One of the dangers of being a wine podcaster is you have to say wine terms and regions out loud. It’s hard enough to keep everything spelled correctly and often over the years I’ve made some embarrassing mistakes on the podcast.

But the one that is probably most distressing for me was my butchering of Oregon’s Willamette Valley in Winecast 8. This provided an opportunity for Willamette Valley Vineyards President Jim Bernau to set me straight in Winecast 62 with a bit of good-natured ribbing. I only mention this embarrassing episode now since I am seeing a fair amount of search traffic for “pronounce willamette.”

So, for the record, the correct pronunciation of Willamette as it relates to the Oregon wine region is “Will-AM-it” as in “It’s Will-AM-it, damit!”

I have also made a note to add another podcast on the region to my things to do list so I can set the record straight in audio, too.