Oregon's 50 Best Wines
Five of the city's top wine connoisseurs sampled more than 400 Oregon wines to select the best the state has to offer. Now it's your turn to sample the results!
Edited by Rachel RitchieBy Allison Jones
The List
Why only Pinots?
Where are all the other reds? As you scan this list, you’ll probably notice a trend: every single one of our 35 top red wines is a pinot noir. While Oregon’s production of “the other reds”—merlot, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, zinfan del, and others—is quickly growing, much of our state’s winemaking energy is still devoted to the granddaddy of Oregon grapes. The first varietal to be widely grown in the Willamette Valley, where the climate is ideal, pinot noir has put our verdant vineyards solidly on the radar of oenophiles around the globe. that means thriving markets for Oregon winemakers, which lead to greater investment in pinot production. But trust us: there are plenty of other delicious wines out there just waiting to be sipped.
Rating 96
No. 1
Soter Vineyards
2008 Pinot Noir Mineral Springs Yamhill-Carlton, $85This reserve pinot noir from Soter's estate vineyard, Mineral Springs Ranch, reflects Tony Soter's lifelong pursuit of the "winemaker's signature." The full-bodied, balanced wine captures a true sense of place and time—the vineyard's well-draining siltstone soils stood up to the wet spring of 2008 and the hilltop's slope captured the warm fall that followed, resulting in even ripening and ideal acid balance. Thanks to a week of extended maceration—contact with grape skins and stems after fermentation—this wine's soft tannins and silky, full texture make a perfect vehicle for the lush flavors of ripe black cherries, rose petals, and a whole spice rack full of herbs, cloves, and peppers. Such a quality wine will improve for over a decade, but the Mineral Springs' bright acidity and intense fruit make it absolutely delicious right now.
Rating 95No. 2
Utopia Vineyard
2008 Pinot Noir Utopia Vineyard Ribbon Ridge, $38Utopia's Daniel Warnshuis took a gamble in 2008, waiting to harvest until the last possible moment to allow his grapes to ripen to their fullest flavor. That gamble paid off in this gorgeous wine, rich with flavors of sweet cherry, sarsaparilla, rose petals, and ripe blackberries. Dark and dense with silky tannins, oaky creaminess, and an extremely long and satisfying finish, this expertly made wine was built to last.
Rating 94No. 3
1789 Wines
2008 Pinot Noir Single Vineyard Chehalem Mountains, $48Grapes for this refined wine were hand-selected and gently processed to bring out maximum fruit aromatics and a deep red color. The rich, balanced wine is lush with flavors of red berries, leather, and black pepper that combine with silky tannins and a long, toffee-noted finish for a sensual sip.
No. 4
Daedalus Cellars
2008 Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Dundee Hills, $60One of the oldest plantings in the Dundee Hills, Maresh Vineyard produces grapes with juicy, bright fruit and herb flavors and a clean structure that combine into a lively, balanced wine. Rich with strawberry, orange blossom, and black pepper notes, this small-production vintage—only 146 cases—is sure to go fast.
No. 5
Andrew Rich
2009 Pinot Noir Prelude Willamette Valley, $22Our top wallet-friendly wine features a beautiful blend of floral notes and bright cherry flavors that linger on the palate. One of the premier wines from the Carlton Winemaker's Studio, Andrew Rich's Prelude is refreshing, light, and full with balanced acidity and soft tannins that will pair well with a wide variety of foods.
Rating 93No. 6
Broadley Vineyards
2009 Pinot Noir Claudia's Choice Willamette Valley, $50Made from a selection of fruit from Broadley's oldest vineyard, this wine is elegant, earthy, and mature. With up-front flavors of dark chocolate and black pepper, Claudia's Choice is softened by juicy notes of black cherry. Beautifully balanced with a long finish, this wine is robust and tannic.
No. 7
ROCO winery
2008 Pinot Noir Private Stash No. 6 Chehalem Mountains, $70The late harvest of 2008 shines through with ripe fruit flavor, balanced acidity, and developed yet soft tannins. This wine is creamy and lush with sweet spices—think cinnamon, cloves, and allspice—and ripe berries, like a late-summer fruit cobbler in a glass.
