Dundee Hills AVA - established 2005 - Click link below for events within this AVA.
The "Red" Hills were created by a basaltic lava flow over 15 million years ago, which left an iron rich red soil behind. This soil type is called "Jory" soil.
There are over 2,000 acres of vineyard planted within the AVA.
Over 25 wineries operate in the Dundee Hills AVA
The first grapes in the Willamette Valley were planted in the Dundee Hills. It remains the most densely planted locale in the valley and state. This region is unique for its higher elevation, warmer nighttime temperatures, less low-elevation fog and frost, and lava-based Jory soil series of reddish silt, clay and loam soils. Within the 12,500 acres of this almost exclusively basaltic landmass that runs north-south and overlooks the Willamette River to the south ,the Chehalem Valley to the north, the Coastal Range to the west including the breath-taking snow-peaked Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson to the east,. More than 1700 acres of grapes are planted in approximately 50 vineyards. It is approximately 30 miles to the southwest of Portland and 40 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, with protection from the ocean climate provided by the higher Coast Range of mountains. This region is unique for its higher elevation, warmer nighttime temperatures, less low-elevation fog and frost, and lava-based Jory soil series of reddish silt, clay and loam soils.