Oregon Exploits: Visiting the Willamette Valley

Here’s another re-posting ahead of upcoming Oregon Wine Month. In addition to our Oregon Wine Trail event in New York at the Altman Building on May 6th, here are some other great events that are happening in the coming week or two.

Boston / May 2: 60 Oregon wineries are coming to you for Willamette Valley Wine’s Pinot in the City.

Boston / May 3: Willamette Valley wineries join together for a pairing dinner at City Winery.

Washington, D.C. / May 7: Eight stellar producers are bringing 40 wines to ZachysDC.

And so much more because of course, May is Oregon Wine Month everywhere.

Last fall with members of the Society of Wine Educators conference, I was able to visit Adelsheim in Oregon. I confess I had no idea about the importance of this winery to the founding of the Oregon wine industry. I had heard of David Lett, whose winery I wrote about last week, but I didn’t know much about the other founding members of the Oregon winery industry. Adelsheim bought their property in 1971 in the Chehalem Mountains. They were the first winery in the area. David Adelsheim planted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay thinking it was the perfect terroir for these grapes. Time has proved him correct.

They own more than 200 acres of land in the Willamette Valley, with 180 acres planted to vines. The soils in the area are a mix of volcanic and sedimentary soils. Their winemaker is Gina Hennen.