Oregon (Willamette Valley) in a minute

The grapes: Pinot Noir, with Chardonnay and Pinot Gris

What it tastes like: Red cherry, cranberry and a little earth. Fresh and elegant.

The grapes grown here

Pinot Noir

Good to know

Oregon is cooler and cloudier than California, which suits Pinot Noir. Its wines are often compared with Burgundy.

On the label

The grape is on the label, usually with Willamette Valley or one of its smaller districts.

What the land costs

The dearest vineyards here are in Willamette Valley: $40,000–$120,000 an acre (2024). Zone by zone

A basket of dark grapes and a pair of muddy boots on red soil between vine rows, with fir trees behind — Pinot Noir just picked on red volcanic soil. Cool, damp autumns suit this thin-skinned grape.

The business side

The Willamette Valley has about 25,000 acres of Pinot Noir on land that has been reported in the tens of thousands of dollars per acre — one to two orders of magnitude below Côte d'Or grand cru. Burgundy houses (Drouhin, Jadot, Méo-Camuzet among others) have bought in, which is itself evidence of the price gap.

Economics in brief

Oregon publishes a vineyard and winery census (Oregon Wine Board / Southern Oregon University) with acreage, tonnes and average prices per ton; Pinot Noir has averaged in the low thousands of dollars per ton. Costs per acre are Napa-like for labour but far lower for land, which is the whole of the Burgundy-versus-Oregon comparison.

Facts and figures

Vineyard area

≈ 45,000 acres in Oregon; Willamette Valley ≈ 30,000Oregon Wine Board Vineyard & Winery Report

Dominant variety

Pinot Noir ≈ 60% of plantingsOregon Wine Board

Vineyards of the Willamette Valley — View over vineyards from the Penner-Ash Winery in Oregon's Willamette Valley JoshMahar · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

What a bottle costs to make here

All models →

A glass of light red wine on a mossy stump beside a vineyard, with fir trees in the mist

Oregon Pinot Noir (Willamette single vineyard)

$15–$43 to make one bottle

A Pinot Noir from one vineyard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, made the way Burgundy is but on far cheaper land.

The numbers behind the region: land, grapes, yields and costs

Compare regions

Input	Range	Unit	Year	Source
Land — what a hectare of vineyard sells for
Vineyard land, Willamette Valley (planted)	40,000–120,000	USD/acre	2024	Broker and trade reporting
Grapes — what growers are paid
Pinot Noir grapes, Oregon average	2,800–3,600	USD/ton	2023	Oregon Vineyard and Winery Report
Labour — farming and harvest
Operating cost, established Pinot Noir vineyard	6,000–12,000	USD/acre/year	2023	OSU extension cost studies

Where the inputs come from

Broker and trade reporting; Oregon Wine Board
Oregon Vineyard and Winery Report (Oregon Wine Board / SOU)
OSU extension cost studies; grower interviews

Sources

Oregon Vineyard and Winery Report, Oregon Wine Board / Southern Oregon University Research Center, 2025. Retrieved 3 September 2026.

Last reviewed: September 2026Report an error on this page