Once upon a time, I had a job selling barrels in Willamette Valley. Some of the most thrilling wines I saw in the United States were these energizing and singular Chardonnays from this eponymous region. These wines are alive with minerality, fruit, and electricity!

If we were to judge a wine category’s weight by what is published by wine writers and whose virtues are extolled by somms, then Willamette Valley Chardonnay would be near the top of Wine Mountain.

There appears to be a disconnection between the market at large and the hurricane gale forced buzz surrounding Willamette Valley Chardonnay. The interest is there in pockets, but it hasn’t begun to approach the chorus of buyers seeking to find ways to fill out and increase their Willamette Valley Pinot Noir offerings.

Is it simply a matter of the American consumer identifying Chardonnay as the butter and oak monolith and passing by other wines that don’t identify as such in the Chardonnay category? Perhaps. However, there are dynamic wines across price points in this category, fresh with vibrant acidity, a friend of many types of cuisine, and showing the elegant, flinty reduction that make Burgundian Chardonnays world famous.

Perhaps Willamette Valley Chardonnay represents a great opportunity to reach younger drinkers, turned off by wines carrying high alcohol percentages and lacking freshness. These novel consumers may turn to these wonderful wines if we are able to frame it to them as somewhat undiscovered territory worthy of exploration.