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Domaine Drouhin Oregon is the living breathing culmination of generations of French tradition seamlessly colliding with the adventurous American spirit. The famed Drouhin family, then already well established as one of Burgundy's most notable and storied houses, was the first major player in the international wine world to take viticulture in Oregon seriously. From the start of their involvement in the Willamette Valley the Drouhin's understood that this cool climate region had striking similarities to their home in Burgundy, and thus they reasonably inferred it also had the potential to produce high quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Drouhin's went all in on their Oregon investment more than 30 years ago and have helped to legitimize what is now one of the world's greatest cool climate winegrowing zones.
Joseph Drouhin originally founded his eponymous winery in the French city of Beaune in 1880. He carefully grew it from a small negociant into a full-fledged regional icon that would eventually amass the greatest total acreage of vineyard holdings of any producer in all of France. Over 100 years after Joseph first began in the wine business the Drouhin's made their move into Oregon when Joseph's grandson Robert purchased 97 acres in 1987 in what would eventually become known as the Dundee Hills. Robert's children Véronique and Phillipe, part of the 4th generation of the Drouhin wine dynasty, were tasked with running and overseeing the fledgling project while Robert continued running operations in France. Using their immense experience gained over a full century of working with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in France the Drouhin's quickly created a marquee operation out of their new Oregon property, and it didn't take long until they were producing absolutely spectacular wine on two continents. Domaine Drouhin Oregon has grown and transformed from an upstart adventure into one of Oregon's most respected wineries, and they have gradually expanded to what is now a 30,000 case annual production made completely from fruit grown in their 250 cumulative acres of estate vineyards.
We had the tremendous pleasure of visiting Domaine Drouhin Oregon during our time in the Willamette Valley and were absolutely blown away by the care and intentionality this family puts into every single thing they do. Our visit began with a walk into their original estate vineyard and we immediately got a sense of both the respect for tradition and forward thinking mentality that has cemented the Drouhin legacy. The Drouhin's strayed from the norm starting from the day they planted their first vines in Oregon in 1987. At that time nearly every existing vineyard in the state was entirely own-rooted as locals believed the area's isolation and volcanic soils would ward off phylloxera. The Drouhin's however, knowing full-well the devastation phylloxera caused in Europe, decided to plant their vineyard using grafted rootstock anyways - a decision which paid off in spades when phylloxera inevitably spread into the valley in the 1990's.
The Drouhin's diverged not only by planting their vineyard using grafted rootstock, but they also chose to utilize extremely-tight Burgundian vine spacing throughout their estate. Tighter spacing between vines and rows has been used for centuries in Burgundy to increase competition and minimize fruit yield per-vine, yet it makes vineyards much harder to farm with traditionally large American tractors and equipment. Unwilling to sacrifice quality for convenience the Drouhin's shipped in specialized equipment from France that was designed specifically to handle cramped Burgundian vineyards, and to this day they remain one of the few Willamette Valley producers successfully farming in such crowded quarters.
The Drouhin Estate Vineyard is also quite a marvel in terroir. It is located on a picturesque east facing hillside that tops out at around 825 feet in elevation and provides direct exposure to the warming morning sun. While lower elevation sites in the Willamette Valley posses deep fertile soils better suited for traditional agriculture the weathered slopes of the Drouhin property are much less generous, and are thus ideal for producing low yields of high quality wine grapes. These distinct soils, known locally as Jory, are of volcanic origin and are noticeably red in color thanks to high iron content. Although the volcanic soils of their Willamette Valley estate are startlingly different than anything found in Burgundy the Drouhin's fully embraced this difference, and the motto "French soul, Oregon soil" was born as a result.
In the cellar Domain Drouhin Oregon has also been both traditional and revolutionary. The production facility was built in 1989 and was one of the first domestic wineries to be designed entirely around gravity flow, which specifically utilizes a multi-level production floor so that wine can be moved without the use of pumps. The Drouhin team makes their wine using very traditional Burgundian methods which were not necessarily common in Oregon before they arrived. They typically de-stem all of their Pinot Noir before fermentation in a temperature controlled vessel, and it is then aged in barrel for around 12 months in about 20% new oak. Their Chardonnay, on the other hand, is whole cluster pressed, settled, and then racked straight into barrel for fermentation and aging, again with minimal new oak influence for 6 to 8 months. Each of their wines is classically styled and focuses on expressing beautiful fruit and earth above winemaking or manipulation.
Perhaps the greatest joy of visiting Domaine Drouhin Oregon is that it is one of the few wineries in the world where one can taste wine crafted by the same winemaking team from both old world and new world terroir, as Domaine Drouhin Oregon offers a special tasting where their wonderful lineup of Willamette Valley wines are served alongside their French equivalents. We were able to compare and contrast a gorgeous Chablis with an amazing Dundee Hills Chardonnay, a beautifully rustic red from Beaune with a Dundee Hills Pinot Noir, and the tasting even contained a few wines from Drouhin's Rose Rock sister property. Each of the Drouhin wines shared the theme of remarkable precision and tremendous purity of fruit combined with unabated expression of terroir, and each was individually unquestionably delicious. We found ourselves torn between the Burgundian and Oregonian offerings constantly as each bottle was drinking absolutely wonderfully regardless of origin. The opportunity to compare and contrast terroir in such a linear and direct way is exceedingly rare and in itself justifies a visit to Domaine Drouhin Oregon to take part in this one-of-a-kind experience.
As far as we are concerned the Drouhin's are nearly unrivaled in their multi-regional pursuit of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay perfection. Their wines are classic, focused, and restrained, with an emphasis on balance and absolute purity of expression. These are wines on par with the best varietal examples produced anywhere in the world, not just in Burgundy or Oregon. Domaine Drouhin Oregon is simply a must-visit for anyone planning a trip to the Willamette Valley.