Oregon Wine Map — Free Download

23 AVAs spanning volcanic basalt, marine sediment, and ancient alluvial fans — from Pinot Noir’s American stronghold to the Tempranillo frontier of Southern Oregon.

This Oregon wine map covers one of the most geographically diverse wine states in America. Oregon is home to 23 AVAs stretching from the cool, maritime-influenced Willamette Valley in the northwest to the high-desert vineyards of the Snake River Valley on the Idaho border — with the warm, mountainous wine country of Southern Oregon filling the space in between. Most people associate Oregon with Pinot Noir, and they’re not wrong (the Willamette Valley alone accounts for roughly three-quarters of the state’s production), but that’s only part of the story. Head south and you’ll find Tempranillo thriving in the Umpqua Valley, Syrah earning world-class scores in The Rocks District, and over 70 grape varieties planted across the Rogue Valley. Oregon’s strictest-in-the-nation labeling laws and its culture of small-production, estate-driven winemaking make it unlike any other state. Download the free map below to see the full picture.

What This Map Covers

This classic map provides a statewide overview of Oregon’s wine geography — all 23 AVAs, from the densely planted Willamette Valley to the emerging regions of Southern Oregon and the cross-border appellations in the northeast and east. You’ll see how the Cascade Range divides the state climatically, where the major river systems create winegrowing corridors, and how Oregon’s AVA hierarchy nests smaller appellations within larger ones.

• All 23 Oregon AVAs including the Willamette Valley and its 11 nested sub-appellations
• Southern Oregon AVA with its five nested appellations: Rogue Valley, Applegate Valley, Umpqua Valley, Elkton, and Red Hill Douglas County
• The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater within the Walla Walla Valley — the only AVA in the U.S. defined by soil type
• Columbia Gorge AVA straddling the Oregon-Washington border along the Columbia River
• Snake River Valley AVA extending from eastern Oregon into Idaho
• Major mountain ranges (Coast Range, Cascades) and their climatic influence on each region

Geography and Site Character

Oregon’s wine geography is defined by mountains. The Cascade Range runs north-south through the state and creates the fundamental climate divide: everything west of the Cascades receives maritime influence from the Pacific, while everything east sits in a continental rain shadow with hot summers, cold winters, and significantly less rainfall. West of the Cascades, the Coast Range adds a second layer of complexity — its gaps and valleys funnel marine air inland at varying intensities, creating the mesoclimate differences that distinguish one AVA from the next.

The state’s three primary non-overlapping wine regions tell the story clearly. The Willamette Valley in the northwest is Oregon’s cool-climate heartland, dominated by Pinot Noir and shaped by the interaction between the Coast Range and the Cascades. Southern Oregon — the super-AVA encompassing both the Umpqua and Rogue valleys — is warmer, drier, and dramatically more diverse, growing everything from Pinot Noir to Tempranillo to Cabernet Sauvignon depending on elevation and exposure. And then there are the cross-border regions: the Columbia Gorge, where climate shifts from maritime to desert within 40 miles; the Walla Walla Valley, home to The Rocks District’s extraordinary basalt cobblestone soils; and the Snake River Valley, a high-desert outpost shared with Idaho where Riesling and Gewürztraminer thrive at elevations above 2,000 feet.

What ties it all together is Oregon’s winemaking culture. This is a state built on small-production, estate-driven wineries — more than 1,000 of them — with the strictest labeling laws in the country (90% varietal minimum for most grapes, 95% AVA sourcing requirement, 100% state-of-origin rule). That regulatory framework, combined with the geographic diversity, makes Oregon one of the most site-expressive wine states in America.

Key Wine Regions

The Willamette Valley

The Willamette Valley is the engine of Oregon wine — roughly three-quarters of the state’s production comes from this single AVA. Stretching over 100 miles from Portland south to Eugene, the valley holds 11 nested sub-AVAs, more than 700 wineries, and some of the most celebrated Pinot Noir vineyards in the New World. The Coast Range shelters the valley from the Pacific while the Van Duzer Corridor — a gap in the mountains — funnels cool ocean air into the heart of the appellation, creating the mesoclimate variations that define each sub-AVA’s character. Beyond Pinot Noir, Chardonnay is the valley’s fastest-growing story, producing wines with a distinctive saline, mineral quality that draws comparisons to Chablis rather than California. For a detailed breakdown of all 11 sub-AVAs, soil types, and the Van Duzer effect, see our dedicated Willamette Valley Wine Map.

Southern Oregon AVA

The Southern Oregon AVA was established in 2004 as a super-appellation unifying the Umpqua Valley and Rogue Valley under a single marketing umbrella. It extends 125 miles from near Eugene south to the California border and encompasses five nested AVAs. What makes Southern Oregon fundamentally different from the Willamette Valley is climate: this is where Oregon gets warm. The region experiences some of the widest growing-season diurnal temperature swings in the world, which extends ripening and preserves acidity in an otherwise warm environment. The interaction between the Coast Range and the Cascades creates a mosaic of microclimates that can shift dramatically within a few miles. Over 70 grape varieties are planted across the appellation, from cool-climate Pinot Noir in the north to Bordeaux and Rhône varieties in the warmer southern valleys. This is still very much emerging wine country — the quality is rising fast and the best bottles can show beautifully, but the regions are still defining what they do best.