No. 8
Thistle
2008 Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, $28Rich, red volcanic soils and organic vines shine through in the earthy flavors of this 2008 pinot's creamy, smooth finish. With plush flavors of sweet strawberry jam, dried cherries, and rich dark chocolate, this wine begs to be paired with duck or game.
Rating 92No. 9
Rex Hill Vineyards
2009 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, $33Though Rex Hill uses "small" fermenters, there is nothing small about this wine. With aromatics bursting with roses, currants, and strawberries and flavors of fried plums, smoke, and spice, this is a big wine with strong tannins and a long, complex finish. While some pinots shine primarily through their scent, this wine is excellent on both nose and palate.
No.10
Bergström wines
2009 Pinot Noir de Lancellotti Chehalem Mountains, $60The well-draining soils of the Chehalem Mountains lend pinot noir a graceful, slow development that shines in the bottle. This fruit-forward wine offers rich flavors of plum, ripe blackberries, sage, and spice. Powerful and dark, its balanced tannins and acidity combine for a smooth and enjoyable sip.
No. 11
Cameron
Vineyards 2009 Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, $25Cameron wines are characterized by dry farming—using little to no irrigation—which allows them to highlight the unique characteristics of each vintage. Floral flavors and juicy red fruit on the tongue accent striking scents of dark cherries, hay, and leather. With strong tannins and mild acidity, this accessible bottle will be delightful for outdoor barbecues and nights on the porch.
No. 12
Matello
2009 Pinot Noir Souris Willamette Valley, $39This delicious wine shows rich fruit depth with flavors of strawberry jam, berry cobbler, and brandied cherries. A long and strong finish allows those tasty flavors to linger. (See "Taster's Choice," p. 66.)
Rating 91No.13
Eyrie Vineyards
2009 Pinot Noir Reserve Dundee Hills, $62This complex wine spends nearly two years in barrel, showing developed sweet and savory qualities with flavors ranging from rare steak to ripe blueberries. Offering one of the longest finishes of the bunch, this light wine is clean, bright, and delicious.
No.14
Patton Valley Vineyards
2008 Pinot Noir Lorna-Marie Willamette Valley, $70With heady fruit scents that jump out of the glass and complex flavors of allspice, vanilla, orange, and raspberry, this balanced, focused wine is soft and creamy. This bottle is also meant to age, and will deepen and soften over the next five years.
No.15
Broadley Vineyards
2009 Pinot Noir Reserve Willamette Valley, $38A select blend of the best barrels of Broadley's 777 clones, this carefully oaked wine is earthy and spiced, with a strong flavor of ripe, dark blackberries. The long finish and smooth texture of this unfiltered wine hint at its craftsmanship.
No.16
Luminous Hills
2009 Pinot Noir Estate Grown Yamhill-Carlton, $28Winemaker Byron Dooley (who also owns Seven of Hearts Winery) selected the best grapes from the Luminous Hills estate to bring out the herbal aromatics and juicy fruitiness of this perfumed wine. Native fermentation—using yeast naturally present on the grapes and in the air—lends an earthy, savory flavor that would pair well with grilled meats.
No.17
De Ponte cellars
2008 Pinot Noir Baldwin Family Reserve Dundee Hills, $70This wine offers scents of coffee and caramel along with notes of blackberry and black currant, but is more earthy than fruit-forward. With balanced minerality and layers of flavor, this wine will pair well with hazelnuts, tomato-based Italian sauces, and chocolate.
Published: September 2011
Your Judges
A veritable dream team of Portland wine enthusiasts, our five panelists brought a combined nine decades of industry experience to this exercise. With varied wine expertise spanning food, retail, journalism, and education, these oenophiles give us ultimate faith in our list.
Where are the whites?
Where are the cabernets? Where are the Eastern Oregon Wineries?
Congratulations to these wineries. Well done.
Marty, the whites are on page 3.
But yes, I wonder about the Rose’s, Cabernets, other red blends, etc. All they covered, mostly, was Pinot Noir’s and Chardonnay’s. Very little was rated on other types of wines that Oregon produces. A very incomplete list, if you ask me!
This is a very misleading article. Did they just forget that wine was made in other regions of the state? I was happy to see Conde Cox wasn’t the sole judge as in year’s past. Seems Southern Oregon is always an afterthought to him. I tried entering wines into this tasting and they told me the selection phase had passed and we had to be “asked” to the table. How would they know everything and everyone to ask for? Of course they still tried to sell Southern Oregon Winery Association and the Applegate Valley full page ads in the issue.
