IN the beginning, there was chardonnay, and it was not good.

This was a blow to the pioneering wine producers of Oregon, who regarded their land as a sort of new Eden. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, when the firmament of the Oregon wine industry was created, a lot of chardonnay was planted.

And why not? Chardonnay was the single most popular fine white wine among Americans. It made sense to want to produce it. After all, pinot noir, the red grape of Burgundy, showed such promise in the Willamette Valley, Oregon’s leading wine region. Wouldn’t chardonnay, the white grape of Burgundy, do well, too?

But much of the chardonnay was planted without considering the particular conditions in Oregon and how they differed from those in California, where much of the popular chardonnay was grown. The leading chardonnay clone in Oregon then was more suitable for the warmer California weather and ripened too late for the shorter Oregon growing season. The result, for the most part, was mediocre wines. By the 1990s, the focus in Oregon had shifted to other white grapes, like pinot gris. Meanwhile, Oregon wine producers mostly wanted to talk about pinot noir.

Nonetheless, dedicated chardonnay producers pressed on. Realizing their initial error, they carefully studied the characteristics of alternative clones. They deliberated over the proper rootstocks for the Willamette soils. The discussion of how best to grow chardonnay in Oregon was furthered by the arrival of Domaine Drouhin, one of the leading names in Burgundy, which established an Oregon outpost in 1987. Drouhin was followed by a new generation of Oregon producers, who had worked in Burgundy and seen what could be achieved when vines and place were matched properly.