Noir.
Additionally, in most areas of the United States, if you are going to include the name of an AVA on the label, only 85% of the grapes in the bottle have to be grown from that AVA. Again Oregon wasn’t a fan and made their requirement 10% higher. So if you are going to include the name of an Oregon AVA on your label, 95% of the grapes have to be grown in that appellation.
I love this about Oregon and think it makes for an awesome culture of transparency in wines. I was chatting with a wine rep on Instagram this week who lives in Oregon, and she said that there’s a huge push towards natural wines and sustainable wines in Oregon. I feel this is a result of the pride Oregon winemakers have in transparent labelling and making honest wines. She doesn’t feel that this trend is going anywhere soon in Oregon, which is awesome to hear! (Natural wines aren’t technically an official classification yet, so there isn’t official terminology to define them. But generally, these wines are made using organic grapes harvested by hand, they use wild yeast only instead of chemical yeast, they don’t use any enzymes or additives, and they are not filtered.)
Food Pairings
Like I mentioned earlier, the pinot noirs from OR are really rich in flavor. They have an especially earthy characteristic that help them stand up to earthier flavors. One of the best pairings is an Oregon Pinot Noir with grilled salmon. The smoky, grilled flavors are perfect with the light and delicate pinot noir. I also love OR pinots with chicken and mushrooms because of the earthy mushroom flavors that compliment the earthy wine. A lot of people also love Earthy Pinot Noirs with earthy vegetables like squash and pumpkin, making it a perfect fall weather wine!
Producers to Check Out
A few of my favorite Oregon Pinot producers include:
Erath
Ponzi
Eyrie
Arglye
Domaine Drouhin
You can find these wines online on a store like vivino or wine.com or you can look for them in your local wine market.
Washington
Geography & Grape Varieties
Washington is just north of Oregon along the Pacific Ocean. One might assume that these 2 wine growing regions would be identical, but in reality, Oregon and Washington State could not be more opposite! Most of Oregon’s wineries are in the west, in Willamette Valley. This rainy and cool climate encourages Oregon winemakers to specialize in cool weather, thin skinned grapes like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Riesling. In Washington, instead of the majority of wines being in the west near Seattle, the wines are actually grown on the other side of the cascade mountain range in the hot, desert climate of the east side of the state. This immediately makes the conditions for the wine growing regions in these states polar opposites. Washington winemakers are growing thicker, bolder grapes that need a lot of hot sunlight to ripen. They mainly focus on Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. And actually over the past few years, there’s been a surprising number of Washington wineries focusing on great Malbecs. Similar to Oregon, Washington is also famous for Riesling, but a lot of this is due to a few AVAs in the north of Oregon and south of Washington that actually overlap both states.
Besides the above mentioned differences in climate and grape varieties grown, there’s also a large difference in the amount of wine produced. Oregon makes around 2 million cases of wine each year, but Washington State makes over 11 million cases. So Washington is a much larger state for production and ranks just behind California as top premium wine producer in the United States. You may be wondering, “if Washington could make the desert climate work, why didn’t Oregon do the same?”. I think a lot of it has to do with irrigation. Although Washington’s east side of the state is a desert, it has a ton of large rivers that run through it. These rivers provide natural irrigation that allow for fertile soil for grape growing. Oregon has a little irrigation on the far east side of the state, but it’s not to the same degree as Washington.
Main AVAs and Wine Regions
Photo Courtesy of Washingtonwine.org
There are 19 total AVAs, or American Viticultural Areas, in Washington. Two joined in 2020, 3 joined in 2021, and more are in the pipeline to hopefully join the official list in the next few years. (Check out THIS awesome summary from Washingtonwine.org on the AVAs in Washington state.) The fact that there have been recent additions of AVAs shows that Washington, similar to Oregon, is a growing wine region with great attention around the current wine industry and support for the growers who are fighting to receive respect for their specific wine growing area. Although there are 19 total AVAs, there’s one main AVA where most of the wines are grown. Columbia Valley is in the South- Central part of Washington State to the east of the cascade mountains. A dozen of Washington state’s AVAs are actually sub AVAs of the Columbia Valley. In fact over 95% of the state’s grapes are grown in this region. Within Columbia Valley, there are 2 sub AVAs that are good to know - the Yakima Valley and Walla Walla Valley. Yakima was the first AVA in Washington State and has set the stage for growing a variety of delicious grapes in the state. Walla Walla is the AVA where you find the state’s highest concentration of wineries. Walla Walla, Columbia Valley, and Columbia Gorge are all Washington AVAs that extend into the northern border of Oregon. So there’s definitely some overlap in styles and approach between the south of Washington and the Northern Oregon region wineries.
The only Washington AVA that is west of the Cascade Mountains is Puget Sound, which surrounds Seattle and the little islands in the inlet around Seattle. This area is not well known for growing grapes and focuses on cool weather white wine varieties because of the rainy, coastal weather. Although a lot of grapes aren’t grown here, you will find the headquarters for many of the state’s wineries in this region since Seattle is the largest city in the state and the center of the state’s commerce.
