Oregon Celebrates Pinot Noir

Filed in archive Wine Making on May 19, 2006

The wine industry has boomed in Oregon, and you can thank people like David Lett who began the Pinot Noir movement eventually doubling the sales of wine in Oregon over a ten year period.

It's hard to believe it was just 40 years ago that all of this began when you consider how many great wines have come out of this region.

From OREGON'S EMERGING PINOT-SCAPE:

"It's a great and true story that has brought a lot of people to Oregon and helped build the industry," says Bergstrom Wines' Josh Bergstrom, 31, one of the most visible of the state's younger winemakers. "But something is happening in Oregon right now. The winds have changed."

What has changed is growth.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Oregon Field Office, in the 10 years between 1995 and 2005 sales of Oregon wine doubled to nearly 1.6 million cases annually. Vineyard land doubled to more than 14,000 acres, and the number of wineries more than tripled to 300-plus.

Pinot Noir is still the most important grape, but it's rivaled by Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. Oregon Wine Center research estimates the economic contribution of the Oregon wine industry is now $1.4 billion.