It’s definitely still a work in progress to determine which sites, producers, and vintages aging potential.
I don’t have a perception of a difference based upon grafted or own rooted. I’ve handled both, and the aging curve seems similar based upon the vineyard.
General ideas for me(and my palate):
All of the sub-AVAs can age for significant periods of time. But I find the need/reward for aging the wines more in Ribbon Ridge and the Eola-Amity Hills, than in the Dundee Hills and Yamhill-Carlton.
Breezier vineyards on shallower soils are most likely to need longer cellaring(8+ years) to show well, but often are among my favorite wines.
Older vines also often have a need for cellaring that young vines do not, and also offer longer potential for celllaring. This may be why Rick’s cellaring times have extended so much.
Acidity is a HUGE part of the ability to age. Producers with mature acids(more tartaric, less malic) will make wines that naturally cellar longer. Tartaric is a much more powerful acid than malic, and also tastes better. And “mature” does not mean picked later, as acids decrease over time and pH rises.
Whole cluster-wineries with stem inclusion will generally have wines that require more patience but, IMO, they also often have extra layers of nuance from the compounds stems offer. They also, again IMO, often seem to develop an extra layer of texture with significant time in bottle.
While my wines are sometimes seen as AFWE, all but the coolest of vintages tend to become significantly more substantial with cellaring.
Just like Burgundy, I think it’s important to remember that amazing wines were made here when our farming capabilities were MUCH more limited. If your vineyard looks perfect, the the wines will also probably be perfectly boring. Lots of sugars and deep purple flavors are awesome…in a grape slushy.
Off the top of my head, some of my favorite older Oregon wines have come from:
Amity
Arterberry
Belle Pente
Bethel Heights
Brickhouse
Beaux Freres
Cameron
Evesham Wood
Westrey
McKinlay
Thomas
Patricia Green
Cristom(especially from the 90’s vintages)
Domaine Drouhin
Eyrie
Grochau(especially his Bjornsen bottling)
Additionally, wineries that I would like to have older vintages from would include: Hundred Suns, Ayoub, Kelley Fox, Arterberry Maresh, Lundeen, Vincent, Violin, and Franny Beck.
Also, from back in the day Fred Arterberry was making tremendous wines that aged incredibly well.