Oregon Wines

Oregon Wineries

Returned from the Pacific Northwest last week. Had a great time. There are an amazing amount of wineries in British Columbia. In the next few weeks I will get into lots of information on the trip. We had good food and saw some impressive sights. Here are some notes on the Willamette Valley. It's Willamette, dammit.

We stayed 2 nights in the Willamette Valley wine country which is 40 miles outside Portland. BTW the traffic in the Portland area is terrible.
We stayed in Carlton, a small town with about 12 tasting rooms. We stayed in the Winery Lofts 119 West Main St, Carlton, which has some affiliation with Ken Wright who makes Ken Wright wines and Tyrus Evans wines. The lofts were across the street from the Ken Wright tasting rooms.

The first night we went to Mcminnsville. We wandered around town and found a tasting room for chocolates and a winery called Twelve. The tasting room was closed but the owner of Twelve twelvewine.com, Linda Lenyo, opened the door and when we told her we were from NJ, she let us in. She was also from NJ.We tasted her 08 Pinot Noir. It was $25 per bottle and was very good. We also tasted her 2007 reserve Pinot Noir 144. This was also very good. We bought a bottle of the 08. Parker and the Wine Spectator have both given good  ratings to the wine  She did not charge us for the tasting.

We ate at Nicks, nicksitaliancafe.com an Italian restaurant and ate in their back room. We had several small dishes. One dish, ribs roasted in their oven with salt and olive oil was great. We also had pizza which was very good. The crab lasagne was OK. We had the Stevenson Barrie 2008 Pinot Noir for about $50. It was good. The fruit wasn't as pronounced as I like it. We were beginning to understand Oregon Pinot Noirs. BTW 2008 was considered the vintage for Oregon Willamette Valley wines.

The next day we planned to spend all day tasting wine. We started at Anne Amie Vineyards anneamie.com. This winery surprised me. I had never heard of it but it produces a significant amount of wine. The winery was beautifully situated ( although most of the wineries we visited were located in very nice geographically located.

At Anne Amie, we tasted a number of wines. Tasting were $10 for a flight.  2011 Pinot Gris; 2011 Estate Dry Riesling; 2009 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir; 2009 Annahala Veneyard Pinot Noir , which was made with grapes from California; 2009 Amie Late Harvest Muller Thurgau Dessert wine; 2009 Prisme Pinot Noir Blanc. All of the wines were very good. Their style is balanced wines that were not fruit forward. This to me is the typical Willamette Valley style although we did find many different styles of wine in our tastings. We bought their 2010 Pinot Blanc $20, which we did not taste. However Pinot Blanc has more fruit than the Pinot Gris and we like Pinot Blancs.

Our next stop was Archery Summit archerysummit.com. This was another exquisite winery with prices to match the environment. We tasted a number of wines here.We tasted the 2010 Premier Cuvee Pinot Noir, 2011 Vireton Pinot Noir Rose, and several other Pinot Noirs. We found their style to be more California in that the wines were fruitier and had more alcohol than other Oregon wines. We like the 2010 more than the 09's.Their wines are very well rated and very expensive. The cheapest Pinot Noir was $48. We bought a bottle of the Rose for about $20.

Our next stop was  Sokol Blosser sokolblosser.com, which was close by. We had hoped to eat lunch here but the offerings were slim. We tasted their 2009 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir, 2009 Estate Cuvee Pinot Noir, 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris, 2011 Rose of Pinot Noir, Evolution 15th edition, which is their blended white wine that is less expensive than their other wines. They also make a red Evolution.

We enjoyed their wines. Their 2009 Pinot Noir was more austere than the 09 Archery Summit. We really liked the 2009 Estate Cuvee at $60 a bottle. Despite the price I bought a bottle. I was on vacation! We did not like the Evolution wines.

A note on buying wines at the winery. It is usually a rip-off. Sometimes you can get very good deals like I received at the next winery Domain Drouhin but usually you can buy the wines much cheaper at good wine shop. Thus I usually stick to buying wines at the winery that are not available in stores.

We stopped at a small olive oil farm to get lunch.