Umpqua Valley

The Umpqua Valley sits between the Willamette Valley to the north and the Rogue Valley to the south, and it has a legitimate claim as the birthplace of modern Oregon wine. Richard Sommer established HillCrest Vineyard near Roseburg in 1961 and planted the state’s first Pinot Noir vines — years before any vines went into the Willamette Valley. The region is sometimes called “The Hundred Valleys of the Umpqua” because converging mountain ranges create a complex topography of interconnecting small valleys, each with its own microclimate. Over 150 soil types have been identified here, and the region is still very much in the process of figuring out which grapes belong where — which is part of what makes it exciting.

The Umpqua divides into three distinct climatic sub-zones. The northern area around the Elkton sub-AVA (established 2013) is cool and marine-influenced, receiving around 50 inches of annual rainfall — conditions that favor Pinot Noir and Albariño. The central valley around Roseburg is transitional, with warmer days and cooler nights. And the southern portion is genuinely warm, with conditions that Abacela’s Earl Jones identified as a strong climate match for Spain’s Rioja when he planted Oregon’s first Tempranillo vines here in 1995. Abacela went on to produce the Pacific Northwest’s first commercial varietal Tempranillo and eventually won gold in Spain’s own Tempranillo al Mundo competition — a promising sign for a region still establishing its identity. The Red Hill Douglas County sub-AVA (2004) rounds out the valley’s appellations, though it currently contains just a single vineyard.

Rogue Valley

The Rogue Valley is Oregon’s southernmost and warmest wine region — and its most varietally diverse. Established as an AVA in 1991 (though Peter Britt opened Oregon’s first official winery here in 1873), the appellation spans 70 by 60 miles across Jackson and Josephine counties and is defined by the Rogue River and three tributaries that create distinct sub-valleys with progressively different climates.

Bear Creek Valley, around Medford and Ashland, is the warmest and driest pocket. The valley floor sits at nearly 2,000 feet elevation, and the climate draws frequent comparisons to Bordeaux — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and Malbec all grow well here, though the region is still building its reputation for these varieties. The Applegate Valley (its own sub-AVA since 2000) occupies a transitional zone at around 1,500 feet elevation, with vineyards experiencing warm days and cool nights that suit both Bordeaux reds and some cooler-climate whites. The Illinois Valley, at the western end near the Pacific influence, is substantially cooler and wetter — Foris Vineyards has been making excellent Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer from this area since the 1980s.

The Rogue Valley is a region worth watching. The Applegate Valley alone has around 750 acres under vine now, and climate trends have shifted conditions in the region’s favor — grapes that struggled to ripen consistently 20 years ago are now producing well-structured, genuinely interesting wines.

The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater

The Rocks District is one of the most extraordinary AVAs in America — and the only one in the United States whose boundaries are defined entirely by soil type. Established in 2015 within the Oregon portion of the Walla Walla Valley, this tiny 5.9-square-mile appellation sits on an alluvial fan deposited by the Walla Walla River as it exits the Blue Mountains. The defining feature: baseball-sized basalt cobblestones covering the surface, absorbing solar radiation during the day and radiating heat back into the vine canopy at night. The result is extraordinary concentration and a distinctive savory, olive-and-tar character that’s unlike anything else in the Pacific Northwest.

Syrah is king here — and it’s world-class. The cobblestone soils are extremely well-drained, forcing vines to root deeply and producing small berries of remarkable intensity. Italian immigrants first planted grapes here in the 1860s, producing wine for gold rush miners in northern Idaho, but the modern era began in the 1990s when a handful of pioneering producers recognized the unique potential. Geologist Kevin Pogue of Whitman College authored the AVA petition, and the resulting appellation is, as he described it, the most geologically uniform AVA in the country — 96% of the soils belong to the Freewater series. Along with the Willamette Valley for Pinot Noir, The Rocks District represents Oregon’s other legitimate claim to producing wines that compete on the global stage.

Columbia Gorge

The Columbia Gorge AVA straddles the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, and it might be the most climatically compressed wine region in the country. Over just 40 miles, the climate shifts from cool and maritime on the western end (36 inches of annual rainfall near Hood River) to full continental high desert on the eastern end (10 inches of rainfall). This extreme variance means growers on the west side are producing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay while those a short drive east are working with Syrah, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The soils — silty loams deposited by floods, volcanic activity, and landslides — are equally varied, and Mt. Hood looms directly to the south, influencing cold air drainage patterns throughout the growing season. Production here is still small, but the geographic diversity makes the Gorge one of the more intriguing emerging appellations in the Pacific Northwest.

Snake River Valley

The Snake River Valley AVA, established in 2007, is Oregon’s only presence in the high-desert east. The appellation straddles the Oregon-Idaho border along the Snake River, encompassing Baker and Malheur counties on the Oregon side. This is extreme-conditions viticulture: elevations range from 2,100 to 3,400 feet, the growing season is short, and annual rainfall hovers around 10 to 12 inches. But the intense sunlight, dramatic diurnal temperature swings, and the moderating influence of the river itself create conditions where Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Chardonnay can produce wines of genuine interest. The vast majority of production sits on the Idaho side, but the Oregon portion represents a small and still-developing part of the state’s viticultural frontier.