The Eola-Amity Hills AVA is an
American Viticultural Area located in
Polk County Polk County is the name of twelve counties in the United States, all except two named after president of the United States James Knox Polk:
* Polk County, Arkansas
* Polk County, Florida
* Polk County, Georgia
* Polk County, Iowa
* Polk Count ...
and
Yamhill County
Yamhill County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 107,722. The county seat is McMinnville. Yamhill County was named after the Yamhelas, members of the Kalapuya Tribe.
Yamhill Cou ...
,
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
. It is entirely contained within the
Willamette Valley AVA
The Willamette Valley AVA ( ) is an American Viticultural Area which lies in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The AVA is the wine growing region which encompasses the drainage basin of the Willamette River. It stretches from the Columbia Rive ...
, 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
The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...
approximately long by wide. The Eola-Amity Hills area benefits from steady winds off the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
that reach the
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...
through the
Van Duzer Corridor, a gap in the
Oregon Coast Range
The Oregon Coast Range, often called simply the Coast Range and sometimes the Pacific Coast Range, is a mountain range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region, in the U.S. state of Oregon along the Pacific Ocean. This north-south ru ...
, moderating the summer temperatures. The Eola Hills were named after the community of
Eola, whose name was derived from ''
Aeolus
In Greek mythology, Aeolus or Aiolos (; grc, Αἴολος , ) is a name shared by three mythical characters. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which A ...
'', the
Greek god
The following is a list of gods, goddesses, and many other divine and semi-divine figures from ancient Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion.
Immortals
The Greeks created images of their deities for many purposes. A temple would house the ...
of the winds.
Climate and geography
![Zena crown Pinot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Zena_crown_Pinot.jpg)
The Eola-Amity Hills has around of the area's planted to grape vines.
Like most of the Willamette Valley, the Eola-Amity Hills experiences a
maritime climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...
that includes mild winters but summers that are cooler and wetter than the
continental climate experienced by
Washington State
Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...
's wine regions to the north and the
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
experienced by many of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
's wine regions to the south. The climate is influenced by the Pacific currents that escape through the Van Duzer corridor gap between the Oregon Coastal Range and the
Cascade range to the east which keeps many weather currents from going much further east.
Through the Van Duzer, cool Pacific air comes more than 30 miles from the west in the afternoon to cool down the region, allowing the grapes to retain higher levels of
acidity
In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a ...
.
[Wine Press Northwest ']
Oregon: Eola-Amity Hills
'' March 14th, 2009
The majority of the year's rainfall comes between October and April with the peak months of
growing season being relatively dry. However,
harvest time in late September and October can bring the hazard of rain,
grape rot and dilution caused by the vines absorbing too much water from the wet soils and funneling that into the grape berries. Additionally,
migrating birds heading south for the winter will often prey upon ripening grape clusters as a food source.
![Vineyards at Bethel Heights](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Vineyards_at_Bethel_Heights.jpg)
The
vineyard soils
The soil composition of vineyards is one of the most important viticultural considerations when planting grape vines. The soil supports the root structure of the vine and influences the drainage levels and amount of minerals and nutrients that the ...
of the Eola-Amity hills include
volcanic soils
The soil composition of vineyards is one of the most important viticultural considerations when planting grape vines. The soil supports the root structure of the vine and influences the drainage levels and amount of minerals and nutrients that the ...
and shallow
nekia series
Series may refer to:
People with the name
* Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series
* George Series (1920–1995), English physicist
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Series, the ordered sets used in ...
over ancient
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
beds.
Throughout the AVA are soil deposits left over from the
Missoula floods
The Missoula floods (also known as the Spokane floods or the Bretz floods or Bretz's floods) were cataclysmic glacial lake outburst floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the las ...
.
[H. Johnson & J. Robinson ''The World Atlas of Wine'' pg 292 Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 ]
Vineyards
First registered as an independent AVA in 2006, the Eola-Amity Hills AVAs include several notable vineyards that have been provided grapes to wineries in other Oregon AVAs for years. One of the first vineyards planted in the region was
Bethel Heights Vineyard, northwest of
Salem, planted by pioneer grape grower, Victor Winquist, in 1977.
Among the Eola-Amity Hills vineyards that will appear on
vineyard designated wines
A vineyard designated wine is a wine produced from the product of a single vineyard with that vineyard's name appearing on the wine label.
Throughout the history of winemaking and viticulture, the differences in quality between one plot of land ...
include ''Temperance Hill Vineyard'' with 100 acres located northwest of Salem, ''Zenith Vineyard'' that was first planted in 1982; ''Zena Crown'' located centrally in the Eola-Amity Hills with 83.5 acres that were first planted in 2003.
There are 95 vineyards and 26 wineries with 20 tasting rooms in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Pinot noir is the most widely planted variety with over 1,721 acres; there are 66.4 acres of Chardonnay; 48 acres of Pinot gris and platings of Riesling, Muscat, Syrah, Dolcetto, Tempranillo, Auxerrois, Viognier, Pinot blanc, Gewürztraminer and Carmine - each less than 10 planted acres.
In 2013,
Jackson Family Wines
Jackson Family Wines is a wine company headquartered in Santa Rosa, California. At 6 million cases sold per year, it is the ninth-largest wine producer in the United States. Jackson Family Wines includes 40 brands, sourced from vineyards and wine ...
announced it had purchased the ''Zena East'' and ''Zena Middle'' vineyards, consisting of of Pinot noir grapes; the purchase was part of the "first large-scale acquisition of Oregon vineyard lands by a California winemaker."
References
External links
Eola-Amity Hills AVA
{{Coord, 45.056, -123.116, display=title, dim:25km
American Viticultural Areas
Oregon wine
Geography of Polk County, Oregon
Geography of Yamhill County, Oregon
2006 establishments in Oregon