ABOUT
Adjacent to the Willamette River, these hills are composed of the Eola Hills, straddling the 45th parallel on the southern end, and the Amity Hills on the northern spur, constituting almost 40,000 acres on which more than 1,300 acres of grapes are planted.
Two of the predominant influences on the characteristics of wines from the Eola-Amity Hills are shallow soils and the Van Duzer Corridor.
The soils of the Eola-Amity Hills contain predominantly volcanic basalt from ancient lava flows, combined with marine sedimentary rocks and/or alluvial deposits, making a generally much shallower and rockier set of well-drained soils which produce small grapes with great concentration.
The Van Duzer Corridor provides a break in the Coast Range that allows cool ocean winds to flow, dropping temperatures dramatically (especially during late summer afternoons), which helps to keep acids firm.
