By: Becky Garrison
The Oregon Chardonnay Celebration, held this year on February 22, 2025, was founded as an industry event designed to share best practices and insights on how to best elevate Oregon chardonnay and change the narrative that Oregon can’t grow chardonnay. Today, the event is a consumer-focused wine and food festival held during the Dungeness and truffle season in Oregon, two items that pair very well with chardonnay.
This year’s sold-out celebration, “The Elements of Chardonnay: An Oregon Chardonnay & Culinary Celebration,” was held at The Allison Inn & Spa (Newberg, Oregon). At this event, nearly 400 attendees sampled wines from 61 participating wineries along with chardonnay-friendly savory bites prepared by Allison’s culinary team, including executive chef Jack Strong and featured guest chefs.
Most reported accounts credit this rise of Willamette Valley chardonnay to the decision made by growers to plant Dijon clones after wine pioneer David Adelsheim did an exchange with the University of Dijon and convinced them to allow the importation of these clones.
According to Michelle Kaufmann, Oregon Chardonnay Celebration president, this growth is also attributed to vintners’ decision to plant chardonnay grapes with the same intentionality they gave to their pinot noir grapes. For example, in 1995 Stoller Estate Vineyard planted 10 acres of chardonnay using clones Bill Stoller was able to obtain from those Adelsheim imported. She states, “You have the right clone and the right varietal in the right spot to ensure that those grapes are going to thrive and make the world-class wine that Oregon has become known for producing.”
During the 2008 recession, several winemakers, including Stoller’s winemaker, went to Burgundy and studied with their winemakers. While the focus was on Burgundy’s pinot noir grapes, some began asking questions about how to create chardonnay from grape to glass. Kaufmann sees the parallel between Burgundy and the Willamette Valley in that visitors can still meet many winemakers, which gives both regions a down-home feel.
Exploring the Varieties of Willamette Valley Chardonnay
As evidenced by this curated collection of Willamette Valley chardonnays, each vineyard and winery produce their own representation of this grape that reflects both their particular vineyards and preferred winemaking techniques.
Alloro Vineyards (Sherwood, Oregon): Originally planted in 1999, their LIVE certified 34-acre vineyard devoted to pinot noir, chardonnay, riesling and muscat sweeps across a west-to-east southern aspect of Laurel Ridge in the Chehalem Mountains AVA. An elevation between 450 and 700 feet, replete with deep, wind-blown loess topsoil over decomposed basalt, creates optimal conditions for sustainable, dry farming practices.
In terms of their chardonnay, they focus on the Dijon clones 76 and 96. Their current releases include a 2023 Estate Chardonnay aged in new oak and a 2023 Primavera Chardonnay, which is their inaugural stainless-steel chardonnay. In addition, their 2020 Blanc de Blancs represents their second vintage of sparkling wine from their estate vineyard made via the traditional ‘Metodo Classico’ using chardonnay from the oldest vineyard blocks on their property.
Benza Vineyards (Hillsboro, Oregon): Paden West, winemaker for Benza Vineyard, discovered chardonnay when he became the assistant winemaker for Lavinea Single Vineyard Wines (Carlton, Oregon). After his first vintage, he quickly realized how incredible, versatile, and flexible chardonnay expressions can be. As he reflects, “In Oregon, we are unburdened by tradition and have nothing but creative opportunities laid before us—all while being in a state that offers many different microclimates, soils, clones and overly curious winemakers.”
At Benza Vineyards and Approachment Wines, West tries to craft as many varied expressions of this grape as possible. “From vineyard practices, fermentation management, lees selection/contact time, oak usage, etc.—the world is your oyster with chardonnay,” he opines.
Bethel Heights Vineyard (Salem, Oregon): Chardonnay Wente selections were originally planted at Bethel Heights by Vic Winquist in 1977.
After the Casteel family purchased the property the following year, they added Dijon 76 clones in 1994, along with 95 and 548 clones. According to Ben Casteel, co-owner, director, and winemaker, “Our soils are primarily clay, so we have plenty of water holding capacity for healthy vine growth and abundant nitrogen for aromatic development. It is also a natural swale on our hillside that can be prone to powdery mildew, and as certified organic growers, that’s something we need to monitor.”
Also, they planted chardonnay in Justice Vineyard in 1999. Unlike Bethel Heights, these soils are primarily marine sediments and thus do not retain water well. Hence, Casteel finds this soil requires more natural inputs for soil health, so they have been rotating a herd of 150 sheep from Naked Grazing through these blocks for the past two years.
The Eola-Amity Hills AVA represents a cooler part of the valley, which makes the acidity important to their wines easy to come by due to their cool nights. In Casteel’s estimation, “This grape is well suited to our climate, and I suspect will continue to be even with warming temperatures in the future.”
Post-harvest, their wines are barrel fermented with full malolactic fermentation, aged on lees in barrels for 12 months, and then again with lees in stainless steel tanks for an additional four to six months.
Chehalem Estate Vineyard (Sherwood, Oregon):
The mainstay of their chardonnay plantings is the Dijon clones where they’ve planted Dijon 76, 95, 96, 548, Mt. Eden and 809. According to Jason Tosch, vice president of vineyard operations, Dijon clones are proven performers in the various meso- and micro-climates throughout the Willamette Valley. Regardless of differences in vintage, they produce a decent size yield and tend to ripen slower than the lower-yielding (non-Dijon) clones, ensuring consistency.
The faster ripening 548, Mt. Eden and 809 have unique olfactory and textural characteristics that could make exciting standalone chardonnay bottlings. When selected as components in the blending phase of winemaking, these clones add a synergy that gives the winemaking team greater creative freedom.
