Some Oregon Wineries' Bubbly Vintages Are Beating French Champagne For The Title Of World's Best

Oregon's sparkling wines found themselves recently with a reason to pop their own corks. In a Wine Enthusiast roundup of Top 100 Wines of 2024, an Oregon bubbly was crowned number one, the first honor of its kind for a wine from the Willamette Valley. This exalted bottle is a 2013 vintage-dated bottle of a Champagne-style blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Willamette Valley's Roco Winery with the name RMS Brut. Four other Oregon sparklers also made the prestigious list: Irvine & Robert's 2018 Blancs de Blancs Chardonnay, Domaine Serene's 2015 Vintage Brut Sparkling, Corollary's 2019 X-Omni Blancs de Blancs Sparkling Chardonnay, and Cho's 2018 Blanc de Noirs Sparkling Pinot Noir.

For fans of Oregon wine, it will come as no surprise. The state's premier wine region is just as scenic as Napa Valley (without the crowds), and boasts a wine country capital overflowing with world-class vineyards and gastronomy. Oregon wineries have been producing sparkling wines with the potential for finesse since the region kicked off in earnest in the 1980s. 

As Rollin Soles, the former head winemaker of Argyle Wines, which was among the first to make sparkling wine in the Willamette Valley, told Forbes, "I wanted to take advantage of America's new-found love of Champagne. I believed the Willamette Valley had the best New World potential for cutting edge sparkling wine production." Given the recent awards heaped upon Oregon's sparklers, that potential has evidently been realized. Here's everything you need to know about what makes these wines so special, and how to visit the wineries involved for a taste of excellence.

There are several reasons that Oregon's wineries are producing the kind of dazzling sparklers that can compete with Champagne in bottle rankings. For one, the cool climate is similar. Located on the coastal side of the Cascade Mountain range, the Willamette Valley has the kind of temperature shift between day and night that helps wine grapes preserve their acidity, a defining characteristic of Champagne. The region is also known for its Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, which also happen to be two of the three grapes employed in actual Champagne.

While you can't label an Oregon wine as Champagne, you can designate it as Champagne method. Bottle terminology, such as méthode Champenoise, méthode traditionnelle, or traditional method indicate wine that has been made according to the same process that was originally developed in Champagne. This method necessitates that the secondary fermentation take place in the bottles, which adds richness and texture to the wines. So many of Oregon's producers are following this procedure that, in 2025, several of the state's winemakers are coming together for the first time to offer a public grand tasting of Oregon's best traditional method sparklers, in an event aptly named Method Oregon. 

Good news for bubbleheads, the four wineries whose wines were chosen for Wine Enthusiast's recent best list all have tasting rooms. So if you find yourself wine touring in Oregon, you might want to stop in and pop a cork. Although, tasting room behavior dictates that you should probably let the pros pop it for you, but you can enjoy the results nonetheless. Note that all of the big winners here were vintage-dated sparkling wines, so those particular wines might be sold out or might not be being poured by the glass in the tasting room, but you're sure to get a good sip of top-notch fizz regardless.

The big winner, Roco Winery, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and accepts both reservations and walk-ins. Also in the Willamette Valley, Domaine Serene is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Dayton. Corollary is a sparkling-wine-only producer, located in Amity, a warm, welcoming little town whose name means "friendship." And Cho in Hillsboro, whose estate occupies the highest peak in the Willamette, is open between Thursday and Monday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with reservations recommended. 

If your travels aren't taking you to the Willamette Valley, you're still in luck. Irvine and Roberts, located in Ashland, in Oregon's Rogue Valley, is open daily from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Come for the award-winning sparkling wine, stay for one of the largest theater scenes outside of New York.