This Grape Is the Secret Behind Oregon’s Most Structured, Elegant Rosés

Oregon wine country, ​​primarily the Willamette Valley, is known for its world-class Pinot Noirs. Rosés may not come to mind when people think of Oregon wines, but the style has taken off in recent years, and for good reason.

On some of the oldest soils in the Willamette Valley, winemakers are using Pinot Noir to make some of the most exciting rosés in the country.

The Yamhill-Carlton AVA

Just an hour from Portland, Oregon, Yamhill-Carlton is a relatively new American Viticultural Area (AVA). Named after two hamlets, the region began grape growing and winemaking about 40 years ago. Expat winemakers joined with established locals who had built their careers in neighboring California to buy land and plant grapevines. Their efforts made the region a player in the national market. This year, the AVA celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Located at the end of the Oregon Trail and surrounded by the Chehalem Mountains and Dundee Hills, this picturesque region grows not only Pinot Noir, but also Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling. The ancient sedimentary soils provide excellent drainage and moisture. Wineries practice sustainable and organic farming that allow their wines to reflect the exceptional terroir. 

Almost all the AVA’s 63 wineries and 127 vineyards are family-owned and operated, and the winemakers firmly believe in camaraderie and mutual support. 

“Everybody asks me when I am going to retire,” says Jay McDonald, the owner and winemaker of EIEIO & Company winery. “But I am not going to. I will just die here.” As McDonald talks next to his rustic, cozy tasting cottage on the hill of an oak tree-lined road that overlooks lavish, green vineyards, you can understand why. 

Oregon rosé wine style

Oregon winemaking pioneers, Tony Soter and his wife, Michelle, returned to their native state after a long and successful career in Napa with a distinct goal: to make Pinot Noir. Their first vintage, in 1997, was a sparkling rosé made in the traditional French méthode champenoise. 

According to Tony, Yamhill-Carlton’s sedimentary soil allows wines to achieve the right minerality and earthiness with minimal intervention. “Restraining is the hardest thing,” he says. “A lot of winemakers think that they are alchemists, and it’s all about the magic that they do in the cellar. All this time working and growing beautiful grapes, the last thing I want to do is anything more than try to render them as honorably as possible.” 

Chris Fladwood, director of winemaking and viticulture at Soter Vineyards, employs Tony’s philosophy to make this signature sparkling rosé, as well as still rosé wines. 

Before winemakers in Yamhill-Carlton bottle their signature Pinot Noir wines, they harvest the grapes to make rosés. They use single or multiple clones, and each producer adds their own unique twist. 

Tony Rynders, an acclaimed Pacific Northwest winemaker, makes Tendril Wine Cellar’s rosé under the label Child’s Play. Rynders’ two daughters, Madeline and Audrey, painted the label to reflect the wine’s flavorful and approachable character. 

Rynders believes the appellation offers a more fruit-driven style of rosé. Tendril Cellar’s rosé is 100% Pinot Noir, crushed and left to “cold soak” for four or more days prior to fermentation. This is a little longer than most rosés in the Willamette Valley. The wine is bottled in December, just two months after vinification. 

“We release the wine young, so the style is fresh and vibrant with lots of Pacific Northwest characteristics,” he says. 

At Big Table Farm, another Napa expat couple, winemaker Brian Marcy and artist Clare Carver, direct-press Pinot Noir for their Laughing Pig Rosé. They place the grape on top of an equal amount of 100% whole cluster fruit to let it soak and slowly ferment for several days. The extra skin contact gives the wine a dark color and full body, with lots of fruit and spice. 

Big Table Farm began this style in 2007, when Oregon had a particularly cool year. “Although Brian had 10 years of winemaking under his belt, it was only our second year here in Oregon making wine, and the low sugar had us concerned about making the Pinot fruit into red wine,” says Carver. “Out of an abundance of caution, we made all the Pinot fruit into rosé, and this house style of rosé was born.” 

Ximena Orrego, the founder of Atticus Wines, believes that rosés in the region have an underlying similarity. 

“One of the typical characteristics, the ‘common vein’ of rosé in Yamhill-Carlton, is minerality, the savory element that runs through the vines,” she says. 

