JJ Buckley Fine Wines Blog

Experts agree that the soil in which grapevines grow can have a substantial impact on the grapes’ character. Sedimentary soils, particularly limestone and chalk, get a lot attention in the wine world. Volcanic soils can result in equally fine and distinctive wines though.

For the past decade, the Willamette Valley AVA has been one of the most-respected in the country. It's Pinot Noir wines are particularly high-scoring. Because their overall quality level is high and production limited, the wines average price points are high too. But Willamette Valley is not a small, homogenous region. This article is a quick guide to understanding the Willamette Valley AVA.

There are many components of wine quality. Most are well-known to wine enthusiasts: color, balance, intensity, structure, length, complexity, ageability, for example. But one aspect, perhaps the one which most separates very good wine from great, and great from insanely great, is rarely talked about, even among winemakers and critics.

The Rutherford Dust Society conducted their annual AVA tasting and vintage review on July 11. The event highlights a soon-to-be-released vintage, in this case 2015.

Most high-quality, U.S. wines identify an AVA of origin on their label. The number of AVA’s is growing rapidly too. There are five new AVAs in the works just in the vicinity Willamette Valley, Oregon. But what is an AVA? What does an AVA designation tell us about a wine?