How chardonnay reflects Oregon’s changing wine scene

As the sun rises over a steep south-facing slope on the eastern side of the Eola-Amity Hills, workers arrive in dusty cars, minivans and SUVs. As though responding to an invisible signal, they mobilize, five-gallon buckets and shears in hand, delicately snipping and grabbing clusters of small translucent green grapes.

It’s a familiar setting across the Willamette Valley’s premiere vineyards: elevation high enough to cool off each night, slopes angled to catch each photon of the daytime sun, and row upon row of gnarled vines growing grapes that were first developed in the Burgundy region of France.