60+ wines reviewed below and in the database, including the latest from Avennia, Broken Trust, Chehalem, Dunham, Flâneur, Illahe, L’Ecole No. 41, Liska, Ricochet, Ridgecrest, Rocky Pond, Sparkman, Trothe, Woodward Canyon, and Zenith.

Pinot Noir gets most of the love in Willamette Valley, but the area is quietly making some delicious Grüner Veltliner. The grape will be celebrated April 5^th at a sold-out GrünerFest at Raptor Ridge Winery in Newberg.

“I think it has a great potential in the valley,” Wynne Peterson-Nedry, winemaker at Ridgecrest Wines, says of Grüner. Ridgecrest is one of the wineries pouring at the event. Peterson-Nedry also says that Grüner aligns well with what consumers are looking for at present. “We’ve seen recently, at least us personally, that there’s a big demand for diverse white wines.”

Ridgecrest planted its Grüner in 2006, and Peterson-Nedry has been working with it since 2009. Like any variety, part of making Grüner is figuring out how best to grow it.

“Grüner is a funny grape,” Peterson-Nedry says. “It’s much more stemmy and leggy in the cluster area than Pinot Noir. For us, the acidity can hold, but it can also crop relatively well.”

Anthony Sereni, director of winemaking at Flâneur Winery, which is also pouring at GrünerFest, agrees. “The fruit clusters are enormous,” he says. “We need to make sure we thin it down to have vegetative growth match up with the fruiting growth.”

Flâneur made its first Grüner from the winery’s La Belle Promenade Vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains appellation in 2021. At the time, the winery did comparative tastings of Austrian and Willamette Valley Grüners. The wines were also sent in to look at the chemistry.

“The wines from Oregon had a lower pH and were more acidic,” Sereni says. “It was kind of a surprise.”

Indeed, Willamette Valley’s cool, maritime climate leads to exceptional acid retention in its wine grapes. “That’s something that is a thread through a lot of our wines,” says Katie Santora, winemaker at Chehalem, also pouring at GrünerFest. “There is this acid retention in them all.”

In the winery, Chehalem works with a variety of fermentation vessels for its Grüner: concrete, neutral oak, and stainless steel. (Ridgecrest and Flâneur do as well.) “In the end, the blend is never the same because we’re trying to make the best rendition of vintage, and that’s totally vintage dependent as well,” Santora says.

In addition to experimenting with different vessels, part of working with Grüner in Willamette Valley is figuring out the area’s and each winery’s individual style. “Sometimes if you get an Austrian Grüner, it’ll either be very steely and focused, or it’ll be more on the fleshy, rounder side. I like somewhere in between,” Peterson-Nedry says.

While an increasing number of Willamette Valley producers are working with Grüner Veltliner, plantings remain relatively scarce. Chehalem and Flâneur each have about an acre of Grüner planted. Ridgecrest has a little over two. Additionally, consumer awareness of the variety remains limited.

“A lot of people don’t know what Grüner actually is,” Santora says. That puts the onus on the people working in the tasting room, but they embrace the task.

“I think the people that make Grüner in the Willamette Valley are very passionate about it because it is a hand sell,” Peterson-Nedry says.

Given the limited production, that seems likely to continue. However, the quality of Willamette Valley’s Grüner Veltliners speaks for itself. The wines I’ve tasted, including a number reviewed below, are delicious, varietally correct, and have a voice all their own. Still, Willamette Valley Grüner needs to get in line if it is to gain more attention.

“The valley is known for Pinot Noir, the next big push in most people’s minds is Chardonnay, and then behind that sparkling wine,” Sereni says. “Still, there’s a fair amount of people coming to the tasting room specifically asking for Grüner.”

* * *

At Northwest Wine Report, all scores come from blind tastings in varietal/style sets. Read more about this site’s process for rating and reviewing wines. See the Northwest Wine Report rating system and special designations. Read about how to interpret scores. See a list of recently reviewed producers.

Note that access to reviews and ratings at Northwest Wine Report requires a subscription. Wineries submitting wines are under no obligation whatsoever to subscribe and can receive reviews freely after they have been published by contacting [email protected].

Do you enjoy Northwest Wine Report? If you do and haven’t subscribed already, please do so. This site is 100% subscriber funded and is my primary source of income. None of the content can be created without you subscribing. Subscribe here. It’s the cost per month of a cup of coffee and a crumpet.

To receive articles via email, click here.