Willamette Valley is a sweet spot for cool-climate grapes like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, as this week’s Tasting Highlights demonstrates. The 2023 and 2024 vintages offer quality and value, and the wines featured here scored up to 93 points and are priced as low as $16.
Established in 2013 by France’s Louis Jadot, Résonance quickly established itself as an Oregon star. Guillaume Large, a Jadot veteran, is the hands-on winemaker, while Jacques Lardière—Jadot’s chief winemaker for 42 years until his retirement in 2012—is the guiding force. The 2023 Résonance Chardonnay Willamette Valley comprises 100 percent estate fruit from three vineyards in the Yamhill Carlton, Dundee Hills and Eola-Amity Hills AVAs. The wine was pressed whole cluster and aged 15 months in French oak barrels, 25 percent of which were new, resulting in a texturally lush yet steely style with accents of apple and lemon verbena.
Another Willamette Chardonnay using estate vineyards from multiple regions is Sokol Blosser’s lush and rich bottling, harvested from two estate vineyards in Eola-Amity and Dundee Hills. Sokol Blosser is a pioneering winery, having first planted vines in 1971. Susan Sokol and Bill Blosser founded the winery, which is now run by the second generation, son Alex Sokol Blosser.
Another family operation is Cardwell Hill, founded in 2000 by Dan and Nancy Chapel in Corvallis, a small town located southwest of Salem. Dan is the winemaker, and he works with the estate’s 38 acres of vineyards to produce the vibrant Fenders Blue Pinot Noir. The label takes its name from the Fenders Blue butterfly, which is an endangered species found only in the Willamette Valley.
Read on to get our scores and full expert tasting notes for all eight of these Oregon red and white wines!
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