Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine community is famously collaborative. The region’s founding families tell stories of sharing equipment, picking fruit for neighboring vineyards, and late night potlucks after the final press loads wrapped up. Oregon’s renowned “Steamboat” conference saw winemakers bring their most problematic wines (and their favorites!) to their peers for critique, discussion, and problem-solving advice. If ever a community of people and businesses believed that “rising tides lift all ships”, the Willamette Valley defines that approach.
We celebrate our successes together, too. Case in point: the whole of the Willamette Valley congratulated Winemaker Ben Casteel and the team at Bethel Heights for being awarded Oregon’s first perfect score (100 points!) for their 2023 Highwire Chardonnay (Clive Pursehouse, Decanter, August 2025) last week.
"I’ve tasted nearly 4,000 wines in my three years at Decanter; this is my first 100-point wine." -- Clive Pursehouse, Decanter Magazine
This spirit of admiration and celebration of others’ work continues here in Oregon. In July, VinePair’s article, ”The Mount Rushmore of Pinot Noir”, asked several industry pros to divulge their favorite Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs and we were inspired to pursue a similar exercise on a local level. Here’s what Oregon winery folks offered as inspiration from their colleagues and, more often, their friends.
