Lower Long Tom: Oregon’s newest AVA

Lower Long Tom is not the name of some long-forgotten punk band. It is Oregon’s newest American Viticultural Area (AVA).

In December 2021, Lower Long Tom became the 10th AVA nestled within the Willamette Valley AVA. It is also the first AVA established in the valley’s southern portion. Its location, 161km southwest of Portland, places it far away from the northern Willamette Valley’s well-established wine scene.

Scroll down for 10 wines to try from Oregon’s Lower Long Tom AVA

The new AVA, of 233ha in production, contains 24 vineyards (see box below) each averaging just 9.71ha. Its 12 wineries produce between 200 and 25,000 cases annually, with most falling at the lower end of that range. ‘We may be a small AVA, but we’re passionate,’ says Matt Shown of Brigadoon Wine Co.

To be recognised as an AVA by the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a winegrowing region must prove it is distinct from neighbouring areas based on criteria such as soils, climate and historical record. Dieter Boehm of High Pass Winery had a strong case when he submitted Lower Long Tom’s AVA application.

The Long Tom name is derived from an English interpretation of a Native American word, possibly ‘Lamphtumpif’ or ‘Longtabuff’, used to refer to a group of Kalapuyan people that lived in the area for thousands of years. The Long Tom River serves as the AVA’s eastern boundary.

Unique soils and climate

Bellpine is the Lower Long Tom AVA’s predominant soil type. The marine sedimentary soil is a shallow layer of silty clay loam over sandstone that is nutrient-poor and fast-draining. These conditions force vines to push into the sandstone to pursue food and water. Shown says harder-working vines mean lighter canopies and smaller grapes, which add concentration to Pinot Noir.

Boehm credits the Bellpine soil for the powerful tannins found in Lower Long Tom Pinots. ‘Because of the soil, we get wines that take a really long time to mature and soften, and they can even seem a little astringent at first,’ says Boehm.

Although the Lower Long Tom AVA is just 97km from the Pacific Ocean, tall peaks in the Oregon Coast Range divert cool maritime winds and rains to the north and south. The resulting warmer vineyard temperatures result in earlier harvests and darker, richer Pinot Noirs than other parts of the valley. ‘We pick a week earlier than they do up in the northern part of the Willamette Valley,’ explains Boehm.

A location at the edge of the Oregon Coast Range, with its dense forests and icy-cold streams, also gives the Lower Long Tom an alpine feel – similar to Jura or Savoie in France. Armies of cows and sheep grazing the region’s rolling foothills only strengthen that impression.

Tight-knit community

Robin Pfeiffer of Pfeiffer Winery planted the area’s first vines in 1984. Boehm of High Pass and Mike and Merry Fix of RainSong Winery added their estate vineyards the following year. Today they are part of a tight-knit, collegial group of producers filled with pride for their hard work and perseverance.

It is also a group hoping to emerge from the shadow of northern AVAs like Dundee Hills and Ribbon Ridge. ‘It can be frustrating when the media says “Willamette Valley”, and they only mean the northern part,’ says Marcus Hall, RainSong’s winemaker and co-owner.

People willing to explore the Lower Long Tom AVA will find more than just the Willamette Valley’s signature Pinot Noirs. Producers here also make dry and off-dry white wines with everything from Sauvignon Blanc to Muscat.

Boehm, for example, was homesick for familiar grapes when he landed in Oregon after escaping East Germany in the 1970s. He remedied the situation by bringing cuttings of Scheurebe, Huxelrebe, Bacchus, Siegfried and Gutedel from his native land back to Oregon. Boehm uses these to make a frisky white called Crazy 8.

This is also the region where Stephen Hagen of Antiquum Farm started his grazing-based viticulture revolution. Hagen pushes beyond basic organic and biodynamic farming tenets by incorporating carefully selected breeds of pigs, geese, chickens, ducks, sheep and guardian dogs into the vineyard system for 11 months of the year.

Moving the animals every three to 21 days is a practice Hagen describes as ‘rotational intensive grazing’. Lost nutrients are continually replenished as above-ground materials are eaten and redistributed into the soil, where appreciative microbiological organisms put them to good use.

The passion is easy to spot in Oregon’s newest AVA.

Lower Long Tom: wineries and vineyards

Wineries

Antiquum Farm

Bennett Vineyards and Wine Co

Bradshaw Vineyard

Brigadoon Wine Co

Benton Lane Winery

Five Fourteen Vineyard

High Pass Winery

Pfeiffer Winery

Poco Collina

RainSong Vineyard

Territorial Vineyards and Wine Co

Walnut Ridge Vineyard

Vineyards

(Many of the wineries above are located on an estate vineyard)

Bellpine Vineyard

Chardonnay Way

Davis Reid Vineyard

Evans Vineyard

Fitzpatrick Vineyard

Gelardi Vineyard

Grace Hill Vineyard

Hildebrand Ranch

Kliewers Weinberg

Kokkeler Vineyard

Moriah Vineyard

Priddy Vineyard

Stroda Vineyard

Sunny Mountain

Union School

Lower Long Tom: wines from Oregon’s newest AVA

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