The Willamette Valley AVA is the location of many of Oregon’s wineries. More than 500 wineries are located in Willamette Valley. The valley spreads from near Portland to south of Eugene. The Willamette Valley includes seven sub-AVAs: Chehalem Mountains, Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, McMinnville, Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and Van Duzer Corridor.

During November 2019 we visited eight wineries close to Eugene and Corvallis. In size, the wineries ranged from large such as King Estate with 150,000 cases to the small, boutique wineries such as Tyee Wine Cellars producing  2,000 cases of estate wines.

During our November visit to Willamette Valley we traveled to:

King Estate Winery (Eugene)
Silvan Ridge (Eugene)
Sweet Cheeks (16 miles from Eugene)
Iris Vineyards (Eugene)
Civic Winery (Eugene)
Benton-Lane Winery (Monroe)
Broadley Vineyards (Monroe)
Tyee Wine Cellars (Corvallis)

Many of these wineries are family owned and operated with some wineries now operated by the second-generation who have chosen to continue the work of their parents. It is the lifestyle that causes some younger generations to return to the winery. 

Each winery offers a warm welcome with different stories, different facilities and numerous wines, although the predominant wines seemed to be well-made Pinot Gris and Pinot Noirs.

We wrote and published articles about each of the wineries we visited in November. Check out the Oregon reviews on Wine Trail Traveler.

Cheers!
Kathy