Willamette Valley AVAs

The Willamette Valley AVA is Oregon’s signature winegrowing region and one of the world’s leading places for Pinot noir. Stretching from the Portland area south toward Eugene, the valley is defined by a cool climate, diverse soils, rolling hillsides, and a long growing season that supports wines of elegance, freshness, and depth.

No grape variety reflects climatic and site differences as vividly as Pinot noir, which is why it thrives in the Willamette Valley’s cool climate. Even small distances within the valley can yield wines of distinctively different character. The region’s suitability for cool-climate grape growing is shaped by the protection of the Cascade Mountains to the east, the Coast Range to the west, and a series of lower hill chains to the north.

While Pinot noir is the region’s calling card, the Willamette Valley is also widely recognized for Chardonnay, sparkling wine, Pinot gris, Riesling, and other cool-climate varieties. With more than 700 wineries, 11 nested AVAs, and a strong culture of collaboration and stewardship, the Willamette Valley offers a wine country experience rooted in place, craft, and community.

THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY AVA 3D EXPLORER TOOL

The Willamette Valley Wineries Association is excited to introduce a new way to explore Oregon’s leading wine region: the Willamette Valley AVA 3D Explorer Tool. For the first time, visitors, trade, media, and wine lovers can experience the Willamette Valley and its nested AVAs from an immersive, 3D perspective.

Developed in partnership with Terranthro, this interactive 3D tool offers:

Aerial views of the Willamette Valley and its nested AVAs
Zoomable 3D relief that brings elevation, slope, and landscape into focus
Clearly defined AVA boundaries across the region
Quick access to key facts about each appellation
A dynamic way to understand how place, geography, and growing conditions shape Willamette Valley wines

From the broader sweep of the Valley to the distinctive contours of each nested AVA, the map offers an engaging new lens on the places behind Oregon’s most celebrated wines.

Launch the Explorer Tool

It is on these hillsides that Pinot noir uniqueness is found and where apparent families of wines urge distinctive American Viticultural Area identification. In 2002, a collaborative action of vineyards and wineries delineated and submitted to the TTB petitions to divide much of the northern part of the large Willamette Valley AVA into six more specific AVAs: Chehalem Mountains, Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, McMinnville, Ribbon Ridge, and Yamhill-Carlton. The Van Duzer Corridor AVA went into effect in January 2019, the Tualatin Hills and Laurelwood District AVAs were approved in June 2020, and the Lower Long Tom AVA was established in November 2021. Mount Pisgah, Polk County, Oregon was established in June 2022.