An infant sommelier once thought that wines labeled Willamette came from the North Shore of Chicago. It actually is in reference to a valley formed by the Willamette River in Oregon. It is a tributary of the Columbia River. The 2008 vintage has been declared the vintage of a lifetime by many. (Wine Critics say this every year—Sommeliers are not critics, but conscientious objectors of highly touted vintages—and for some strange reason, off-vintages seem to age better!). This sommelier will soon embark on a pilgrimage to unearth great Willamette Pinot Noir.
As the story goes, while at UC Davis, Vigneron David Lett had this crazy notion to plant pinot noir (Dijon Clones) in the Willamette Valley around 1966--give or take a year. A French Connection--Willamette shares a similar latitude with Burgundy, France, and is perfectly suited for growing this fickle red varietal, pinot noir. This cool climate grape loves the mild wet winters and warm dry summers the Willamette offers stretching about 150 miles from Portland in the North to Eugene in the South.
Willamette has some of the most distinctive terrior in the New World. Its Pinots are seductively earthy with many red to dark fruits, smell like a Northwest conifer to cedar forest at times, and are delicious with salmon. I will hopefully collect many soil samples in my travels, especially the red jory that gives Willamette Pinot such a rich earthy quality.
Stay tuned for the Willamette Valley Expedition version 2011.