Winemaker Katie Santora states that the essence of Oregon chardonnay is primarily derived from the natural acidity of the chardonnay fruit grown here. They make two distinctive styles of chardonnay. INOX is their unoaked, stainless-steel fermented chardonnay, which is bottled about four to five months after the vintage. Their Reserve Chardonnay is barrel fermented and aged in French oak barrels for 10 months before being racked in a stainless-steel tank with lees to age for another four to five months, which allows the wine to integrate and deepen.
Left Coast Estate (Rickreall, Oregon): Left Coast Estate’s early years were heavily inspired by the traditions of Burgundy, where chardonnay was the dominant white varietal. As Taylor Pfaff, CEO and family ownership, notes, “Chardonnay is incredibly versatile and expresses a wide range of flavors and aromatics while being perfectly suited to growing in the cool climate of the Willamette Valley.”
All their chardonnays are Dijon clones originally sourced from Burgundy, and their first block was planted in 2006. Left Coast’s chardonnay is planted in their Truffle Hill, Left Bank and Field of Dreams vineyards. These vineyards are well-drained and sit on ancient marine sedimentary soils. The cool winds of the Van Duzer Corridor slow down ripening and allow them to achieve full phenolic ripeness while keeping sugars relatively low. This allows them to grow balanced chardonnay that maintains tension between bright acidity and ripe, rich flavor profiles.
Currently, they produce three chardonnays: a Truffle Hill Chardonnay that sees a 100 percent French oak fermentation, aging in oversized puncheon barrels and complete malolactic fermentation. In addition, their Suzanne’s Estate Reserve Chardonnay is only produced during exceptional vintages and is crafted for the highest quality and longevity. Occasionally, they produce a wine club-only Beton Reserve Chardonnay that is fermented in Nomblot concrete eggs and then aged in neutral oak.
Nysa Vineyard (Dundee, Oregon): Michael Mega, owner of Nysa Vineyard, fell in love with Puligny Montrachet from Sauzet, Lafon and Romonet in the 1980s. He knew when he started planting Nysa in 1990 that there would be a place for chardonnay. For 20 years, he searched for the proper clone. Rejecting the Dijon clones due to their lack of finish, he settled on the heritage clone Wente.
When tracing the history of this clone, Mega recalls how they were originally brought to Oregon in the late 1940s from cuttings through California that were smuggled from France. In the 1970s and 1980s, clones struggled with full ripening in Oregon and were replaced with the earlier ripening Dijon clones. The small “chicks” and bigger “hen” berries in the Wente clusters were perceived as a detriment due to lower crop yields compared to the more robust Dijon clones. Now, with climate changes, these heritage clones are being replanted in Oregon due to their superior mid-palate and finish that the Dijon clones lack.
Mega saved one acre of the southwest corner of the hottest aspect of Nysa for the slow-ripening Wente clone and another single acre of the fully due west aspect. Since they dry-farm at tight spaces (three feet by six feet), these hot west blocks require several years of nurturing before he allows them to produce a harvest (six to eight years). “No commercially motivated operation would tolerate this patience,” he surmises.
Their first vintage of chardonnay was in 2015, planted on 2006 rootstock, though because they patiently cellar their wines, this vintage wasn’t released until 2017. Nysa chardonnay is barrel and stainless steel fermented via native yeast, undergoes full malolactic fermentation, is in elevage for 10 to 18 months (estate versus reserve), with zero to 15 percent new French oak and is unfined/unfiltered.
Soter Vineyards (Carlton, Oregon): For Tony Soter’s 1997 debut vintage, he used three chardonnay Dijon clones along with another lovely French selection to craft a few hundred cases of Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine. These first Blanc de Blancs stayed on the lees in bottles for a full decade before they had the confidence to release them. Even though it became something of a cult classic, they chose to focus on their sparkling wines given there was a very limited market at the time for Oregon chardonnay.
Having quietly championed chardonnay through their ongoing sparkling wines, they felt it was time to explore this grape further. At Mineral Springs Ranch near Carlton, they planted one Dijon clone (#76), a lesser-known French selection especially suited for sparkling wine. Also, at their Eola-Amity Hills site, they planted a “sélection massale”—a mix of numerous, unspecified clones.
Currently, they produce three chardonnay-based wines, each with a distinct identity. Their Estates Chardonnay is a barrel-fermented, steel-finished blend of their two primary vineyard sites, while their Mineral Springs Chardonnay is a single-vineyard bottling sourced entirely from mysterious heirloom selections. Also, their Blanc de Blancs Sparkling Wine is a traditional method of sparkling wine aged six years on the lees and another on cork before release.
The Future of Oregon Chardonnay
Moving forward, other winemakers continue to enter the scene as they explore the boundaries of what Willamette chardonnay can do. For example, Tracy and Aaron Kendall of Folly of Man (Amity, Oregon) combined their decades of experience as winemakers to embrace biodynamic and regenerative agricultural practices that breathe life back into the soil with Moe Momtazi of Momtazi Vineyard & Maysara Winery (McMinnville, Oregon) serving as Tracy’s long-time mentor. Their first vintages of pinot noir and chardonnay, released in March 2025, are already receiving accolades with their 2023 Estate Chardonnay and 2023 Coleen Chardonnay awarded 95 and 93 points, respectively, from Decanter.
In reflecting on the future of Oregon wines, Kaufmann proclaims, “Pinot noir is our king. Chardonnay is becoming Oregon’s queen. And right behind them as prince or princess is a sparkling wine with these two grapes coming together to make a beautiful marriage.”
