Oregon Wine by Naked Winery

We are booth and Oregon Winery with facilities in Hood River, Dundee and Cave Junction and Washington Winery with facilities in Wishram. If you happen to be in Hood River drop by our Hood River, Oregon Wine Tasting Room and Get Naked! or cruise out to Cascade Cliffs in Wishram to taste some of our White Wines.

In addition to the great wineries in the Columbia Gorge, overall Oregon Wine Country now boasts over 300 wineries producing wine from 72 grape varieties from 15 unique AVA's.

2009 witnessed the first release of a Columbia Gorge AVA wine (Virgin Chardonnay) by Naked Winery. This chard is distinctly oaky in character with a creamy mouth feel. You can expect more wines from the Columbia Gorge as we ramp production of our Hood River Winery. The Willamette Valley has made Oregon wine famous for Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris varietals. In 2006 more than 50% of the planted acreage was Pinot Noir with Pinot Gris coming in #2 at 14% of the acreage. In 2008 we released our second Oregon Pinot Noir from our southern Oregon vineyards in the Rogue Valley.

We were pleased to see Pinot Gris passing White Zinfandel in 2007 as the second most popular white wine in America and you can expect it to close gap in on Chardonnay in the next few years. We continue to love this wine and hence produce two types of Oregon Pinot Gris. Naked Pinot Gris (Rogue Valley) is our "Rescue Wine", i.e. if you aren't sure what wine to serve, bring out the Naked Pinot Gris as it has a very wide appeal and can be paired with most foods. If you are trying to impress the Sommelier in the party, reach for the Escort Pinot Gris (Willamette Valley) and they will be waxing philosophical for the rest of the evening about long finish etc.

While the most popular White Wine in America is Chardonnay, if you are one of those ABC drinkers (Anything But Chardonnay) you simply must try our Foreplay (Rogue Valley AVA). Its judicious use of 2nd year French Oak barrels and no malolactic fermentation make a perfect fruit forward wine.

We've already told you about Rogue Valley Chardonnay. In addition this wine growing region is gaining acclaim for their Syrah and Riesling. Riesling, for years has been a staple of Boutique Winery Tasting rooms and laggard in the industry at large. This situation is changing quickly and Riesling is certainly a wine to watch and taste (especially semi-dry wines). 2008 saw the first release of our Sugar Daddy Muscat and we continue to increase production of this sweet (~4%RS) light wine.

In terms of Red Wines, the Applegate Valley (wholly within the Rogue Valley) is perfect growing Syrah (Shiraz) grapes. Our Vixen is an example why 30 of Wine Spectator's Hot 100 for 2007 were Syrah. Taste our Vixen to experience France's Rhone Valley without ever leaving America.

Learn more about great Oregon Wine and Wineries at the Oregon Wine Board.