The Willamette Valley Chardonnay Article that Never Was

December, 2019. The table was set. I had 25 Willamette Valley chardonnays chilled and ready. Each chardonnay hailed from one of the seven sub-appellations (also known as nested AVAs or sub-AVAs) within the valley*, and nearly all sub-AVAs had three or four wines to represent it. Three notable somms from the Twin Cities had arrived to my home for the tasting—Amy Waller of The Bachelor Farmer, Tristan Pitre of Spoon & Stable (and Demi), and Karina Roe of France 44. A friend and well-seasoned enthusiast also joined us to round out the table of five.

Chardonnay, on the other hand, has just begun its rise in the Willamette. Eric Asimov of the NY Times featured Willamette Chardonnay in 2012, right around the beginning of the ascent on the national level. Willamette producers had long worked with Chardonnay, but a combination of imprecise clonal selection, lack of focus, and inexperience likely pushed Chardonnay off the radar screen. As cited in a blog post I previously wrote for a Willamette producer:

Much ado has been made about the clonal selections, from the first Draper, Wente, and UCD 108 clones, to the Dijon clones pioneered in the Willamette Valley by David Adelsheim. The refinement of clonal selection has certainly catalyzed Chardonnay’s reputation, but equally so has the refinement of site selection, winegrowing practices, maturing vines, pick times, and winemaking decisions in the cellar.

Today, the valley celebrates chardonnay on its own terms via the annual Oregon Chardonnay Celebration, now in its 11th year. Wineries like Morgen Long and Stratera focus exclusively on the variety, and rightfully so. This isn’t your Grandma’s chardonnay. Willamette Valley chardonnay contrasts quite sharply with the monolithic stereotype of Cali chardonnay, where a singular expression became the icon—weighty, buttery, and heavily oaked.***

The Wines

The time had come to reveal the distinct profiles of chardonnay found within the nested AVAs of the Willamette Valley. I had compiled a nearly complete lineup of wines from the sub-AVAs. While far from scientific or perfect, as tastings always are, the representation of wines from multiple producers and vintages within each AVA could potentially reveal some conclusions.

Wine	AVA
Lange Dundee Hills Estate Chardonnay 2017	Dundee Hills
Knudsen Vineyards Chardonnay 2016	Dundee Hills
Sokol Blosser Estate Chardonnay 2017	Dundee Hills
Chehalem Reserve Stoller Vineyard Chardonnay 2017	Dundee Hills
Bethel Heights Casteel Chardonnay 2017	Eola-Amity Hills
Walter Scott X-Novo Chardonnay 2017	Eola-Amity Hills
Elton Vineyards Chardonnay 2016	Eola-Amity Hills
Big Table Farm Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay 2017	Eola-Amity Hills
Le Cadeau Chardonnay 2017	Chehalem Mountains
Failla Chehalem Mountains Vineyard Chardonnay 2017	Chehalem Mountains
Carabella Dijon Clones Chardonnay 2017	Chehalem Mountains
Ponzi Vineyards Aurora Chardonnay 2016	Chehalem Mountains
Trisaetum Ribbon Ridge Estate Chardonnay 2017	Ribbon Ridge
Brick House Cascadia Chardonnay 2013	Ribbon Ridge
Brick House Cascadia Chardonnay 2016	Ribbon Ridge
Roco Marsh Estate Vineyard Chardonnay 2015	Yamhill-Carlton
Trisaetum Coast Range Estate Chardonnay 2017	Yamhill-Carlton
Big Table Farm Yamhill-Carlton Chardonnay 2017	Yamhill-Carlton
Gran Moraine Chardonnay 2017	Yamhill-Carlton
Left Coast Suzanne’s Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2015	Van Duzer Corridor
Coehlo Coehlo Vineyard Chardonnay 2017	Van Duzer Corridor
Coehlo Family Reserve Coehlo Vineyard Chardonnay 2016	Van Duzer Corridor
Walter Scott Freedom Hill Vineyard Chardonnay 2017	Mount Pisgah
Lange Freedom Hill Vineyard Chardonnay 2017	Mount Pisgah
Resonance Hyland Vineyard Chardonnay 2017	McMinnville

The Tasting

We tasted for 90 minutes. A clock was set for each wine, as we had practiced together for years for our weekly somm exam practice. We tasted in silence while jotting down our notes on the pre-printed spreadsheet.

