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The 7 Best Oregon Chardonnay Bottles to Buy in 2024

The 7 Best Oregon Chardonnay Bottles to Buy in 2024

The 7 Best Oregon Chardonnay Bottles to Buy in 2024

Chardonnay has been grown and made in Oregon’s Willamette Valley since the 1970s, but its profile has definitely been raised as wine lovers who discovered how wonderful the region’s Pinot Noir is turned their attention to the other Burgundian variety that also grows there. Although the grape got off to a shaky start in Willamette, in the last 20 years or so we have seen a definitive increase in quality as leaner, more mineral, and less oak laden styles have taken over the market. It was also around this time that French families began buying land, planting French clones, fermenting in stainless steel and concrete tanks and using oak aging more judiciously. Subsequently wine collectors discovered Oregon’s potential for making wines that rival those made in Burgundy, Chardonnay’s birthplace.

Chardonnay takes its name from a village in the Maconnais region of Burgundy. It is a result of a cross between Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc and has a close DNA relation to Aligoté, the third grape of Burgundy. It was first grown around 1098 at the Abbaye de Citeaux which had land holdings in the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, but it didn’t become popular until the 1400s.  It is now grown all over the world in just about every country that produces wine, but it is truly at its best in cooler climates such as Burgundy, Margaret River, and Oregon. Here are seven excellent examples from Oregon that have caught our attention this week, some of them are clean and crisp with little or no oak ageing while others are appropriately aged in oak, allowing the delightful fruit flavors to shine through.



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