2023 Willamette Valley / Oregon Vintage

Coming off the April 2022 frost, 2023 gave Oregon growers what Greg Jones simply called a normal spring. Early spring in the Willamette Valley was wet and cool, which delayed bud break by more than ten days against normal. Jesse Lange at Lange Estate in the Dundee Hills described a restrained start due to cool spring weather, with vineyard growth beginning in earnest the second week of May as temperatures pushed into the upper 80s and, at times, the low to mid 90s. That warmth supercharged shoot growth and pre-flowering conditions. The result was one of the shortest periods ever recorded from bud break to bloom across most Oregon growing regions. Melissa Burr at Stoller Family Estate reported that almost everything in every variety bloomed within two weeks, giving the valley an unusually uniform flowering. July and August brought stable weather that allowed extended spray intervals in organic vineyards and much lower disease pressure than 2022. Leah Adint at Erath reported no precipitation from bloom all the way through to harvest, and temperatures through July that were consistently warm without being overly hot, with no heat waves. That changed August 13 to 16, when a heat wave arrived. Alex Sokol Blosser, whose estates span the Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills and Yamhill-Carlton, called it the hottest, driest August on record, saying it never really got into triple digits but was relentlessly in the 90s and did not cool down much at night. The Oregon Wine Board attributed part of the year's reduced production to extreme heat in early to mid August, where sunburn impacts were seen by many. Rain arrived in early September and brought relief, slowing sugar accumulation so flavors could catch up; Sokol Blosser called it a godsend. Heat accumulation for the season finished well above historical averages. Sokol Blosser called 2023 his third warmest vintage ever, behind 2015 and then 2014, and Lange recorded 2,700 growing degree days against 2,500 the previous year, when harvest had come a full month later. Harvest broadly began right after the first week of September, earlier than 2022 and driven by the warm season. Lange started on September 8. Per the Willamette Valley Wineries Association, as cited by the Oregon Wine Board, Walnut Ridge Vineyard in the Lower Long Tom AVA began on September 17 as sugar levels surged overnight, with a second window opening in the first week of October for remaining fruit including Riesling. Violet Vines, sourcing across the Willamette Valley, reported a grape intake window of August 27 to October 16. The quick, uniform bloom and the warm season compressed everything: Burr described a very condensed harvest for everyone across the valley, and some wineries ran 24-hour picking shifts. Several inches of rain forecast for the week of September 19 to 24 then split the valley. Lange picked 55 percent of his fruit between the 19th and the 24th and finished that day, while other growers chose to wait the rain out, leaving a lot of fruit hanging past the 24th. Yields varied materially by site. Burr reported clusters roughly 20 to 40 percent above average in size at Stoller, with above-average berries per cluster, while Sokol Blosser reported near-average crop yields across his estates, and the Oregon Wine Board noted a year-over-year reduction in production statewide tied partly to the August heat and sunburn.

• Wet, cool early spring delayed bud break by more than 10 days; upper-80s temperatures from the second week of May accelerated growth
• One of the shortest bud break to bloom periods on record, with bloom finishing across most varieties inside two weeks
• No precipitation from bloom through harvest at some sites, and no heat waves through July
• Heat wave August 13 to 16, described as the hottest, driest August on record, with sunburn at some sites
• Early September rain slowed sugar accumulation and let flavors catch up
• Harvest began right after the first week of September; forecast rain the week of September 19 to 24 forced quick picking decisions
• Growing degree days well above historical averages; Lange recorded 2,700 against 2,500 in 2022
• Yields varied by site, from clusters 20 to 40 percent above average at Stoller to near-average crops elsewhere

Jesse Lange, drawing on more than 35 years in the Willamette Valley, said the 2023 wines across Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the most precocious he has come across, with vibrancy and energy that explode out of the glass, and that he had never seen wines this good this early. He compared the Pinot Noir color to 2021, almost neon at the edge with violet and fuchsia depth, and put the tannin density alongside 2015, 2012 and 2004. The Oregon Wine Board's summary framing described wines showing clarity, density and composure with moderate alcohols, vibrant acids and clean fruit with excellent skin-to-juice ratios. Chemistry varied by pick timing and elevation. Burr described higher Brix and lower acid in fruit that took a while for flavors to arrive. Brent Stone at King Estate described a split character across the vintage: riper, lower-elevation North Valley Pinot Noir came in before the rain, while post-rain fruit from higher, cooler sites was more austere, a bit brighter and higher in acid.

• Lange called the 2023 wines the most precocious of his 35-plus years in the valley
• Pinot Noir color compared to 2021, with tannin density recalling 2015, 2012 and 2004
• Oregon Wine Board framing: clarity, density and composure, moderate alcohols, vibrant acids, clean fruit
• King Estate's Brent Stone described a split vintage, with pre-rain fruit riper and post-rain fruit brighter and higher in acid

Decanter's Clive Pursehouse rated the vintage 5 out of 5, describing the Willamette Valley's 2023 Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs as beautiful, offering elegance and delicacy from a growing season that started cool and slow and ended rapidly. He noted a precocious nature to the wines and cautioned that you might see a few examples where alcohol has not been kept under control, but that generally there is an elegance to match the generosity of the vintage. He assessed the Chardonnays as showing slightly better than the Pinot Noirs, continuing a pattern he had observed over several years. Across primary and secondary sources the consensus reads the same way: a warm-trending, low-disease-pressure year of moderate to high quality, marked by a condensed harvest and by picking decisions split around the mid-to-late September rain, producing generally moderate-alcohol, good-acid wines with real site-to-site variation.

• Decanter rated the vintage 5 out of 5 and called the wines beautiful, with elegance and delicacy
• Chardonnays assessed as showing slightly better than the Pinot Noirs
• A caution that alcohol was not kept under control in a few examples
• Consensus: warm, low disease pressure, condensed harvest, moderate alcohols and good acids with site-to-site variation