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Willamette Trip Report (Prior to Washington Offline) - Printable Version

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- dananne - 08-10-2005

Lengthy reading, so feel free to leave now -- you won't hurt my feelings. Also, much of the detail is left out, so if you're interested in specifics regarding particular wineries, wines, vintages, years, etc., feel free to ask. If you prefer, simply skip to the high points at the end of this post.

Anne and I arrived in Oregon last Tuesday around noon, and before even reaching our hotel (Best Western Newberg Inn -- nothing fancy, but clean and inexpensive, as we wanted to spend our money on wine and, really, how much do you care where you're sleeping after a day tasting Pinots?), we stopped at Rex Hill. We thought it was appropriate as it was the first Oregon wine we ever tried. Plus, it was the first one we passed on the highway to our hotel. Anyway, we tasted through their complete flight. Nothing stellar overall, but the '02 Jacob Hart Vineyard was nice, as was their '02 Reserve and their '03 Rose. We can generally find Rex Hill around here, so we limited our purchases to those. Stopped at Duck Pond next, found it a bit tourist-y, and frankly we found their Washington label Desert Wind wines better than the Oregon stuff. Picked up two journeyman reds, a Barbera and a Cab from Wahluke Slope. Both ran around $15. Also picked up a light, almost rose-style Pinot for consumption during the trip. After that, we proceeded to Wine, Etc., a tasting room/shop where we tasted through a flight of about a dozen wines. Linda, the owner, was very knowledgeable and friendly. We tasted through about a dozen wines, and we liked enough to purchase the following: Roads End Pinot (a Ken Wright project), Aramenta Cellars Reserve Pinot, Bella Vida Pinot, Dollar Bills Only (a Patricia Green 2nd label Pinot), and a dessert wine from Medici, a winery that doesn't exist anymore, from what I understood. We left the latter with the offline group on Sat. p.m. -- if it got opened amid the wonderful offerings from the winemakers who were at the dinner, we'd love to know what everyone thought of it!

We dined at Tina's in Dundee, and Anne reports that her salmon entree was one of the best she's ever had. It was our only real dining adventure in Oregon, as we saved our money and gorged on cheap Mexican food at lunches to ensure our bellies could tolerate the daily wine intake. We retired for the night determined to make better use of the spit buckets the following days.

On Wed. a.m., since the tasting rooms don't open until 11, we drove to Pacific City, and I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Being somewhat dim on the subject, I scampered across the sand and ran into the ocean up to my knees before I realized that sea lions would find the water too cold. I promptly ran back to the car and rubbed life back into my feet. Returning to McMinnville, we stopped by the Oregon Wine Tasting Room, located in a gallery, and the The Tasting Room in McMinnville. From one or the other, we walked out with Pinot purchases from Coleman Vineyard (their Estate Reserve), Solena (their Grande Cuvee), Namaste Vineyards (Prosperity Block), and AW Wines' Hersey's Red Ankeny Vineyard. During the afternoon, we visited Anne Amie (formerly Chateau Benoit), which had one of the more beautiful views and facilities. We bought two of their single vineyard Pinots, and the nice tasting room lady gave us an industry discount because of our chat about the weekend offline. Nice place. We went to Maresh Red Barn next. They only grow the grapes, and either Rex Hill or Archery Summit makes their wines, which are only sold at their tasting room. For a welcome change, we didn't have to slog our way through a batch of nondescript whites to get to the good stuff. Good Pinots, and oddly, we liked the Archery Summit produced stuff better than the Rex Hill ones. This will prove interesting, as you'll soon see. We bought both of the Archery-made ones, the '01 and '02 Red Hills Vineyard Pinots. Torii Mor was next. The old Danish tasting room director got to chatting with Anne in Danish, with her responses in Norwegian, and soon he was letting us taste the Olson Vineyard Reserve, not offered in the flight, but ever so good. We bought it, our most expensive purchase at $60. We also picked up their Deux Verres Reserve Pinot from '03. We proceeded up the way to Lange, one of the best quality wineries we visited from the whole trip. Their whole flight of Pinots were top-notch, and we bought their '03 Reserve. Their views are wonderful -- we could see Mt. Hood. We dined in that evening.

On Thursday, we met up with Wondersofwine at the Carlton Winemaker's Studio, which I had expected to be one of the highlights of the trip, but I was disappointed. First of all, they charge $11 for a flight of 3 Pinots, and it isn't refundable with a purchase. If you want to try the 3 whites offered or the 3 non-Pinot reds, it's additional $11 each time. The wines were good, but not spectacular (oddly, they put their best wine -- a Scott Paul Pinot -- 1st in the order), and the tasting room guy wasn't the friendliest. Plus, he was rather opinionated, and he got himself caught when he badmouthed wineries for making single-vineyard wines instead of blending, and then had to defend the statement against the Ken Wright flipside argument -- and Ken Wright used to make his wines there. All we bought there was a Syrah from Dominio IV and an Andrew Rich Malbec, both made from Columbia Valley fruit. Very yum, though. We parted with Wonders and visited the Tasting Room in Carlton next. The kid working there was very friendly and knowledgeable, despite his age and his desire to talk about the musician John Mayer as much as the wines. After tasting about a half-dozen (interestingly, the Domaine Drouhin Laurene was the worst of the pours), we kinda went nuts here with the purchases. We walked out with a Patricia Green Pinot (her Balcombe bottling), Belle Pente's Estate Reserve Pinot, two Pinots from EIEIO, and two wines from Carlo & Julian -- a Pinot and, interestingly, a Tempranillo (which was the pleasant surprise of the tastings there). Archery Summit was next. They have beautiful facilities and views, but the staff was awful (we overheard an exchange after previous tasters left involving whether it was "worth it" to talk to them, and the response being a displayed purchase receipt) and the wines were a real let-down. With their prices and rep, I'd have thought that their wines would be better, but they would fall well down on our list. Not worth the $, IMHO. We also visited Erath, as much for something to do than for the wines. We were underwhelmed, and it was very crowded. We ended the day with perhaps the trip's biggest surprise -- a new tasting room called Pinot Station that offers the wares of Dobbes Family Estate and Torii Mor wines. We retasted the Torii Mor wines, mostly out of politeness, and though we still liked them , they were clearly overshadowed by the wonderful Dobbes Pinots -- we bought their Grand Assemblage Cuvee (which we shared at the Friday dinner at the Offline in Washington, and which seemed to have good reviews) and a couple bottles of their Skipper's Cuvee (which is made from Rogue Valley fruit, a S. Oregon region thought of as too hot for the grape). We plan to order a case of the Skipper's for shipment in the fall, once temps moderate. At $22-26, the wines also offer excellent QPR. Overall, very, very good wines offered there.

