On The Road Again

After 5 weeks, 78 winery visits, and about 550 wines tasted (yes we spit), the research for our guide to the Willamette Valley is finished. So today we say goodbye to these wonderful people, their gorgeous scenery, and fantastic wines and head towards Colorado.

We’ve had a great time getting to know this region; the only negative was the weather. Several stretches of consecutive days with temperatures over 100 degrees—in Oregon. This does not bode well for Oregon Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir does not do well in hot weather. The Oregonians have made their reputation by taking advantage of their cool temperatures and long hang time in the summer months to produce wines of structure and elegance.

Oregon Pinot Noir has beautiful crushed rock aromas and bracing minerality that distinguishes them from Pinot Noir grown in the warmer sites in California. Some of the more talented winemakers here manage to get close to a true Burgundian style–with even a few years of bottle age they develop the barnyard and mushroom aromas that pinot fans adore. These characteristics tend to get lost when when the grapes get too ripe.

The Willamette Valley’s distinctive character is threatened by climate change, which seems to be advancing quickly here in the Pacific Northwest. 2012 and 2014 were abnormally hot and 2015 is shaping up as a real scorcher. Too much heat means sunburned skins, high sugar levels that create excess alcohol, and dehydration which requires winemakers to “water back” to keep wines in balance. Worse, quickly rising sugar levels may require harvest before the phenolics have fully developed making for simple, fruity wines without much complexity. In fact we tasted some 2012’s that were big, bold, and fruit-driven but lacked character.

Much depends on what happens next but most of the winemakers we talked to were preparing for an early September harvest, weeks before a normal harvest which typically happens in October. All of them say we are in uncharted territory

If I were a young winemaker committed to making great Pinot Noir, I would think twice about investing too many resources here.

Has anyone taken soil samples in Alaska?