Facts About The Columbia Valley
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Oregon is one of the United States’ most important non-Californian AVAs.
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Oregon’s Willamette Valley is an ideal site for growing cool-climate, aromatic white varieties, much like Northern Alsace in France. Think cranberries and earth, not a CA fruit bomb.
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Sub AVAs: Dundee Hills, McMinnville, Eola-Amity Hills, Yamhill-Carlton, Chehalem Mountains, Ribbon Ridge, Van Duzer Corridor
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The best Oregon Pinot Noirs are regularly compared to their significantly more expensive counterparts from Burgundy.
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Pinot Noir plantings 77% in Oregon
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The valley follows Willamette River: East are The Cascade mountain range and West are Oregon Coast Range – runs between the Willamette and the Pacific Ocean.
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Climate: Maritime Coast Range blocks a lot of the Pacific influences but ocean breezes seeping in through a series of gaps in the mountains. Rain in the winter, hot dry summers with cool evenings
Illahe Viognier 2019 from Willamette Valley, 🇺🇸
👁 Pale watery lemon color
👃 Aromatics jump out of the glass with honeysuckle, orange blossom, pear minerals, peach, saline- musty low tide 😂
👄 Rich in flavor yet fresh and creamy in texture, honeysuckle, orange blossom, pear, minerals, peach, mango, beeswax, saline , nectarine, apple all enveloped with soft acid and body with medium alcohol.