Willamette Valley 2023 vintage report: A year of exquisite Chardonnay and the 20 best picks

‘Barely 1,000 acres [405ha] of Chardonnay vines existed in the entire state when we purchased our X Novo parcel in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA in 2010,’ says Craig Williams of X Novo, one of the most sought-after Chardonnay sites in Oregon.

‘Pinot Gris acreage was almost three times greater. This lack of Chardonnay – a noble variety that produces world-class white wines – seemed at odds with the focus on other cool-climate grapes.’

‘In 1986, Chardonnay was 25% of the plantings in the Willamette Valley,’ says Chris Mazepink, owner and winemaker at White Walnut Estate in the Dundee Hills.

‘Today, it’s only 5%, but the quality has never been better, and you can argue that Chardonnay has now eclipsed Pinot Noir among the top bottlings.’

Scroll down to see Clive Pursehouse’s notes and scores for 20 of the best Chardonnays from Willamette Valley’s 2023 vintage

Slow burn

Chardonnay from Willamette Valley has taken a circuitous path to its current success.

The valley’s oldest Chardonnay vines are in the Eyrie vineyard, where a single hectare was planted by David Lett in 1966.

Lett had acquired cuttings in 1964 from Joe Torres, who at the time was the vineyard manager for the Draper Ranch in St Helena; they spent a year in the ground in a nursery block near Corvallis, Oregon, before being transplanted.

A little later in the same year, Charles Coury planted the 108 clone from the University of California, Davis at his vineyard. The vines at both sites, and many of the valley’s other pioneering Chardonnay plantings, were California ‘heritage’ clones.

While successful in California’s warmer conditions, they had difficulty ripening in the cool, wet, nascent days of the Willamette Valley wine industry.

The arrival of Dijon clones, spurred on by Willamette pioneer David Adelsheim, saw a rise in Chardonnay plantings and increasingly reliable ripening.

But then, as climate change began to affect the valley, those early plantings of California clones went from being unreliable to creating perhaps its most compelling Chardonnays.

‘When I first started in 2000, we had the 1998 and ’99 vintages and then that year,’ recalls Mazepink.

‘People were excited that we got Chardonnay ripe three years in a row. At the time, it was accepted that one in three would be a washout. Now everything gets sufficiently ripe – it’s not nearly as variable as it was.’

Burgundian influence

In 2007, Evening Land Vineyards hired Dominique Lafon to come from Burgundy and consult on its newly acquired project in the Eola-Amity Hills.

His vision single-handedly changed the way Oregon producers approached Chardonnay. Rather than chasing ripeness, the focus shifted to picking earlier to preserve acidity and freshness.

Among his early devotees was Ken Pahlow (pictured, above), whose Walter Scott label now produces some of the valley’s top Chardonnays every vintage.

The modern-day Willamette Valley Chardonnay is one of balance, gorgeously rich texture and fruited depth that I often characterise as ‘lemon curd’, and a soaring freshness, of both acidity and minerality.

The Pacific ocean’s influence lends a saline throughline to these well-made Chardonnays, irrespective of producer.

Meanwhile, the creation of regional signatures has been assisted by the use of reductive winemaking (minimising exposure to oxygen) and, in some circles, the adoption of the ‘black Chardonnay’ technique.

This is a name now being applied to a production method that involves vigorous crushing of the grapes and ample aeration, which causes the must to turn rapidly to a dark brown or ‘black’ colour; the aim is to increase both the texture of the wine and its capacity for ageing, while also fending off oxidation once in the bottle.

London’s A&B Vintners has gone all-in on the Willamette Valley and its Chardonnays. Says buying director Simon Davies: ‘I think what Oregon does spectacularly well is compete at that mid-to upper level with white Burgundy.

‘The likes of Morgen Long, Crowley, Abbott Claim, Martin Woods and Arterberry Maresh, among others, are all producing wines that are intense, ageworthy and exhibit incredible uniqueness of site.’

François Millet made wine for more than three decades at Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé, the iconic Chambolle-Musigny estate.

He speaks more like a poet than a winemaker and treats terroir with a deeply personal approach.

2023 marked his first vintage in the Willamette Valley, making the wines at La Biblioteca in Dundee. While he likens terroir to personalities, Millet thinks of vintages as similar to a mood.

‘The mood of the 2023 vintage in the Willamette Valley was determined but with generosity,’ he says.

‘It’s positive and determined, sure, but still very elegant. It’s not at all aggressive and has allowed for wines to be quite beautiful.’

100-point Oregon!

A ‘sweet spot’ is how I would characterise 2023 in the Willamette Valley – its cool beginnings akin to 2022 and its warm, dry finish similar to 2021.

The conditions, together with the rising tide of Chardonnay in the valley, delivered the first 100-point wine from Oregon in Decanter’s history: Bethel Heights, The High Wire Chardonnay 2023, a simply mesmerising wine from own-rooted Wente clone vines planted in 1977.

‘When my family purchased the property in 1978, these vines were just a year old – fragile sticks in the ground,’ says winemaker Ben Casteel. ‘Ripening them was a challenge every vintage, spanning my late father’s entire career and the first eight years of mine.

‘Over the years, they had every chance to replant with an earlier-ripening variety, but they chose patience,’ he continues. ‘That patience is what brought us to this moment, 47 years later.’

Pursehouse’s top Willamette Valley 2023 Chardonnay

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