BYOC Oregon Chardonnay/Taylor Shellfish throwdown

The Oregon Chardonnay Celebration was Saturday. On Friday night, Taylor Shellfish Moda Beverage, and 10 Oregon Wineries hosted 120 people to come and eat some incredibly fresh and delicious oysters and drink some really fabulous Willamette Valley Chardonnays.

I was lucky enough to participate as one of the wineries, and it was one of the best industry events I have been a part of. I am a huge fan of Taylor Shellfish, and we probably eat their mussels weekly(or every two weeks at most). TS Shigoku are among my favorite oysters and definitely the number one oyster at my house by volume consumed. Jason from Moda Beverage also posts here regularly, so hopefully he can fill in his thoughts at some point.

The line up of Chardonnays was outstanding. Just really outstanding. I held a burgundy tasting the previous Monday, and had some truly lovely wines, but the wines on Friday were every bit as enjoyable. And while different from Monday’s wines, Friday’s Willamette Valley chardonnays carried the same nuance, restraint, layering, and structure. This isn’t intended to be an Oregon/Burgundy rant, just noting the similar quality between the two tasting events for my palate.

I didn’t taste anything that wasn’t fantastic, but I also did not get to try all the wines(working some too). So below are some stand outs, of the wines I tasted(I am not going to post on my own wines):

Bethel Heights-Wente Clone 2015. Phenomenal wine, just dynamite.

Walter Scott-Ex Novo 2017. Young but such a great site in such good hands.

Evening Land-Summum 2016. this was just super juice. The new wood integrates, the wine is texturally very fine, fruit is more quiet power than flamboyant.
Evening Land-La Source 2016-delicious, finely made, perhaps a step more obvious than the Summum, but still a very, very good wine.

Brickhouse-Cascadia 2017-linear, tightly coiled, very restrained. This, the Walter Scott, and the Lingua Franca all showed what a very wonderful vintage 2017 is shaping up to be. All three wines had the balance, restraint, and acidity that defines my favorite old world wines.

I wish I had the chance to taste the wines fro Big Table Farm, Bergstrom, and Flanuer but from crowd response, I would guess everything was very good.

Thanks, Marcus,

Love what Oregon is doing with Chardonnay these days, more even than with Pinot, I must say. I’ve got some of that Walter Scott in the pipeline, so your it’s good to get your preview.

Thanks for the report Marcus. Bethel Heights never gets enough love when OR producers are mentioned. Agree about Evening Land, but their Chards often deliver. There’s a reason Walter Scott wines can be so hard to find. I have a feeling that your offerings turned some heads too.

RT

You are absolutely correct Mr. Trimpi, the Goodfellow Richard’s was certainly among my favorites from the event.

Overall, a great Chardonnay weekend!

I saw Clare of BTF posting of this; looked like a great time, shame I’m on the other coast

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 great event.

Some of my favorites were:
2017 Walter Scott X-Novo - excellent concentration and tension, just a hint of reduction.
2017 Walter Scott Seven Springs - not quite as concentrated as the X-Novo but very close.
2016 Evening Land La Source - More reduced in a very good way. Very tasty.
The Durant that Marcus was pouring was excellent as well, as were the Flanauer, Lingua Franca, Brick House (2015 in particular for me), and Big Table Farms.

Absolutely a great event and was thrilled to attend for the second year. The oysters were great, but so was the bread! The line-up of producers represented IMO some of the very best current Chard producers in the WV save a few of the stalwarts of the scene (Eyrie, Cameron, Crowley, Brittan, Arterberry Maresh, Bachelder).

Did not taste everything, missing Big Table Farm and Bethel Heights, both of whom I’ve tried in the past numerous times and just have not moved me in the same way as my favorite OR Chard producers. My favorites from the night in no particular order:

2016 Lingua Franca Bunker Hill
2015 Goodfellow Richard’s Cuvee
2013 Goodfellow Durant from magnum
2017 Walter Scott X-Novo
2016 Evening Land La Source
2013 Evening Land Summum from 3L
2016 Evening Land Summum
2013 & 2015 Brick House Cascadia
2016 Flâneur Cuvee Constantin

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Big Thanks to everyone that came, winemakers and Taylor Shellfish. Oysters were off the hook (as they always are) and The Chards were great up and down the range. The Bergstrom '12 was my surprise wine and the new releases from Walter Scott were stellar.

Marcus’s wines were really great as I’ve never had them before. The other surprise was Brick House, Ive had them before, while they were good I’ve never really thought about them as a go to Chard, this really changed my mind.


Ehren Jordan’s new Failla WV project is fairly tasty as well.


A little too much fun was had afterward and the warm Champagne in the morning didn’t help……….

man this sounded so good!

Sounds awesome. As much as I love Oregon chards, I haven’t properly paired them with fresh PNW seafood on any of my visits up there. Planning to rectify that during our trip in August.

Thank you for posting. I too find Bethel Heights makes a fantastic Chardonnay. I’m surprised I don’t read much about it on CellarTracker. Also, the Wente Clone does very well in Oregon.

I feel the same about Bethel Heights, and the Wente bottling was just outstanding.

You would love it. Maybe next year, we can add a Roulot table…?