Wine Berserkers - international wine social media, online community, and forums

Marie Courtin Resonance

Pinot Gris gets treated as a second-class citizen from winemaking perspective - just like Chardonnay used to get treated. The harvest is fit in around when the Pinot Noir needs to be picked and the fact that you need to press the juice slows things down. Most that I've tasted are flabby and insipid....

I have Walter Scott Chardonnays in my cellar back to 2011. None of them have shown any signs of being over the hill. While I like them all, the 2013 vintage was a little weaker than the others. X-Novo is a relatively unique vineyard - tight spacing, planted with many different clones in a selection ...

I expect that we will be making a delivery to the Puget Sound area before you are up there. Pretty much all the places mentioned buy beer from us. Garden Path is usually a big purchaser, and is the Masonry. Bottleworks usually buys quite a bit of bottle/cans as well.

Are there Oregon participants on this thread? It looks like Oregon might get snow over the next couple of weeks. Is Spring late there this year? I'm not a producer, but Spring has been late this year. Flowering trees that we usually see blooming in early March started blooming around the first of A...

Hey, someone had to film it!

We're canning for the first time tomorrow. Das Bier (Kolsch) and Pils. We're doing a lot, and I'm not sure where we're going to put it in the Brewery, but based on initial orders, it will be manageable within a few days.

Good to hear about the Cameron. I had a pre-moxed bottle six months ago. It was the only oxidized Cameron I've had.

Thanks Andy! Maybe we should drink them together!

As far as I know, Carillon only uses this closure in the bourgogne wines. I've seen it in the Bourgogne Blanc but I haven't seen it in any of the Puligny Montrachet wines.

I opened up my other remaining bottle of the 2013 Walter Scott X-Novo tonight (for science). While still reduced, this didn't have the burnt aroma that I got on Saturday. After about half an hour it just blossomed in the glass, showing lemon and green apple, with some oak in the nose. On the palate,...

Could u tell the Roulot was burgundy vs the rest is Oregon? Or no way to tell? We were debating what it was... A few guesses went round the table. No one (I think) thought it was a 2013 Oregon. On the other hand, it didn't stand out that much. It wasn't head and shoulders better than the Cameron in...

On Saturday, a number of Berserkers (mainly lurkers) gathered at the Heater Allen Tap Room to taste 2013 Oregon Chardonnay. This is our fourth year of this endeavour. I thought the quality was better overall than previous years though that might be partially explained by our trying to include wines ...

@Scott - Pinebox has Cantillon on tap; was over there this AM for brunch at Stateside Thanks for heads up. Will prob be gone before I can make it up there. Fortunately, Rick shared some of his Cantillon stash with me tonight. 2013 Lou Pepe Gueze and Cuvée Saint-Gilloise. Both outstanding, but very ...

Stayed here this past week. It was nice. Get a room on the 2nd floor not the 1st. Was reasonable for the area. Location just OK. We chose it as we were having a dinner at Single Thread and it was reasonably close and price was good. https://www.vintnersinn.com George When we stayed at the Vintners ...

Scarcity is an amazing thing.

Bud,
Glad you liked the Schwarz, and I'm glad your wife like the Mediator. It's been funny that past years of Mediator just sat around, but this year we sold out in about a week.

Yeah, and when you drive up to Oregon, we check for shitty beer (not really).

BTW, does anyone know how easy it is to get through the border inspections going into CA with a load of grapes?

Can everyone please use "Willamette Valley" rather than just "Willamette"? Willamette, Oregon is an unincorporated community that is now part of West Linn, and I don't think everyone is talking about that.

Thank god! Brussels Sprouts are at least palatable. Kale tastes like a green brillo pad.

I don't enter the Pils category so I can judge it. The first year they awarded a gold to an absolutely wretched beer. I had to step in! Actually the people who cleaned up were Breakside and 10 Barrel. Of course they each entered 30 beers (we entered six), most of which will never see the light of day.

This was a great event! A dozen wineries in a casual tasting in downtown McMinnville. I'm not into oysters, but people seemed to love them. I didn't make it around to all the wineries because I was too busy visiting with folks I hadn't seen in a while, but that was one of the things that made it a g...

I can usually hold myself to a 12 bottle limit, but when Ode to Lulu is involved, that just doesn't work.

I would echo Marcus's post and only add that Oregon has been making great Chardonnay for years if you knew where to look (Eyrie and Cameron have been making world class Chardonnays for 20+ years). There are more top producers now and prices have crept up, but to say that only now has Chardonnay from...

Andrew - Well, you can get the good stuff in Washington now...