Along the way, we tried wines (but didn't visit the wineries) from Adea, Freja, Prive, August Cellars, Zivo, Amity, and many others that I'm forgetting.

OK, the trip's high points:

Best Wineries (the overall wines, not the facilities): Lange, Dobbes, Maresh

Best Facilities: Lange, Anne Amie

Best Views: Lange, Anne Amie, Archery Summit

Best Tasting Rooms: The Tasting Room in Carlton, The Tasting Room in McMinnville, Wine, Etc.

A wonderful time, and we hadn't even gotten to the Offline yet! I'll post those notes next. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]




[This message has been edited by dananne (edited 08-10-2005).]


- hotwine - 08-10-2005

Attaway, Dan! Great notes!


- Triple H - 08-10-2005

Thnanks much, great read. what was the vintage on the Domaine Drouhin Laurene? I had the 2000 a few months back with copper river salmon and it was fantastic!


- dananne - 08-10-2005

Triple H: The Drouhin was the '00. I don't mean to slam it -- it was good, too, we just liked the other wines in the flight better. Bear in mind, however, that it was being tasted alongside '02s and '03s, and I may have missed some subtleties that I may have caught if the circumstances were different (for example, if it was poured 1st in a flight of 6 younger wines, as opposed to last). Also, it was consumed without food. Then again, it just may be a statement about how good the others were! I'd love to try a bottle as a stand-alone sometime and just enjoy it.


- TheEngineer - 08-10-2005

Thanks for the notes! May be going there in a few weeks so this was wonderful!


- winoweenie - 08-11-2005

Great read Dan. I'm torn between envy and the fun I had withj my GD. I need to call Bob and Judy today as I let my cell go dead and didn't pick-up their call until this AM. Really sorry about missing this off-line. Hopefully we'll get to meet at the next one.WW


- wondersofwine - 08-11-2005

I agree that the Scott Paul Pinot was the best one at the Carlton Winemakers Studio (and beyond my budget). I was disappointed in the Hamacher. I visited Dundee Bistro for lunch on Wednesday of last week (operated by the Ponzis) and enjoyed by pasta dish in a tomato-cream sauce and a Ponzi Pinot Blanc. On Thursday I had lunch at Tina's (okay but not as good as the lunch at Dundee Bistro). Had dinner Tuesday night at Pazzo (Italian restaurant) in my hotel (Vintage Plaza Hotel in Portland) and Wednesday night at Hurley's in Portland. Hurley's was a real gourmand experience (French cuisine). They had two savory flans to choose from--sweet pea or corn and I loved the corn flan served with morels. Then I had yellowfin tuna tartare in an artistic cylindrical layered presentation with celeriac mousse, avocado, and orange flying fish roe on the top of the cylinder. The cylinder was encircled by very thinly sliced cucumbers. Accompanied the flan and tartare with 1/3 bottle Chenas Beaujolais Cru (a 2003). Fruity, somewhat bland, good for a dinner wine, probably not too exciting on its own. The hot European vintage probably affected it but still quite drinkable.
Spent two days in the Willamette Valley. Visited Lange at the recommendation of Dananne and really liked their wines. Brought a bottle of the 2003 Pinot Noir Reserve home with me. Got to Torii Mor, Adelsheim (attractive facility but a little disappointed in the wines), Archery Summit, Argyle and the Oregon Tasting Room. At Argyle I purchased two half bottles of the Minus Five (simulated Eiswein from {Pinot Noir grapes--they pick the grapes and then freeze them). We had the Minus Five at the Friday dinner in the Tri-Cities so I called the winery and ordered three more bottles of Minus Five to be delivered when the weather cools. ($25 a half-bottle and only 75 cases produced--sold only at the winery). From Dundee Bistro I purchased a Ponzi Arneis (aromatic white wine from Italian grape).
I agree that the Dobbes wine Dananne brought to the dinner was really good. One to consider ordering from the winery. Will post on some of the Washington wines under Northwest thread later.


- dananne - 08-11-2005

Engineer -- If you do get to go in the next few weeks and want more specific info, just let me know!

WW -- We would have loved the opportunity to get to meet you, as well. Hopefully all the stars will align for the next one [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

Wonders -- Great notes -- thanks! Sorry to hear about the troublesome return travel, though. Your tasting notes seem much more lucid than the random scribblings in my notepad!


- chittychattykathy - 08-16-2005

Dan,
Great info!

Kat & G