History
Washington’s wine history is fairly similar to Oregon. Although there were a few wineries in the state in the early 1960s, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that things exploded. For the first 40 or 50 years in Washington’s wine history, most of the wine makers were focused solely on white wine. It’s only been in the last 10-20 years, that we’ve started seeing reds and red blends on the scene. That doesn’t mean that white wines don’t still have a large place in Washington. In fact, Washington state is home to Chateau St. Michelle, which is the world’s largest riesling producer. A lot of sommeliers would argue that Washington state is the premier producer of riesling in the United States.
Something else that’s really interesting about the history of wine in Washington State is that Washington wineries have not been affected by phylloxera. Phylloxera is a pest, or vine louse, that tore through California, Oregon, and a lot of international wine regions in the late 19th century. It destroyed vineyards and forced winemakers to graft their plants onto American rootstocks that were resistant to the deadly insect. So basically, the sandy soil and cold winters in Washington prevented these bugs from ever being able to survive in Washington, so the plants are all living on their original roots. A lot of people say that this can definitely impact the flavor of the grapes and create a more pure tasting wine. I’ve never been able to taste the difference between wines with grapes grown on their own rootstock vs grated roots and a lot of really talented master sommeliers would agree with me, BUT some people argue it makes a difference. So we’ll let the winemakers of Washington brag about this fact as it is pretty unique compared to the rest of the United States and much of the world.
Grafting vines into a different root system. Photo Courtesy of grapes.extension.org
Something else that’s really interesting about the history of wine in Washington State is that Washington wineries have not been affected by phylloxera. Phylloxera is a pest, or vine louse, that tore through California, Oregon, and a lot of international wine regions in the late 19th century. It destroyed vineyards and forced winemakers to graft their plants onto American rootstocks that were resistant to the deadly insect.
The sandy soil and cold winters in Washington prevented these bugs from ever being able to survive in the state, so the plants are all living on their original roots. A lot of people say that this can definitely impact the flavor of the grapes and create a more “pure tasting” wine. I’ve never been able to taste the difference between wines with grapes grown on their own rootstock vs grafted roots and a lot of really talented master sommeliers would agree with me, BUT some people argue it makes a difference, so we’ll let the winemakers of Washington brag about this fact as it is pretty unique compared to the rest of the wine world.
Food Pairings
Washington state is known for its oysters caught along the bay near Seattle. These oysters are really salty and pair nicely with the Rieslings grown around the state. But if you’re like me and raw oysters remind you of the inside of a trash can, don’t fear - there are other options for food and wine pairings ;) . I love riesling with spicy foods, barbecue, and Asian foods. Washington State Chardonnays tend to be aged in oak, so they will have similar buttery, toasty notes like California Chardonnays. These pair nicely with cheesy pastas, lobster, and creamy chicken dishes. Moving to the reds, Washington does Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah really well. There are also a lot of great blends. These are all really bold wines that will pair nicely with grilled meats, beef stew, roasted pork, bold cheeses like cheddar or smoked gouda, and bitter dark chocolate.
Producers to Check Out
A few of my favorite Washington producers include:
Chateau St. Michelle
Poet’s Leap
Leonetti Cellar
L’Ecole no 41
Andrew Will
Woodward Canyon
You can find these wines online on a store like vivino or wine.com or you can look for them in your local wine market.
Idaho
Photo Courtesy of: Idahowines.org
Idaho may surprise you, but yes, they do make wine in this region and it’s technically a part of The Pacific Northwest! As you can see on the map, there are 2 AVAs that cross the Oregon and Washington borders into Idaho. The Snake river is a massive river that flows through a few states in the Pacific Northwest. The Lewis/ Clark AVA in Washington State stretches along this river and extends into Idaho near the city of Lewiston. So there are wineries overlapping the 2 states throughout this region. The Snake River flows south in Oregon and the Snake River Valley AVA has formed around it. The river curves into Idaho and so this AVA extends across the Oregon & Idaho borders not far from Boise. By the TTB’s definition, Idaho only has one official AVA, Snake River Valley AVA that is shared with Oregon. But there are over 60 wineries that have popped up all over the state and they around found in this AVA and beyond. I mentioned earlier that Oregon makes 2 million cases of wine each year and Washington State makes 11 million cases. Idaho only makes around 160,000 cases, so it has a much smaller scale or production for the industry. Nonetheless, it is growing in the Pacific Northwest and could be an interesting area to keep an eye on. The grapes that are grown here mimic Washington State with a focus on Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. The Idaho Wine Commission is an organization working to educate folks about the Idaho wine community and they tout that Idaho is the New American Wine Frontier and one of the fastest growing regions in the country. Check out their website HERE to learn a little more about them and maybe even sign up for a tour if you’re planning to travel around the Boise or Lewiston areas.
British Columbia, Canada
The last region to mention is British Columbia, Canada. This region is located just above Washington State along the coast of the pacific ocean. British Columbia, specifically the area around Vancouver, has a ton of amazing wine growing regions that share a lot of similarities in climate, terroir, and grape varieties with its U.S. neighbors in the Pacific Northwest. Okanagan Valley is the largest wine region in British Columbia with hundreds of wineries focusing on Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. I plan to do a focused episode on Canada in the future, so I’ll discuss British Columbia more at that time, but still wanted to include it here. Although considered a minor region, it’s important to remember that it is a part of the Pacific Northwest and is growing as a world renowned wine region similar to Oregon and Washington State.