Twenty-plus years ago, Orrego and her husband, Guy Insley, sought to find a retirement destination. Instead, they discovered a grass and clover farm in the Willamette Valley that would become the home of Atticus Wines. The couple purchased it in 2004, and a year later began to plant the vines and build their barn-style house in the middle of the vineyard. 

Rosé represents just 10% of Atticus Wine’s production, but Orrego takes it very seriously. The winemaker picks the Pinot Noir grapes seven to 10 days before the actual harvest to make “a very intentional, acid-driven rosé. I treat it very much like white wine,” she says. “When it goes to primary fermentation, I manage it very closely, so it won’t go spontaneously to secondary fermentation. I want to keep that brightness, so it stays crisp and more tropical and has that white peach-skin element that I love.” 

Rosé as a new path for the next generation

A decade after they produced their first amateur wine in 1971, Trudy and Keith Kramer purchased land in Garston and established Kramer Vineyards, where they specialized in growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Riesling. 

Today, their daughters, Kim and Rebecca, continue Kramer’s craft with expanded operations, sustainable farming practices, and a focus on micro-lots, sparkling wines, and stylistic explorations. 

On one of the highest-elevation sites of the vineyard, a block is dedicated to rosé. It’s a dry, vibrant, and layered wine made of early-picked fruit. It’s foot-crushed, cold-pressed, and cool-fermented in stainless steel, then aged briefly on fine lees (dead yeast particles collected at the bottom of a fermentation vessel) to build texture. 

“With rosé, I see it as another expression of Pinot Noir, a different continuum of flavors, shaped by site, vintage, and intention,” says Rebecca, the winery director. 

At Soléna Estate, rosé is made as a blend, a very different technique from other wineries in the region. But in Soléna, many things are different. 

The 80-acre estate was a wedding present that winemakers Laurent Montalieu and Danielle Andrus gifted one another to start a wine label, named after their daughter. Every year, its rosé blend changes. 

“We actually color the wine by blending red and white together,” says Joe Paradise, Soléna’s director of consumer sales and hospitality. “By the numbers, it’s more of a white blend that includes a splash of Pinot Noir. This gives it a more pronounced aroma and more body, while still retaining freshness and acidity.” 

The wine boasts another surprise. Some vintages include the 828 clone of Pinot Noir, a cutting of which Gary Andrus, Danielle’s father, smuggled from Burgundy inside the lining of his jacket. 

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. They earned the honor in 1990 for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre that appeared in The New York Times. 

The couple also continues a nearly century-old legacy at Kristof Farm with their award-winning apple ciders and wines. They are involved in barrel tasting and marketing the rosé alongside their other wines, but have entrusted main operations to their general manager, Anthony King. 

Kristof Farms makes its rosé by following the guidance of Adam Campbell, owner and partner winemaker of the local Elk Cove Vineyards. Campbell chose a special site on the south side of the lower Pinot Noir blocks at the farm. The tall, old-growth fir trees allow for slower ripening that produces less sugar and more acidity. 

“It is an elegant solution that not only allows us to make a lower-alcohol, vibrant rosé, but also results in more evenly ripe and focused Pinot Noir from the upper portions of those blocks,” says King. 

Yamhill-Carlton AVA rosé bottles to try

2024 Soter Vineyards Estates Rosé of Pinot Noir

The grapes for this wine are sourced from organically farmed Ribbon Ridge Estate. It’s aged in 70% natural French Oak and 30% stainless steel, and it offers notes of ripe peach, strawberries, and nectarine.

2024 Tendril Wines Child’s Play Pinot Noir Rosé

This food-friendly rosé is made with extended skin contact, which makes for a full-bodied and richly textured wine. The notes are raspberries, melon, peach, and a hint of rosemary.

2024 The Laughing Pig Rosé, Big Table Farm

This is a dry, complex rosé aged in French Oak barrels. On the nose, it has bright strawberries, orange, and chamomile tea.

2024 Kristof Farms Rosé

This second vintage of Kristof Farms is made of early-picked Pinot Noir grapes and is bright and fruit-forward. It has bursting notes of grapefruit, cherry, and wild strawberries.