My wife was somewhat annoyed because as I was brousing in their store a woman splattered olive oil all over my shorts and sneakers. I got a "sorry". The cheese and meat plate was fine.

The next winery that we visited was Domaine Drouhin domaineDrouhin.com. I had made an appointment to take their winery tour which include a tasting of their Oregon wines with their French wines. Drouhin is a top Burgundy negociant and make a number of excellent French wines. The tour was great. We heard their story of how they bought land in the Willamette Valley around 1985. They made their first wine in Oregon in 1988. The winemaker is Veronique Drouhin who also makes their wine in France.

We then toured the winemaking area and the wine storage area.

We then finished the tour at a table that was beautfully set. We tried a number of wines with some cheese. The wines were 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Rose $20; 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $40; 2008 Laurene Pinot Noir $65; 2010 Willamette Valley Chardonnay $30, 2009 Maison Joseph DrouhinVaudon Chablis Premier Cru (France) $35; 2009 Joseph Drouhin Savigny-Les - Beaune Clos Des Godeaux $48; 2001 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $75.

The wines were excellent. We really enjoyed comparing the French and Oregon wines. I liked the Oregon wines a little more. The 09 Chablis, which is usually one of my favorites, was oakier and fruitier than I was expecting. The Oregon wines held up beautifully. 09 was a very good vintage in Burgundy.

The deal was that the tasting and tour was $25 per person. If we joined the club, the tasting were free and we received a 25% discount off all of the wines. This made the wine purchase very competitive with stores. They also can now ship to NJ which was a big plus. NJ recently changed its laws and not all wineries have their process set-up to ship to NJ. We bought 3 bottles of the 08 Laurene Pinot Noir, 3 bottles of the 2010 Pinot Noir; 3 bottles of the Rose and 3 bottles of the 2010 Chardonnay. They will ship the wines when the weather is cooler.

Everyone at the winery was great and our tour guides made things fun.

The last winery of the day was Ken Wright kenwright.com who also owns Tyrus Evans. The tasting room was across the street from our apartment. We tasted a number of wines here. Ken Wright is an iconic winemaker in the area. He sells his  wines as futures and then raises the prices each year. They are sold by the case although at the tasting room they will sell 6 at a time. 2011 futures are being sold at 6 bottles for $300 with a 2 6-pack minimum.  2008 6-packs are being sold at $350. He makes a number of single vineyard wines and gets very good reviews from the WA and WS.

We tried the 2010 Chardonnay; 4 single vineyard 2008 Pinot Noirs, Carter, McClone, Meredith Mitchell and Savoya; the 2010 generic Willamette Valley Pinot Noir; and some Tyrus Evans wines. The Tyrus Evans wines are made from sourced grapes from southern Washington and are blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syah, Cabernet Franc and Malbec.

The Ken Wright 08 are more California in style. Fruit forward, big wines. They are good wines but not wines that you want to drink frequently. However I have never had a full bottle of Ken Wright wine so it is hard to project a tasting to a bottle. The 2010 generic wine was more austere and more to my liking. In general, we warmed up the 2010 Pinot Noirs and really like the wines wherever we tasted them.

The Tyrus Evans wines were not my favorites. 2007 Ciel de Cheval Claret $37 was one wine. My palette was tired when I tried them and I was not prepared for Bordeaux styled wines in Oregon. However they were all quite expensive in the mid $30 range. For the price I would stick to the 09 Bordeaux.

To end the day we had dinner at the Painted Ladythepaintedladyrestaurant.com. I read somewhere that it was the best restaurant in the Portland area. It is a small house in Newberg, which is in wine country,. They have a price fixe menu. We ate outside and had a fun time.

The wine, Horsetail Pinot Noir was made by a small producer. The owners are related to the winemaker at Beaux Frere, the Oregon winery run by Robert Parker's brother in law and partially owned by Parker. The wine a 2010 vintage was excellent. Light, balanced with fruit and acid for all.

More on this meal in the next report.

Enjoy the end of summer. It can be a great time of the year. US Open tennis and football are on the horizon.