The Willamette Valley is a vast and varied appellation that includes ten nested AVAs | Chehalem Mountains, Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, Laurelwood District, Lower Long Tom, McMinnville, Ribbon Ridge, Tualatin Hills, Van Duzer Corridor, and Yamhill-Carlton. We are going to highlight each AVA and provide some hopefully fun and useful history along the way. Eola-Amity Hills AVA | An American Viticultural Area, or AVA, is a specific type of appellation of origin used on wine labels. An AVA is a delimited grape-growing region with specific geographic or climatic features that distinguish it from the surrounding regions and affect how grapes are grown. The Eola-Amity Hills AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Polk County and Yamhill County, Oregon. It is entirely contained within the Willamette Valley AVA, and stretches from the city of Amity in the north to Salem in the south. The Eola and Amity hills cover an area west of the Willamette River approximately 15 miles long by 6 miles wide. The Eola-Amity Hills area benefits from steady winds off the Pacific Ocean that reach the Willamette Valley through the Van Duzer Corridor. This famous corridor is a gap in the Oregon Coast Range which moderates summer temperatures. The Eola Hills were named after the community of Eola, whose name was derived from Aeolus, the Greek god of the winds. That just sounds cool, are we right? There are over 100 Vineyards and 30 Wineries and tasting rooms throughout this AVA. Just one hour southwest of Portland and there you will be, in the stunningly unique Eola-Amity Hills, sipping on world class wines. Cheers!
Eola-Amity Hills AVA |