Top 50 wines from Oregon?? Am I missing something? All these wines are from 1 region! This has the feel of complete and utter laziness, or unabashed bias. What a joke.
Okay worst list ever, if we are doing a comparision tasting where is the list of 400 and how where they chosen. Statistically how many were from each AVA and Sub region. What’s the price ranges and vintage spreads. Wheres the list of producers and how many wines from a producer were allowed. This is fairly typical of a biased tasting. No chance for independence here if you are not open with your selection process and data. I could go on but’s pretty clear this was more advertising than actual blind tasting. In fact based on how they scored it was this tasting Blind at all. Then its totally out the window if it wasn’t blind on the scoring. Its okay to be biased, just say so and tell us what your bias is. If the judge is not blind tasting and he picks the wines then he will pick the wines of people and winemakers he likes. For more go to Oregonwinegeeks.com we’ll try to to sort our thoughts out.
Oh I see now that it was a blind tasting over 4 days, so again where is the full data, which wines on which and and it what order. it does effect the outcome. The how the 400 were chosen and that spread interests me most.
OWG take on this tasting:
Things OWG would do with a full disclosure of the data:
1.Question:Statistically how many were from each AVA and Sub region?
The article says 19 Varietals from 15 Appellations and 103 Producers.
OWG would see how many were from where, who and what were excluded.
2.What’s the price ranges and vintage spreads.?
The Article says 4 years worth of vintages
OWG wants to know if we are comparing apples to oxcarts, $100 2008 pinot versus $20 2007 ?
3.Where’s the list of producers and how many wines from a producer were allowed?
The Article says 103 producers
A little quick math tells me that each producer got to enter about 3.88 wines, but they said over 400 so it was more than likely 4.
Who got to get tasted and how where they chose, again the most basic question as to bias.
This is fairly typical of a biased tasting. No chance for independence here if you are not open with your selection process and data. So a closer look at the numbers says that if you are one of the lucky 103 producers picked to be tasted the chances are 1 of your 4 wines entered has what chance of getting in the top 50 ? At least 1 in 4 even better if you entered all whites to get on the whites list.
How does this 103 producers compare to Oregon?
There are over 400 producers in the Willamette Valley and about 100+ more in the rest of Oregon. So for this tasting to be even reflective of Oregon Wine we would need to have a least 250 producers represented with about 25 to 30 of those producers being from non-Willamette Valley producers.
Now you see the real contest here is not how good the wine is but can you get it tasted in the event. Be assured the producers who were in the event make wonderful pinot, in fact some of my favorite vintners were there, but a lot more were missing. Let’s be open with data that a wine tasting produces, not all competitions should produce winners for 50% of the entrants. That said I have no problem with the results but with the title “Oregon’s 50 Best Wines” is a load of fertilizer for the vines. An accurate title would be " The Best 50 of the 100 Producers we Tasted".
While some of the wines listed would not make my top anything list, there are lots of great wines on this list from VERY small wineries with NO advertising budget.
The reason most of the wines listed are from the Willamette Valley and made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is because these are, with the exception of Riesling, by far the most compelling wines produced in the state. This is not a list of the top 5 reds and whites from each region, simply a list of the winners from a blind tasting. Get over yourselves and move on.
I realize there are just going to be countless comments, mostly critical if not downright negative, about this thread from people who feel this project should have been done differently (re: their way).
But the one point I HAD to reply to is from the person who calls him or herself “Oregon Wine Geeks”, who was up and at it early this morning.
I comment merely to point out that even if there was a better way to do this project, the tasters involved are unabashedly pro-indie and small production wineries, and the tasting was truly completely blind. Your comment that it was advertising driven is ludicrous, since wineries like Matello, Brooks, and Cameron are the EPITOME of tiny, independent producers who spend (literally) zero dollars on advertising or marketing in any way whatsoever.
But even if they did, the tasting was completely blind. So….
You may wish you’d been part of it to show them all how it’s done… but you weren’t. If you want a critic job, contact Portland Monthly. Maybe they have something open (assuming you have a degree in the industry?).
