Imagine saying the phrase “Damn It” with a strong American twang, and then say “Will-AM It” to rhyme with it. And you’ll be ‘real close’ to pronouncing it correctly.

The Willamette Valley is Oregon’s leading wine region, with two-thirds of the state’s wineries and vineyards located here. It is recognized as one of the premier Pinot Noir producing areas in the world.

Mick and I do not profess to be ‘experts’ on Pinot Noir, it is a variety that we have only just started to drink over the past few years. We did enjoy tasting some beautiful examples in New Zealand earlier in the year and now we were prepared to try those produced here.

The brochures boast more than 900 wineries in the valley. And Mick and I will base our conclusions on visiting only a handful over the next few days.

Oregon’s laws on producing Pinot Noir, similar I guess to the rules for a certain AOC (Appellation d’origine contrôlée) in France, are that there must be a minimum of 90% Pinot Noir in the wines (previously it was 75%), and a Willamette Valley wine must have at least 95% of its grapes grown in the valley.

Overall, the climate boasts a long, gentle growing season: warm summers with cool evenings, a long and lovely autumn with the first rainfalls of winter amid plenty of sunny days, and mild winters followed by long springs.

Our first booking today was at the Stoller Family wines.

Mick opted for a Reserve Tasting for $45 USD and tried some bubbles, a Chardonnay and three Pinot Noirs.

The young man leading Mick’s tasting spoke at length about the names of each of the wines Mick was about to sip: family names, important names, Aunt Helen’s cherry pies and so on. They do make quaint stories but to someone wanting to know about the wine, they’re not helpful.

The best was the Chardonnay, but we left empty-handed and headed along the road to Durant – a winery we’d read about that also makes amazing olive oils. But being a Sunday, there was “no room at the Inn” so we drove on to the next winery where Mick did his second tasting for the day. No crowds here!

A small boutique winery run by three women. One of the owners is also the wine maker, as well as being the current mayor of McMinnville. They had an unusual collection of wines to say the least.

Mick loved the Pinot Gris and thought it would go well with the oysters he’d bought yesterday. (I certainly didn’t want a second one when I tasted it later in the evening).

It has been hard finding a good white wine here so far.

After we had lunch in our little cottage, we left the car and walked to our next tasting at R Stuart, located in the Main Street of this town.

Between us we tasted 6 different Pinot Noirs here, and there was only one we both agreed suited our tastes. But, we left empty-handed here too.

As we were leaving the tasting, a table of two couples, slightly more mature than us, started asking where we were from. They love Australia and Australians. We have heard this a lot over the last few days. They were delightful and we were sure we could have chatted for hours.

But we had to get on with our assignment.

We had decided we’d had enough of ‘tasting’ and wanted a glass of wine; Chardonnay to be exact.

Before we made the next bar we met a couple who had been in tasting at a table near us in R Stuart. They wanted to know where we were from and what wines we liked best and where they should go next. They seemed to think we were experts! We recommended they go and see Rich at Pinot Vista and they told us to go to Acorn to Oak.

And we are glad they did.

This place is linked with the local university, Linfield University, and works with students and lecturers alike.

Linfield students will receive hands-on, job experience and some of the finest local wineries will showcase their wines. Wine lovers can enjoy and learn about wine in a space dedicated to quality, diversity, education, and excellence!

We ordered a glass of Chardonnay from a young man named Paul who told us as he was pouring the wine that he had made the wine.

As we were enjoying our glass of wine I said to Mick that he should ask Paul if there were any good rieslings to be found.

He overheard us of course and came back with two glasses and poured a sample of a bottle he’d made.

He proudly told us that another Riesling he’d made in the same year had out scored some Pinot Noirs in the region. A first ever for a white wine.

Mick was pleased he’d finally found a white wine from here that he really liked.

We left here with a bottle of the one we’d sampled, 2022 Glacial Age, to try tomorrow night and headed home for dinner: pan-grilled sockeye salmon and oysters.

Tomorrow is a public holiday here and it is set to rain all day, but we have a few ideas of places we’d like to visit.