Natural boundaries and the Willamette River create the 100-mile long, 60-mile wide Willamette Valley, home to approximately 400 Oregon wineries and many more wine shops and wine bars.  Coolest of Oregon's wine regions, this elongated, "V"-shaped Valley is bordered to the north by the Columbia River, to the south by the Calapooya Mountains (south of Eugene), to the east by the Cascade Mountain foothills, and to the west by Oregon's Coast Range.

    Considered to be a cool, marginal wine-growing region, the Willamette Valley's climate is suited to a narrower range of wine grape varieties than many other American wine regions.  Its average temperatures are cooler than 75% of Washington's wine growing areas... not surprisingly, since almost all Oregon wineries are located to the west -- the "wet side" -- of the Cascade Mountains,  while most Washington wineries are located to the east of the range.  The Valley's climate is particularly well matched to the early-ripening Pinot noir grape, for which Oregon wineries in the region are strongly identified. 

      When the Willamette Valley AVA was first authorized 1984, its geographic description included some 3.3 million acres!  Twenty years later, winemakers and wine growers succeeded in submitting applications for approval of six sub-regions within the Willamette Valley, to better describe micro climates proven over the years to be distinctly suited for the growing of wine grapes.  McMinnville Foothills, Dundee Hills, Ribbon Ridge, the Yamhill-Carlton District, Eola-Amity Hills District and the Chehalem Mountain were all authorized as official American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in 2005 and 2006. 

   Most of the wine grapes grown in the Willamette Valley come from vineyards located on bench-land hillsides in the western portion of the Valley.  To its north, the Willamette Valley includes Oregon's largest city, the beautiful Portland, Oregon, providing travelers a wide variety of amenities while visiting this beautiful wine country and the many local Oregon wineries.
 

Navigating the Willamette Valley AVA
and its sub appellations

   Wines Northwest organizes the huge Willamette Valley AVA/appellation into three general sections - North, South and East.  Additionally, our mapping system for the North Willamette Valley - between Portland and Salem, west of the I-5 corridor - consists of a network of maps, featuring the six sub-appellations of that area, authorized as individual AVAs (American Viticultural Areas); each of these lies entirely within the Willamette Valley AVA.  More detailed maps - including winery names, tasting room hours and map locations - are linked to from the map below.

Click on the map regions of your choice below
for a closer look and the locations of wineries.

To print just this map, place your cursor over the map,
right click and choose PRINT from the menu.