Updated May 2022
Wine tasting guide to Chehalem Mountains and Yamhill-Carlton AVAs in the Willamette Valley
As mentioned in our Ultimate Guide to Willamette Valley, the most famous wine-growing region in Oregon was established in 1984. This massive Willamette Valley AVA now includes multiple specific sub AVA’s as the climate, soil and altitude widely varies.
This guide covers the northern AVAs of Chehalem Mountains, Yamhill-Carlton, and the small Ribbon Ridge AVA which sits in-between.
Note: Especially during COVID times, we recommend making appointments for all wineries you plan to visit to ensure you won’t be turned away.
Chehalem Mountains (and the contained Ribbon Ridge sub-AVA)
The Chehalem Mountain AVA spans ~20 miles by 5 miles and contains three various soil types: marine sedimentary seabeds, deep red soils from lava flows stemming from the Columbia River, and new glacial sediment blown from neighboring areas through strong winds. The variety of soil types spawn some incredibly rich and complex wines.
We find it notable to call out a small sub-AVA “Ribbon Ridge” on the Northwest area of the Chehalem mountains. These vineyards are mainly dry farmed, stressing the vines in marine sediment rich soils, produced some of our favorite bigger-style Pinot Noirs in the area.
Chehalem and Yamhill are our favorite Sub AVA’s in Willamette followed closely by Eola-Amity Hills and Dundee Hills.
Where to taste in Chehalem Mountains
Beaux Frères
The 88 acre biodynamic winery is located on an old pig farm in Ribbon Ridge (they still have a few on-site near the tasting room!). There are two main vineyard sites which both focus on minimal intervention of commercial sprays, and on-site composting and generating biodiversity. Total case production in 2019: 10k cases.
The Beaux Freres vineyard’s have plantings dating back to 1988. Tasting the 30+ year old own-rooted Pommard vines used in the Pinot Noir is a treat for the senses. There are also some newer planting of Dijon clones on American rootstock. There is also an Upper Terrace vineyard that is planted at higher elevation than the Beaux Freres, which sits at ~400 feet.
The winery’s tradition to ferment each block separately allows for much control in the cellar as the wines are kept as single designates or blended as the winemaker sees fit.
Mikey Etzel, a second-generation winemaker took over in 2016. His style is different from that of his father–more elegant and complex versus bold and jammy.
We were quite impressed with the Pinot Noirs and had to revisit a few before deciding which was our favorite bottle to take home. Prices here are more expensive than the average in the Willamette valley at ~$95/bottle.
The 2018 Beaux Freres Vineyard Pinot Noir ultimately was the victor, with its bouquet of Christmas spices, and depth of candied cherry, and cinnamon coated blueberry that lingered in the mouth. The 2017 Upper Terrace Pinot Noir was a close second which leaned into a darker spectrum of tobacco and coffee, while still preserving bright fruits for balance.
We both agree that this is one of our favorite stops in Willamette Valley, and is not to be missed!
Beckham Estate
Further east of Newberg is a unique experience that we highly recommend seeking out. This family-owned and operated establishment was started by a ceramic potter, Andrew Beckham, who took a chance on making wine. While starting out with conventional fermentation and aging vessels, he quickly returned to his roots (and wine’s roots) and created large Amphora clay vessels.
If you’ve never tried wine fermented and aged in Amphora, it is quite a treat. Clay allows for much more micro-oxygenation than barrels, so what you experience is a wild, big mouthfeel, without the oak taste and bitter tanins.
Andrew finds inspiration in the unique winemakers of Italy’s Dolomites and isn’t afraid to unleash unconventional creations like a Pinot Noir Trousseau blend. Their property is also beautiful and will soon include a rentable Airbnb property. We can’t wait to return!
Adelsheim
As with any larger-scale production, we were a bit skeptical at first that the winery had invested most of their attention and capital in the outdoor tasting area, rather than the wines. However, the wines are pleasantly complex and enjoyable.
