The 2024 Willamette Valley Harvest and the Question of Weather

It's looking classic, but out the window it's looking gray

It appears the 2024 grape harvest is over in the Willamette Valley with perhaps the exception of a few grapes meant for dessert wines still hanging on the vines. What I felt from the comfort of my Willamette Valley back patio over the past five or six months is confirmed by the Willamette Valley growers: A spectacular growing season and harvest

As some of you know, my family and I moved to Oregon’s Willamette Valley in early 2019. This was after I lived my entire life in Northern California. Beginning in the town of Novato growing up, then up to Arcata, down to San Francisco, up to Glen Ellen, Sonoma, and finally to Napa, I spent my entire life in Northern California before moving to Salem, Oregon.

While the weather in Northern California is overall better than the Willamette Valley primarily due to its moderate winters and falls, I can say unequivocally that from May to September, the Willamette Valley has a far more agreeable climate than Northern California Wine Country.

The 2024 growing season is a perfect example of why. With the exception of three days of upper 90s and low 100-degree temperatures in early July, this entire growing season consistently gave the Willamette Valley upper 70s and low 80s days and nights that fell into the 50s and 60s. This kind of weather is as perfect for humans as it is for grapes. Here we have far fewer 100+ days than the Napa/Sonoma region and the moderate temperatures are generally consistent. Not so in Napa and Sonoma.