The Hudson Bay Company established Oregon's first vineyard in Fort Vancouver around 1825, with the first commercial winery coming onto the scene in 1883. Present-day wineries in Oregon were first established in the late 1950s, but it is David Lett, founder of The Eyrie Vineyards, who is considered by many to be the spiritual godfather of modern Oregon winemaking and viticulture, having planted Pinot Noir on his Willamette Valley property in 1966.   More

The Hudson Bay Company established Oregon's first vineyard in Fort Vancouver around 1825, with the first commercial winery coming onto the scene in 1883. Present-day wineries in Oregon were first established in the late 1950s, but it is David Lett, founder of The Eyrie Vineyards, who is considered by many to be the spiritual godfather of modern Oregon winemaking and viticulture, having planted Pinot Noir on his Willamette Valley property in 1966.

Although the Willamette Valley continues today to be Ground Zero for Oregon Pinot production, at first glance it might appear an unlikely spot for quality viticulture, lying hundreds of miles north of California's Mendocino Valley, which is already at the margins of viability for grapegrowing. The answer lies in the configuration of the coastal hills. North of Mendocino the barrier to ocean fog and rain clouds dies away in more broken terrain. But north of the Oregon border the Coast Range reasserts itself as a raincatcher, sheltering the Umpqua, then farther north the Willamette Valley.

The Willamette Valley's relatively mild climate seems to keep grape sugars, and hence ultimate ripeness, in check—the result being Pinot Noirs that play perhaps more on finesse and less on raw power than their California counterparts (though, it must be said, not always with a concomitant gain in complexity).   Less