Bud - Eric from Monkish stopped by the Brewery today and mentioned your name. I gave him a little care package for you...

It will be interesting to see how well Russian River handles the production brewery situation. Once you have multiple shifts brewing the beer, is everyone trained well enough to keep quality high? Very few breweries have handled this very well. Some figured it out without damaging their brand too mu...

We found that the best apple pie recipe was from Cory Schrieber's "Wildwood" Cookbook. It's probably out of print. The key steps are precooking half the apples so that they lose their moisture and making a spiced caramel sauce to hold the apples together. Incredibly good but takes the better part of...

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

John Paul's business strategy is to sell virtually all his wine to retail outlets. He isn't interested in having a bunch of fans invading the winery - too much of an interruption to his job of growing grapes and making wine. About the only way you get in to see him right now is if you know something...

Suarez does a very good job, and is probably the closest that you'll find to what we're doing out here. BTW, we only brew Kolsch for about seven months of the year (April to October), and we're brewing our first batch next week.

BTW, we've been trying to avoid having our labels regulated by the FDA for at least a decade.

The FDA doesn't pre-approve labels, but they can fine you and recall your product if your label isn't within the law. They have a 130+ page guide on what a food producer can or can't do. The actual regulations are significantly longer. Most food producers will work with a label designer that knows a...

The saddest part of this fruitless exercise is how many Americans live paycheck to paycheck. An increasing number of business people I know (including my wife) are feeling peripheral effects from the shutdown. True. But, in relation to this thread, the other sad thing is how dependent on government...

I spent the weekend helping to judge beer for the Oregon Beer Awards. I was generally impressed with the quality and lack of big flaws. Sunday my group tasted the Pilsner category (we don't enter because I like to judge it), and after three rounds we distilled 40+ entries down to three medalists. I ...

At professional tastings, the only food on the table is oyster crackers. They work pretty well as palate cleansers. You might want to have a nice top-notch Pilsner (Hill Farmstead or Suarez come to mind) on hand so when folks get tired of all that over-the-top crap, they can drink something rational.

This looks really good. Thanks!

I'm afraid that I don't know any washed up rockers. I would expect a typically over-hopped industrial lager. I don't have a very high opinion of Stone beers so my expectations are pretty low. There does seem to be a real push for an extraneous link to beers these days. Anything for attention.

Funny, I used the same dough recipe on Friday. While the pizza was good (my son demanded way too many toppings), the crust was the best I've made. I just used the standard San Marzano tomatoes pureed + salt for the sauce.

Bud, the Tentbier was a cross between an Export Lager and a Marzen (Amber Lager). Our Export Lager is more pale, with a smoother, less rough malt bill. I'm sending around 16 kegs of it to CA. Scott, I'm sure that some will make its way to SEA. On the other hand, we'll definitely have it at the Tap R...

Love and Squalor - Matt Berson recently moved his winery to PDX after "rooming" with Marcus Goodfellow for a couple of years. Riesling, Pinot Noir, Gamay, and a few others.

We just bottled our Helles. I think that I may like it better than the Pils. We also bottled up our samples for the Oregon Beer Awards, which means I got another tasted of Lisa's Rauch Helles, which is delicious. Rick, will any of this make it's way down south for any of your tap accounts ? Cheers,...

2008 Cameron Nebbiolo. Went really well with the beef ragu we had for dinner. Will be better in another 5 years.

At the bottom of the label: "Open other end"

We just bottled our Helles. I think that I may like it better than the Pils. We also bottled up our samples for the Oregon Beer Awards, which means I got another tasted of Lisa's Rauch Helles, which is delicious.

We opened a 2013 X Novo Chardonnay on New Year's Eve. It was outstanding (and didn't last long).

Wait, I thought Burgundy was dead at retail...

Rumor has it that someone will be matching my contribution... And while we're at it, we tasted through a six vintage vertical of Sandy Paws today: 2012 Heater Allen Sandy Paws - Very oxidized, smooth, chocolate, berry/cherry, definitely on the downhill slide 2013 Heater Allen Sandy Paws - Mildly oxi...

Thanks to everyone for playing along. It's great to see that, even on a Wine Board, we can come up with 39 beer tasting notes in a week! While I would have preferred to see a few more lagers drunk, it was still quite impressive. I will be writing a check to the Ed Foundation for $360.

Martin Woods. Pinot, Gamay, Chardonnay, Riesling, and a Cab Franc from the Oregon side of Walla Walla that was harvested several weeks before the big gloopy WA versions.

I'll take any craft beer, even an IPA.

Search found 1825 matches