Adelsheim’s tasting room area is complete with private “cabanas” with curtains to socially distance yourself from the next group. At 45k cases/yr production, this is a larger winery than we generally focus on but wanted to visit as it came recommended.
Ultimately, we always aim to objectively let the wines speak for themselves, and these wines sang! We found the Rose to be crisp, light and provencal style, the Chardonnay palatable, but our heads started turning when we reached the Pinot Noirs.
Adelsheim is the first winery to the Chehalem Mountain AVA, with its first plantings in 1971. The old vines provide a ton of concentrated flavors of earth, nuts, spices and dark fruit. The 2017 Bryan Creek is our favorite, as if we’d just opened up a cigar box with dried cherries inside. We also were able to purchase a bottle of 2016 Bryan Creek to go, which we can’t wait to open soon as the 2016 was a lighter vintage and we’ve found many bottles to be tasting beautifully across the Willamette Valley in 2020.
Flâneur
Flâneur’s Flanerie Vineyard was planted in 2003, and thus the vines are fairly young but were surprisingly expressive. Lathered with sedimentary soil and glacial erratic stones that are the fortunate result of the Missoula Floods, over 15k years ago. At just 250-350 ft. of elevation and in a warmer microclimate, the resulting wines are of that of spicy deep red fruit, savory palette and bold in structure.
Our favorite is the 2016 Flanerie Vineyard Pinot Noir: Deep and complex in notes of cherry, plum, and raspberry with a surprising coat of wet stone. Each sip one that interests the mind and refreshes the mouth.
Bonuses in Chehalem Mountains
We were not able to make it to Brickhouse wines but it was recommended across trusted winemakers and sommeliers, and is top of our list for our next visit.
Also highly recommended was Bergstrom, which is a larger producer than our focus and considered a classic representation of wines in the Ribbon Ridge AVA.
Yamhill-Carlton
The Yamhill-Carlton AVA is protected from excessive rain by mountains to the west, north and east. The coarse-grained, ancient ocean sediments are among the oldest soils in the Willamette Valley, and provide copious drainage. The vines starved of water stop growing shoots and leaves early, leading to more complete ripening, even in cooler growing seasons.
We tasted at various wineries in this region, but only found one that stood out as outstanding quality – Soter. We actually learned about from the sommelier at Bridgewater Bistro in Astoria, when we purchased their 2011 Mineral Springs Pinot Noir and knew we needed to pay them a visit.
Soter
Soter has a 240-acre biodynamic vineyard and a beautiful tasting room in Mineral Springs. This sounds like a lot of property but they only produce ~3400 cases of estate wine annually, and we found their wines and service to be of very high quality. The owner and current winemaker have worked at Etude in Napa and Beaux Freres in Willamette.
The wine falls under two main labels: Mineral Springs (their estate wines) and the Origin Series (partner with wineries in other AVAs to produce). We focused on the Mineral Springs as that’s their flagship.
We were impressed by all of the Pinot Noirs under the Mineral springs label, including the 2016 Mineral Springs Ranch, and the 2017 Savannah Ridge Pinot Noir. They were powerful wines, while remaining modest in tannin and alcohol. We saw these wines open up during the tasting and evolve in the glass, which is something we look forward to with high-quality biodynamic wines.
We are also looking forward to the bottle of 2014 Sparkling Blanc de Blanc, which is just undergoing disgorgement and bottling in the next few months before it’s shipped to our home to try!
Kelley Fox
We covered Kelley Fox in our post on Dundee Hills and McMinnville, as that’s where their fruit comes from. However, the tasting room is located north of Yamhill. We highly recommend that you don’t miss this spot!
Where to stay
If you have a few days and enjoy camping, check out Chris James Cellars. As an effort to bring back crowds during COVID, the friendly owners put their vineyard up on HipCamp.
We’re big fans of camping on vineyards and have done so in several locations this year. Sleep under the stars next to the vines and enjoy lounging on their outdoor tasting room deck.
