Oregon’s best willamette valley wine tours Valley has become one of the most popular wine regions in the country. The scenic landscape is dotted with vineyards, mountains, and quaint towns.
For those looking for an immersive wine tasting experience, consider booking a tour. There are a variety of tours to choose from that include tastings at 4-6 of the region’s best wineries and vineyards.
1. Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is one of the most popular red wine grapes in the world. It’s a delicate and sophisticated variety that offers complex aromas, refined texture, freshness, and silky tannins.
In cooler climates, Pinot Noir tends to be more acidic than tannic and can feature flavors of cherry, raspberry, floral notes and earthy undertones.
Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Burgundy France, and New Zealand are some of the best places to source Pinot Noir wines. The varieties can be aged for years in wood, giving them an added layer of complexity and depth.
2. Chardonnay
Chardonnay is one of the world’s most popular wine grape varieties. It’s a versatile grape that can adapt to a variety of conditions and winemaking techniques.
Winemakers love Chardonnay because of its neutral flavor and ability to absorb the influence of terroir. It’s also a grape that’s easy to grow and produces many different styles of wine.
3. Riesling
Riesling is one of the world’s most versatile wine varieties, able to produce a range of styles from dry to sweet. It’s also a grape that can age for decades – making it a great investment!
Originally from Germany, Riesling is now grown throughout the world. Its terroir-expressive characteristics mean that the character of any given bottle is closely tied to its place of origin.
4. Pinot Gris
Pinot Gris is a white wine grape that’s a mutation of the popular red variety, Pinot Noir. It’s cultivated in France, Germany, and many New World regions.
This light-skinned wine is known for its refreshingly zesty flavors, making it ideal for summer drinks. It can also be made into a rich late harvest dessert wine with hints of cinnamon, honey, clove, meyer lemon, and ginger.
5. Gewurztraminer
Gewurztraminer is one of the most difficult grape varieties in the world. It is fussy about soil, climate and ripening times, making it a very tricky grape variety to produce.
Despite its challenges, Gewurztraminer is still a wonderful wine and can make a fantastic companion for a variety of foods. Its aromas are floral and fruity, with a hint of lychee.
6. Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world’s most famous red wines. It’s rooted in Bordeaux and grows well throughout warmer climates where it gets plenty of sun.
The wine grapes produce a wide range of flavors and aromas, depending on their environment and the way they’re processed and aged. This means that different styles of Cabernet Sauvignon will have a variety of distinct characteristics.
7. Syrah
Syrah is one of the most powerful red grapes in the world. It’s a dark and rich full-bodied wine that’s also packed with health-invigorating antioxidants.
It’s also very adaptable and thrives in a variety of climates, from cool to hot. It’s one of the grapes that can produce wines with a wide range of characteristics and nuances, depending on where it is grown and how the fruit was handled.
8. Pinot Meunier
Pinot Meunier is a dark-skinned berry-shaped grape that is a component of the world’s most popular sparkling wine – Champagne. It is also used for still wines in Germany (under its synonyms Schwarzriesling, Mullerrebe, and Muller-Traube), Canada, and parts of the U.S.
In Champagne, it makes a crucial contribution to the red blend that softens Chardonnay’s heavy character and rounds out Pinot Noir’s lean elegance. Because it ripens quicker than both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, it is frequently included in non-vintage wines to create a more youthful texture.
9. Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is one of the most important grape varieties in wine. It is widely used as a blending partner in Bordeaux and around the world.
It is also a popular varietal in the Loire Valley.
Depending on the growing region, Cabernet Franc can deliver a range of flavors and aromas, from raspberry to bell pepper, blackcurrant leaf, tobacco, violets, and graphite. It can also display a hint of herbality or minerality.
