Willamette Valley: Three must-know producers flying under the radar
The 2023 vintage in the Willamette Valley is another sure winner. Gorgeous wines that are ready now, but will age for the better part of a decade. It's one of the most dynamic regions in all of the winemaking world, and North American Editor Clive Pursehouse shares three producers quietly making some of the region, and the country's best wines.
Beyond the beguiling wines, there is a charm to the Willamette Valley that I haven’t found in other American wine regions. This is a place where small producers can still build something for themselves.
Access to vineyard land, or at the very least quality fruit, is not beyond the reach of an aspiring new producer.
Willamette is a winemaking community. A place where new producers are welcomed like old friends, and community trumps competition. It was that way in the beginning, and it remains that way today.
Three under-the-radar Willamette Valley producers to track
Granville Wine Co
Jackson Holstein is a second-generation winegrower in the Dundee Hills (his father, Allen, was one of the region’s pioneering winegrowers in the late 1970s), and he’s making brilliant wines at Granville Wine Co., which he owns with his wife, Ayla.
A farmer first, Holstein’s deft hand at winemaking is immediately obvious from his Pinot Noirs, Chardonnays and brilliant sparkling wines. Granville’s first vintage was a small production in 2014, when both were still working day jobs. In 2018, the winemaking got serious, with the Holsteins building a winery and upping production.
Holstein grew up here in the nascent days of the Willamette Valley and is fully aware of what that means.
‘It’s one thing to be a multigenerational producer in a region with centuries of wine-related history or culture, like in Piedmont or Burgundy,’ Holsteins reflects. ‘It’s entirely different when the culture is still being established and defined, like it is here in the Willamette Valley.
‘The previous generation of pioneers and dreamers did their part; now it’s our turn. We’re out to show the world that Oregon’s full potential hasn’t yet been realised. We’re really just getting started.’
Holstein feels a sense of duty to build on the work of those who came before him and his contemporaries. At Granville, he’s crafting wines that would surely make those pioneers proud.
Evesham Wood and Haden Fig
I don’t think there are better Pinot Noirs for the money, anywhere in the world, than the ones being made by Erin Nuccio. To be clear, these aren’t just great values; they’re great wines.
Nuccio fell into wine after college, working at a wine shop near his home in Arlington, Virginia. He found himself drawn to the wines of the Old World, and it was then that he tasted his first Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs.
A trip to Northern California, with a desire to learn to grow and make wine, eventually landed Nuccio in the Willamette Valley in 2007.
‘I became friends with Russ Rainey, the founder of Evesham Wood in the Eola-Amity Hills, and started apprenticing under him,’ explains Nuccio. ‘I produced my Haden Fig wines in the Evesham Wood warehouse. My plan was to slowly build an estate, so Russ and I would drive the hills looking at sites he thought would make great vineyards.
‘As I started making Pinot Noirs from different sites like Cancilla Vineyard and Mahonia Vineyard, I quickly realised that a big part of what makes the Willamette Valley so special is that the same grape can be grown on very similar sites, sometimes right next to each other, and produce wildly different expressions of Pinot Noir, Nuccio concludes.’
White Walnut Estate
Chris Mazepink arrived in the Willamette Valley in 2000 and worked at some of the region’s larger producers, including Archery Summit, Shea Wine Cellars, and Benton Lane. In those winemaking roles, his charge was to craft wines that adhered to established house styles.
‘I moved to the Willamette Valley, from New York, in the summer of 2000 to dive into my graduate studies in fermentation science and viticulture at Oregon State University,’ says Mazepink.
‘At the time, most wineries in Oregon didn’t even have websites, and frankly, I had just purchased my first cell phone, so that first job involved me faxing my resume to every winery I could find a fax number for – less than 50 in total! Frankly, at that point, the Oregon wine industry was a bit more of an in-state novelty. Fast forward to today, and we’re a globally recognised, qualitative epicentre for benchmark examples of both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.’
His White Walnut Estate, planted on the eastern flank of the Dundee Hills, was established in 2015 and 2016. The estate sits just below the Domaine Drouhin estate, on a former walnut orchard.
It is a complete departure from his previous work. Mazepink farms organically and biodynamically, and leans heavily into the Dundee Hills. ‘I’m the only producer in the region who is making wine with exclusively Dundee Hills fruit,’ he informs me.
Mazepink’s nine wines (four Chardonnays and five Pinot Noirs) are an exploration of the Dundee Hills terroir and an expression of his diverse farming. His approach as a winegrower has given him fantastic material to work with as a winemaker.
He has amassed a collection of various Pinot Noir and Chardonnay clones and has taken his ‘polyculture’ approach to planting his White Walnut and Apple Field estate sites.
His Worden Hill Road bottling is an exploration of sites along the thoroughfare that cuts through the heart of the Dundee Hills. ‘The Dundee Hills are painted with too broad a brush,’ Mazepink says, ‘there are numerous non-fruit descriptors that I get from those sites.’
A more robust story of the Dundee Hills going beyond their signature fresh red fruits.
The Willamette Valley 2023 vintage rating: 5/5
The 2023 Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays alike show a consistency of quality, and as has been the case over the last few years, I find the Chardonnays showing slightly better.
The somewhat abrupt nature of the growing season meant winegrowers had to be ready come harvest time. You might see a couple of examples of wines where alcohol may have gotten away from people, but generally, there is an elegance that matches the vintage’s generosity.
