Among the many great Burgundy winemakers who have landed in Oregon and are making wine there, the greatest may be one of the most recent, Louis-Michel Liger-Belair. His wines are not inexpensive. What he makes... Read More

Among the many great Burgundy winemakers who have landed in Oregon and are making wine there, the greatest may be one of the most recent, Louis-Michel Liger-Belair. His wines are not inexpensive. What he makes in Burgundy is nearly impossible to find. And what he makes in Oregon is a treasure.

Louis-Michel Liger-Belair enlisted the aid of Pedro Parra, the world's only "terroir consultant". He performs what is known as electro-conductivity mapping. This mapping of the vineyards enables Parra to identify the parcels with superior drainage where the roots of the vines could reach down to the "mother rock". By this method they discovered where the very best parcels of the vineyard are located and which to harvest and vinify together. The Willamette Valley is cool, and Pinot Noir grows well there, but there is no limestone—the soil type is a mix of sedimentary and igneous volcanic rock. Pedro thinks that the best parcels are from ribbons of volcanic soil that thread through the sedimentary soil. According to Louis-Michel, this is the kind of knowledge that took the monks in Burgundy centuries to determine.