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Appellation · United States

Dundee Hills

Oregon’s original Pinot Noir hillside, on distinctive red volcanic soil, and where the state’s industry began.

Dundee Hills AVAmaritimecool
What to expect in the glass

Medium-bodied Pinot Noir with red cherry, raspberry, earth and a floral lift. High acidity, fine tannin, moderate alcohol.

About Dundee Hills

The Dundee Hills are where David Lett planted Oregon Pinot Noir in 1965, and they remain the state’s most densely planted and best-known sub-AVA.

The soil is Jory — deep red, iron-rich weathered basalt — and it is genuinely distinctive to look at. It is also the reason the hills were planted first: it holds water well in a region that does not irrigate.

The wines are the classic Oregon profile: red cherry, forest floor, high acidity, fine tannin, and a savoury character that Californian Pinot Noir rarely has.

What the name means

Legal name
Dundee Hills AVA
Type
American Viticultural Area (AVA)
Set by
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)
Recognised
2005
Regulates
Origin only. It sets no rules about varieties, yields, ageing or winemaking.

Only where the grapes were grown, plus the percentage that must come from the named area. An AVA sets no varietal, yield, ageing or winemaking rules whatsoever — the single most commonly misunderstood fact about US wine labels.

Grapes

Wines from here

red

Oregon Pinot Noir

Cooler, more savoury and more Burgundian than California — red cherry, forest floor and fine tannin from the Willamette Valley.

Soil and geology

Underlying geology
Basalt weathered to a deep red clay loam, locally called Jory
Soils
Jory — iron-rich red volcanic clay loam
Drainage
Moderate
Water holding
Moderate

What it does to the vine. Deep, well-structured red clay loam that holds water reliably through a dry August without becoming waterlogged in a wet spring. In a region with no irrigation tradition, that water-holding capacity is the practical reason these slopes were planted first.

WineHQ describes soil in terms of what it demonstrably does — drainage, heat retention, water supply, rooting depth — and not in terms of flavours it is said to transmit. Vines take up ions, not aromas, and no mechanism has been demonstrated by which a mineral in the ground is tasted in the glass. See soil and drainage.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

Oregon Pinot Noir

Serve at 14–16°C (cellar cool).

Try with fillet steak, duck or steak with mushroom sauce.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Yamhill-Carlton — A horseshoe of hills west of Dundee on ancient marine sediment, making the Willamette’s fullest Pinot Noir.
  • Ribbon Ridge — The smallest AVA in the Willamette Valley — a single ridge of uniform soil entirely surrounded by Chehalem Mountains.
  • Eola-Amity Hills — A windy ridge in the middle of the Willamette Valley, cooled through the Van Duzer Corridor, making the region’s most savoury Pinot Noir.
  • Willamette Valley — Oregon’s Pinot Noir region, cooler and more restrained than California and closer in style to Burgundy.
Location

Approximate centroid: 45.28°, -123.05°. WineHQ stores coordinates only where it has them, and does not estimate boundaries it has not sourced.

Sources

Sources consulted