Wines from rising Willamette Valley producers to have on your radar
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White Walnut Vineyard, Apple Field Vineyard Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills, Oregon, USA, 2023
<p>This site was planted in 2016, featuring a suitcase selection from Europe, which showcases untoasted almonds and hazelnuts, according to Chris Mazepink, with notes of olive oil. He loves the nutiness here. Fresh and savoury, with stunning texture, ripe and unctuous fleshy lemon curd, a touch of spice, and the freshness of sliced apples. The Apple Field Vineyard delivers a brisk finish; lemony and salted.</p>
2023
White Walnut VineyardWillamette Valley
Evesham Wood, Le Puits Sec Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon, USA, 2023
A mere quarter of an acre of the Puits Sec Vineyard features Chardonnay, located at the top of the site, with these vines planted in 1991. This Chardonnay from Erin Nuccio is a masterclass in texture, a limited production of one and a half barrels, with half of the barrels being younger casks. Light, floral notes mark the subtle aromatics, accompanied by apricot skin and a faint hint of lemon verbena. The palate follows with gorgeous harmony, featuring sweet peaches, lemon cream, and a stunning saline lift, which brings about a seemingly endless finish to this exquisite Chardonnay.
2023
Evesham WoodWillamette Valley
Granville, Latchkey Vineyard Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills, Oregon, USA, 2023
The Latchkey site is in the Dundee Hills, adjacent to the Holstein property. Deeper Jory soils near the town of Dundee, sur lie elevage for up to 11 months in barrel. This is a precise Chardonnay with crystaline notes of lemon verbena, wet slate and faint lemon zest. The palate is thirst slaking with soaring minerality, salty ocean brine, smoky grilled lemon peel and bracing acidity matched with juicy tart citrus through the finsh. This is lithe and electric, with such great bones to age for seemingly ever. A brilliant Chardonnay showing the brighter side of the Dundee Hills.
2023
GranvilleWillamette Valley
White Walnut Vineyard, White Walnut Vineyard Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills, Oregon, USA, 2023
<p>A savoury complexity emerges in the White Walnut, immediately with purple florals, lilac, juniper, and green tea leaf, alongside wild strawberries. It’s all about savoury notes throughout the palate, with a delicious complexity driven by forest floor, mint, salt, and earth. A red-fruited dynamo with ample savoury depth coming right off of Chris Mazepink's original White Walnut estate on the eastern-facing flanks of the Dundee Hills, tucked among walnut trees just below the Drouhin estate.</p>
2023
White Walnut VineyardWillamette Valley
Evesham Wood, Le Puits Sec Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon, USA, 2023
Le Puits Sec is the main estate vineyard at Evesham Wood, planted by founder Russ Rainey in 1986 on its own roots, with additional plantings in 1991 to three different Dijon clone Pinot Noirs. It’s certified organic and dry-farmed. Elegance abounds in the aromatics, with a melange of fresh red berries, blood orange and resonant notes of forest floor. Stunning on the palate with mouthfuls of fresh woodland berry fruits, dashes of savoury mint and soaring notes of fresh cranberry and spicy blood orange. Exotic spices lead the finish with touches of sea salt.
2023
Evesham WoodWillamette Valley
Evesham Wood, Mahonia Vineyard Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA, 2023
Aromas of lilac, freshly cut cedar and notes of forest floor. Stunning on the palate, blending a savoury austerity with a purity of taut blue fruits, fresh mint leaves, a gorgeous note of stony mineral high note cuts through the deep fruit exuberance. This wine strikes a balance between elegance and energy in a uniquely Willamette Valley style.
2023
Evesham WoodWillamette Valley
Granville, Holstein Vineyard Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills, Oregon, USA, 2023
The estate sits along the eastern flank of the Dundee Hills, Jackson uses 20% whole cluster on this and they're not doing any hedging in the vine rows, but instead are braiding and bending down the shoots. Hedging tells the vines to ripen the fruit, and this lowers the pH levels in the Dundee Hills where ripeness is never a chal, keeping acidity fresh. Tissagé method it's called and works well in his low vigour site. This wine delivers a mineral crispness and fresh edge, where Dundee Hills Pinots can be more opulent than many parts of the valley. Mint leaves and ocean brine, with piquant blood orange leaves you with a salty, pine sap finish, it's elegant and wild all at once.
2023
GranvilleWillamette Valley
White Walnut Vineyard, Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills, Oregon, USA, 2023
Explosively aromatic with sapid blue fruits and a sense of early season cool blue fruits, hibiscus tea, fermented in concrete, 3 weeks on skin, about 20% or so. All native, barrel-aged for 8-9 months and then aged for 1 month in concrete. Great notes of hibiscus tea, wet stone and umami-driven forest floor elements. Purple violets are fantastic and compelling. An incredible value at $45, sourced from a number of Dundee Hills sites. All of which are within two miles of the winery. This wine is composed of White Walnut, Apple Field, Olenik, Anderson Family, and Chris’ Terra Rosa sites.
2023
White Walnut VineyardWillamette Valley
Granville, Temperance Hill Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon, USA, 2023
This Pinot from the North Block at Temperance Hill, the legendary organic site in the Eola-Amity Hills, Jackson picks the southwest facing block, and fully destems it, and the easten facing block, picked 5 days later is done with whole clusters, its all Pommard clone, planted in around 1994.Effusive red floral aroamtics, and upright accents of raspberry leaf and freshly chopped mint. It's tremendously juicy fruit on the palate, with tart red berries and ocean salinity, it's got edges to the tannins on opening, and a rusticity to the texture which lingers on the mouthfeel. Continuing on with spicy wild strawberries and white pepper and a sweet raspberry finish.
2023
GranvilleWillamette Valley
