About an hour’s drive east of Portland, one of our region’s smallest (and oft-overlooked) wine regions—officially known as the Columbia Gorge American Viticultural Area (AVA)—stretches for some 40 miles from the town of Hood River to The Dalles, along the Oregon and Washington sides of the Gorge. But within that short stretch lie many microclimates, which means that the AVA’s 19 wineries are able to produce everything from pinot noir to syrah. Here are three impressive wines made from the region’s best grapes. —Condé Cox