This is one of many articles in the Mercury’s 2026 Climate Issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you’re feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds.

The Willamette Valley is nearly synonymous with pinot noir, but that wasn’t always the case. In 1965, 24-year-old David Lett came to Oregon with 3,000 grape cuttings. Dissatisfied with pinot noir from sunny California, he bet on the cooler Willamette Valley, whose climate was similar to pinot noir’s native Burgundy. He planted the very first wine grapes in the Willamette Valley and founded the Eyrie Vineyards in the Dundee Hills. In 1979, a 1975 Eyrie Vineyards pinot noir ranked third in a blind tasting, beating many Burgundian pinot noirs—proving that the Willamette Valley could compete with the Old World.

Climate is one of the biggest factors in a wine’s outcome. Too little ripening, and grapes taste herbaceous with harsh tannins, and the wine’s alcohol level will be too low. Too much ripening and the wine will have excess sugar levels (read: high alcohol content) and develop cooked fruit flavors. Heat also makes vines take up more potassium, which makes grapes lose their acidity and taste “flabby.”

In the early years of Willamette Valley pinot when the climate was much cooler, end-of-season ripening wasn’t guaranteed. But now, winemakers are having the opposite problem. With warmer temperatures, grapes are reaching high sugar levels early in the season—often before it’s had enough time on the vine to develop full flavor.

Pinot noir is still in good shape right now. According to a 2022 Chemeketa Community College study, around 85-95 percent of the Willamette Valley currently has ideal growing conditions for pinot noir. But harvest dates are moving about three days earlier each decade, and the study estimates that by the 2070s, only sites at high elevations or in the western portion of the Van Duzer corridor, a windy area in the Willamette Valley, will be ideal for pinot noir.

With climate change, winemakers in the Willamette Valley are figuring out ways to stay resilient and plan for the future.

Send in the Clones

In the ’80s, David Adelsheim of Adelsheim Vineyard imported pinot noir clones from the Dijon region of France that ripened earlier, and thus more consistently, than the Wädenswil clones that Lett originally planted. Those Dijon clones, known by names like 113, 114, 115, 667, and 777, became popular throughout the valley.

“Now we’re kind of looking the other way—we need different clonal selection to deal with that heat,” explains Dan Diephouse, who co-owns all-sparkling winery Corollary Wines with his wife, Jeanne Feldkamp. Now, many winemakers are going back to later-ripening clones like Wädenswil, as well as Pommard.

Change Where You Plant

In 1986, wine hobbyist Howard Mozeico planted a couple rows of pinot noir at his home in the Chehalem Mountains, 1000 feet in elevation. The vineyard was a just-for-fun experiment; back then, grapes wouldn’t ripen at that elevation.

In 2003, Howard and his daughter, Jessica, founded and ran Et Fille Wines, French for “and daughter,” together until Howard’s death in 2017. In 2022, Jessica decided to expand their home vineyard significantly—part of a trend of planting at cool-temp, high elevation sites.

“Given the changing climate, 1000 feet is going to position us ideally,” she says.

Wine growers can also choose to plant in one of two major soil types in the Valley: marine sedimentary soil or volcanic soil.

“Marine sedimentary soils shed excess water,” explains Grant Coulter, who co-owns Hundred Suns Wine with wife Renée Saint-Amour. “Thirty or 40 years ago, we were getting a lot of rain, and they tended to ripen faster, so it was advantageous.”

“In some of these older volcanic sites, their acids were quite high. The wines were delicious, but they needed a decade of age before they were really palatable. I’m seeing that that dichotomy upended, where a lot of these vineyards that were marginal in years past—volcanic soils, higher elevations—are singing right now.”

Switch Up Your Rootstock

Due to phylloxera, a vineyard pest, European wine grapes (vinis vinifera), which are highly susceptible to phylloxera, are usually grafted onto phylloxera-resistant rootstock from American grapes. Rootstock varieties like riparia gloire became popular in the Willamette Valley in the late ’90s and 2000s for their quick-ripening qualities.

“It’s a shallow-rooting rootstock, and it actually can accelerate the ripening of your fruit by up to 5-7 days,” says Coulter. “That was a bonus a few years back, but now I would recommend people plant on more drought-tolerant rootstocks.”

Stay Hydrated

To help grapes stay resilient during heat domes, Feldkamp and Diephouse dug a 750,000 gallon pond in their vineyard at the base of several small hills, allowing groundwater to flow into the pond. Rainwater from the tasting room’s roof also feeds the pond, along with underground springs.

“It’s not because we believe irrigating your vines all year round is a great idea—that definitely does not lead to high quality vine,” says Diephouse. “But when you get a 110 degree day, if you irrigate, that’s going to prevent you losing all that acidity because the vines don’t get stressed.”

Adjust How You Prune

In cooler years, vineyard managers would prune away the canopy of leaves shading the grapes to help the fruit get enough sunlight to ripen; it also reduced the risk of mildew. But now, keeping more leaves shades the grapes from excess sun.

Pruning—or not pruning—clusters of fruit can also be effective. In the olden days, many employed cluster-thinning: cutting down clusters of grapes so that the vines had more energy and nutrients to ripen the remaining clusters. With warmer temps today, leaving more fruit on the vines means that not only is ripening slowed, but the vineyards also yield more fruit.

Diversify Your Varietals

Some of these winemakers increasingly dabble in other varietals—Hundred Suns and Et Fille both make excellent gamay, and Hundred Suns also makes a syrah, both varietals that wouldn’t have ripened well a couple decades ago. Still, pinot noir is having a golden age in the valley right now.

“We’re finding ways to adapt. I know I’m afraid,” says Coulter. “But we are still in an amazing position now. Go grab a bottle of Willamette Valley, and you know nine out of 10 of them are going to be phenomenal.”