Other answers to other posters:
1. There are whites… one of the top wines and many others were some of the state’s best: Teutonic, Brooks, etc.
2. Other Oregon wines / varietals WERE submitted… if they didn’t show up… there’s a reason. Sorry. Likely, the really great “other” wines (non-Willamette Valley Pinot Noir) probably just didn’t submit. Like the excellent $15 Cab from Heydon Road in the Umpqua Valley. Perhaps they didn’t know about the competition… or maybe they didn’t have enough supply to support “amateur hour” when readers suddenly have to have wines they never cared about because they don’t buy things that didn’t “score” well.
Last 2 comments taken into consideration, it is STILL misleading to state this list comprises the 50 top Oregon wines when less than 25% of the producers in Oregon were tasted. Southern Oregon has over 70 wineries, of which virtually all would qualify as small producers. It is so sad to see the hard work of these fine artisan wineries completely overlooked, particularly with the World of Wine Festival well underway. Tragic. And attempting to sell advertising to them while excluding them from being “asked to the table”? Tasteless.
While I will agree that the title is not completely accurate, it is what it is. Calling it “the top 50 wines in Oregon from producers who submitted their wines by our deadline” is a little clunky. Which takes me to your next point. The winery in question needed to be “asked to the table” because they didn’t get their sample submitted in time, not as some exclusionary tactic. Y’all seem to be taking this a little to seriously.
List fail.
First of all, there are some beautiful wines on this list. I have tried many of them, and can say that they are definitely excellent.
However…
The regional exclusion is downright embarrassing. Even the national wine journals have recognized the quality coming from both the Southern and Eastern parts of the state, (see the inserts in this year’s Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator, I think it was the February issues). I know of several 90+ wines and a 2011 Top 100 wine that are from the South and East and are not part of your list, and, likely, were not considered.
The problem is that it becomes hard to take the list and, Portland Monthly for that matter, seriously, when the exclusions are so blatant.
I hope the staff takes these comments to heart. I know that it is difficult and time consuming to sort through hundreds of wines, but I think that broadening the scope of the tasting would improve the results and serve to give a true picture of the diversity of the Oregon wine scene.
We do neither wineries or consumers a favor by perpetuating the myth that Oregon can only grown Pinot Noir and only those wines are good enough to be honored. I enjoy Pinot and have tasted many on this list. And they are good. But they are not representing the breathe of Oregon wineries or exciting nuances that wineries are delving into. Here was a chance to explore and grow the industry rather than go for the typical. I do appreciate the recognition of wineries like Thistle who do incredible work. But I think it is a shame to continue pushing Pinot. I lived in No. California as a teen and when the climate changed it pushed the Pinot north. We better start encouraging and celebrating all Oregon wines before we lose the one trick pony we have our wagon hitched to.
Excuse me — no Archery Summit Pinot Noir? You’ve got to be kidding me!
What happened to Stoller Vineyards? Their wine is amazing, especially the JV Pinot. You must have missed it for sure. :(
I was just checking if Portland Monthly is a huge wine publication that samples thousands of wines from every possible corner of the state? No? Quit the whining! As a non-oregon individual who has visited numerous parts of Oregon I will say this. The Pinot of the Willamette is generally exceptional, what Oregon is known for, what puts the state on the map. The rest of what I have tried doesn’t stand-up to Washington or California. Sorry. Celebrate what your best at. Get better at the other stuff.
Thrilled to see Thistle towards the top of this list. Great wine, nice people, and a price that doesn’t break the bank.
I was very excited when I received my magazine in the mail and saw the cover for the “Top 50 Oregon Wines”, but that excitment quickly turned to disappointment when I read through the article and realized that you chose to limit your red wines to only Pinot Noir’s and only Willamette Valley wineries. As a Southern Oregon resident, I am well aware of the MANY great red wines that come from our region and deserve to be on this list. It is really a shame that the editors were so short sighted on this…I would say this was a major fail! “Top 50 Willamette Valley wine”…Maybem but even that is debatable.
Hmmm… looks like a popularity contest from each of the “judges” friends. Pretty biased. Shame on you Portland Monthly.
As a journalist and a winery owner, I find this cover story a complete joke.
