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. Lower Long Tom 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 Lower Long Tom AVA is an American Viticultural Area, established in November of 2021. The Lower Long Tom AVA sits within the west side of the Lower Long Tom watershed, between Corvallis and Eugene. The vineyards in the Lower Long Tom AVA are located on ridgelines near streams and run east to west. The predominant soil here is the Bellpine. These clay-loams or soil mixtures that contain more clay than other types of rock or minerals, are formed from up-lifted ancient marine sediments, primarily sandstone. Typically Bellpine topsoils usually have shallow grapevine roots and need to penetrate the sandstone below to find water and nutrients. While Pinot noir is the predominant grape of this region, with wines including blue and black fruits along with plush tannins, white grape varieties are grown here as well. Some of the white varietals include; Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc. Just over an hour from Portland, this newly named AVA is inspiring more and more recognition and with 575 planted acres, 24 vineyards and 12 wineries and counting, this AVA will surely become well known across the board. Cheers to Lower Long Tom!
Lower Long Tom AVA |