Taste, swish, spit. Think then write.

Taste, swish, spit. Think then write.

Palate fatigue was certainly a factor, though we took breaks with food between each AVA flight to mitigate it. Wines were poured blind to all but myself. Then, when we finished, we shared notes from each AVA flight, seeking to find commonalities in our notes. We discussed body, acid, primary fruits and non-fruited flavors and aromas, reduction, and oak usage. When we wrapped up the conversation, I collected all the notes, which I later methodically analyzed for commonalities and differences. None of us drank another glass of chardonnay for a month.

One Anomaly: the Van Duzer Corridor AVA

Broadly, we found little to no distinctive, consistent flavor or textural impacts within specific sub-AVAs. Except for one: the Van Duzer Corridor AVA. Here we found wines with more ripeness of fruit, while still maintaining the characteristic medium+ acidity we found almost universally in all the wines tasted. Notes from all five tasters consistently included words like “intense, dense, tropical, peach, mango, guava, and canned peaches” for all three wines. These wines had more phenolic ripeness, while maintaining the expected backbone of acidity.

The Van Duzer Corridor AVA is distinct within the valley. Most significantly, it is directly blasted with cool Van Duzer winds that arrive via the Van Duzer Corridor every day. The microclimate of the AVA quickly cools every afternoon as the pressure differential between the warm valley and cool Pacific Ocean sucks 55 degree ocean air into the Willamette Valley. Temperatures in the AVA stay cooler than other nested AVAs and cool down earlier in the day. A summer day may be 85 degrees and rapidly fall to 58, for example. Some days the diurnal swing is greater.

A Theory for the Van Duzer Corridor AVA

I propose a theory to explain the consistent flavor profile found within these three wines. I anticipate that many Van Duzer Corridor producers pick their chardonnay later than the other sub-AVAs. They likely need to hang their fruit longer to reach balanced ripeness in the grapes, as the microclimate is cooler (fewer growing degree days) than other sub-AVAs in the valley. Balanced ripeness requires phenolic ripeness (flavor ripeness), acidity, and sugars to all align. At the risk of oversimplifying, phenolic ripeness paces along steadily and requires a set, consistent number of days each year to reach maturity. Sugars and acids evolve more variably, depending upon the weather that season. Sugars will increase only with appropriate heat, while acids fall after veraison depending upon heat units. Too much heat will quickly reduce the acidity (unless heat really spikes, and then the grapes simply shut down to survive), while appropriately warm days and cool evenings result in more ideal acid levels. The goal is to pick around the set date for phenolic ripeness while also catching acids at appropriate levels as they fall and brix levels at nice levels as they rise. Viticultural practices help align these goals.

Achieving 21-23 brix for chardonnay and acids that aren’t still too high likely requires more hang time in the Van Duzer Corridor AVA. What happens while you wait longer in the cooler climate? Phenolic ripeness progresses past the lemon and green apple levels of ripeness into the range of pit and tropical fruits.

I am eager to test this theory against the knowledge of Willamette Valley winemakers and Van Duzer Corridor winemakers in particular. Stay tuned.

The Fateful Day in 2020

I had begun analyzing the tasting data when the calendar hit March 15th, 2020. Everything shut down. Not long after, the publisher lined up for the article backed out, and this piece was buried under the sands of time and Covid misfortune.

But no longer. Now it breathes.

Part II: Coming Soon

In a follow up piece, I will highlight the chardonnays that rose above the crop for the majority of the tasting panel.

More on chardonnay: The Death of Yeast Adds Life to Chardonnay

* At the time of the tasting, the Willamette Valley had seven sub-appellations, though I included two wines from the soon-to-be eighth AVA, Mount Pisgah. I knew that it would likely be approved by the TTB shortly after the tasting.

** I can hear David Adelsheim and Harry Peterson-Nedry chuckling, “It hasn’t been that long, young man.”

***Specific wineries and AVAs in California have long produced more nuanced chardonnays, but intense, dense, toasted lemon curd is the norm and expectation from most consumers.

Featured image of the Willamette Valley by Ron Kaplan