If “best” and “Oregon wine” are in your headline, you better have a broader selection than 100 labels producers in your tasting. With not one Southern Oregon or Columbia Gorge pick, I am thinking the selection of wines was not representative.
Seriously? Luminous Hills has three of the best wines in the state? Kudos to them, but, really? As someone who knows the wine industry very well, that right there (as well as the many repeat winners in this group of 50) indicates a a poorly planned and executed tasting.
As an established indie wine label, we were not contacted about this tasting. And we know many others who were not as well.
Please stop the “BEST” nonsense in your pub; it is getting stale and is ENTIRELY misleading.
Is it possible to see the entire list of 400 wines someplace? I think I would be satisfied with the blind test if I knew what was included.
The fact that there was no Belle Pente, WillaKenzie, Brick House, Archery Summit, Domain Drouhin in the list is surprising, even astonishing. But I can’t tell if they are missing because they were not considered or that they were truly inferior.
If they are in the group of wines which were considered but didn’t make the cut, then this would be extremely interesting, and in my opinion, would make this report much more valuable. As it is, it comes across as a journalistic puff piece with no actual journalism.
How about it, Portland Monthly? Publish the whole list of 400? Please?
I have no quarrel with your choices, all fine wines, many that I know from producers that I admire. But, for accuracy you could have avoided all of the controversy and negative feedback simply by calling the list what it is, your top 50 WILLAMETTE VALLEY WINES. Let the idiosyncrasies fall where they may, indie or not, as many would not qualify as indie per the Festival guidelines.
What’s with the whining? The WV is a world class wine growing region. On the other hand, Southern Oregon wines are generally mediocre. It’s no wonder the list is dominated by Willamette Valley wines. One would have to be pretty thick to expect otherwise.
I think the primary problem with this article is the term best. As written it should be presented as “50 Fine Oregon Wines”. As others have said to write an article regarding the 50 best wines in the state with integrity you must evaluate all wine produced in the state. A more practical top 50 would be the 50 best Oregon wines of 2011. You could then strive to evaluate all Oregon wines released in the 2011 calendar year. To further aid practicality you could tweak the title to apply only to generally available wines and avoid member/club only and limited release wines that would not be on the open market for the reader to purchase.
Good Lord, stop whining.
It seems pretty clear that the tasting behind this article was professional and inclusive, but not intended to be formal, exhaustive, or some kind of gospel. This is a small group of popular industry pros with good palates, sampling a range of wines submitted for their approval, and picking their faves for your enjoyment.
That’s right, they did this for you. Not as a publicity stunt, not for advertising dollars (Srsly? Who said that?), and not because they were bored. For YOU. For FUN. Stop taking yourselves (and this tasting) so damn seriously.
All the reds are pinots, and no Archery Summit, Domain Drouhin, or Ken Wright pinot noir? Wow! Not only does the methodology behind this tasting sound off, I think many Oregon wine enthusiasts would disagree with the choices.
I think there are a lot of good comments here (although there is some whining as well)…I’d encourage everyone to come out to the Pinot in the City event this week-end and sample some of these wines (and others from the Willamette Valley)…
Having lived in Southern Oregon for a period of time but now living in Portland I understand the frustrations from both parties. I will admit I would have like a more exhaustive list of Oregon wines from ALL regions.
That being said, the Umpqua Valley Wine Art and Music Festival is taking place this weekend, I invite everyone to come and taste some fabulous Umpqua Valley wineries.
http://uvwineartandmusic.com/
I enjoyed reading this article – it’s always great to see our independent local wineries get press. Also, I either know or have met most of the panel and can attest to the fact that they all have great palates.
My one complaint is more editorial-based, because I doubt that the panel had anything to do with titling the article:
Most people I know in the industry pretty solidly avoid the word “best” when critiquing wines. At the end of the day, even with experienced tasters, we’re talking about an endeavor that is subjective. I’ve been a buyer for almost fifteen years, so I admit some bias, but I would have taken the article more seriously with a different headline. How about “50 Great Oregon Wines” ?
That’s all.
Next year could we do a top 50 of more affordable wines.
There are many rules to competitions, some intended and visible, some less so. But one rule that always applies is that a competition can only be as good as those who enter it.
We are proud of our list. Our panel of experts was excellent and devoted a great deal of their time to defining the list. But given some feedback we’ve received about our “Oregon’s 50 Best Wines” issue, we would like to share exactly how we reached out to the state’s winemakers to enlist them in our competition. We are happy to receive any constructive feedback on how we might improve our process moving forward.
Portland Monthly sent out a wide call for entries through the Oregon Wine Board, the Indie Wine Festival’s list, and to various PR firms. When we realized some appellations were not well represented, we called distributors directly. We even bent the deadline to shepherd some more entrants through the door. We did not “invite” any winemaker specifically, large or small, potential advertiser or not. In short, winemakers either heard about the competition or didn’t, and they either entered or they chose not to. But when it came time to pop the corks, we had 19 varietals from 15 appellations and 103 producers—more than 400 wines, tasted over four separate sessions. The process was very simple: project coordinator Allison Jones opened the wines; the jury tasted and scored them; Allison recorded and distilled the comments; we published the results.
As editor of the magazine, my only concern was that the final 50 feature a decent number of wines priced under $25.
We’ve been asked by some critics to reveal the full list of entries. We chose not to when we published the Oregon’s 50 Best Wines issue in order to keep the spotlight on the wines our jury chose rather than those it rejected. We see no reason to change that focus now.
As with any competition, a different jury would have produced different results. Each member of ours has sterling qualifications, which you can review here. When we—the jury, Allison Jones, managing editor Rachel Ritchie, and me, the editor in chief—decided that the tasting would be blind, we knew we were in potentially volatile territory. But we also knew that once we started down that path, there would be no ethical means of turning back.
In short, we stand by our list.
That said, going forward, could we improve the process? Definitely. We’d love to hear your suggestions. Send them to editor@portlandmonthlymag.com. But here is our thinking so far:
First and foremost: more and earlier outreach.
Second: taste and select winners by region, and possibly even by appellation.
Meantime, wine lovers can enjoy our picks for the 50 best Oregon wines in this year’s issue. Our jury selected some wonderful vintages, many surprisingly affordable. And, producers and wine geeks, get your mailing labels and suggestions ready for next year.
Mark your calendars now: the deadline is June 1, 2013.
Sincerely,
Randy Gragg
As a participant in the wine selection process for this 50-best-Oregon-wines issue, I would like to offer two observations and responses to the above comments:
1. Contrary to Christine Collier’s above comments, I do not approach Southern Oregon wines as an afterthought. In fact, I have highlighted and reported on Southern Oregon wines more often and more exhaustively (and more favorably) than any other wine journalist in America and in fact than any other wine journalist in the world. The unintended exclusion by this tasting panel of the Southern Oregon wines submitted for this particular article was simply the result of the panel’s blind tasting and blind scoring of the wines. In fact, Christine has failed to disclose that she works for a Southern Oregon winery, and therefore that she is not simply a regular unbiased observer. She thus appears to be lashing out against me without knowledge of the facts, while masquerading as an independent unbiased regular reader, which she is not.
2. Southern Oregon wineries have historically, by Wine Spectator, by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, and, now, by Portland Monthly, been excluded from “top-wine lists.” This is not planned, and certainly not by me, as I have gone to great lengths to learn about and to include Southern Oregon wines in my writing. That the region’s wines did not make the cut in this major blind tasting (and many many others) is something that Southern Oregon wineries should learn from and that they should answer not with harsh complaints and unfounded personal attacks, but rather with what they put in the bottle.
Conde Cox
I did disclose that I worked for a winery by saying, “I tried to submit wines into this tasting,” and by following up with the comment about how Southern Oregon wineries and associations were approached to buy ads. I also run The Southern Oregon Wine Blog if I should put that in the open, which promotes the region as a whole. It isn’t like I can’t have an opinion because I work for a winery or write a wine blog.
To Lola Brown: that’s unfortunate you are so negative on Luminous Hills, unfortunately you apparently have not had any of their wonderful wines…try some, your opinion might change. Better yet, be a little constructive, why don’t you tell us what wines you like and think should be on this list, not what wine you think shouldn’t be on this list. You’re being unfair to the hardworking men and women of Luminous Hills…plus, did I say this already, their wines are delicious!
No I am not an employee of Luminous Hills (or any other winery), I just appreciate a good wine, especially a great Pinot Noir from Oregon or otherwise.