Fall Oregon trip

I have corrupted my formerly teetotaller SO and she has quickly gravitated toward Oregon Pinot (pretty good, huh?) A nice Torii Mor is her wine of moment – not a vyd designate but still lovely, spicy, medium-bodied and reasonably ripe in an Oregon kinda way. So we’re off to OR to do a bit of family visiting up north of Portland but we’d like to spend several days in the wine country. I’ve never been to Oregon (one of 4 in the US oddly enough) so I need advice:

• The best wine areas and wineries. I want to find wineries that are fairly low key and friendly for a newbie.
• Good places to stay. We enjoy nice B&Bs but smaller hotels work as well.
• Restaurants preferably with good local winelists
• Other stuff to do in the area from sites to recreation

Winemakers – we promise to buy if your wines don’t suck!

Chris, I’ll send you a PM with some ideas.

Thanks! Any advice appreciated.

In the Roseburg area is Abacela Winery, Oregon vintner of the year 2009 that produces a nice Syrah, 95 pts. from WE if you’re into numbers. Reustle Winery makes a nice Gruner veltliner and the PN isn’t to shabby, either. For entertainment you can watch the rednecks barfight!

There’s a Travelodge in Newberg that is nice and reasonably price. Also in Newberg is a wine place, Dark Horse Cellars or something like that, that sells aged Medici pinot noir at a nice price and also sells Sineann, who makes wine for Medici. Medici owns a vineyard and believes in holding his bottles for four years before releasing it. You can taste the Medici and Sineann before buying it.
Newberg also has a restaurant called The Painted Lady that has good food and a decent wine list. What I consider a superior restaurant is a few miles down the road in Dundee. It’s called Tina’s and I was barely able to get in for lunch without a reservation. So I’d recommend reservations at both places, but especially Tina’s. Tina’s had great fresh food with an emphasis on the local stuff and a good wine list. Also, I want to marry the head waitress, but I don’t know if she’s still working there.
Other wineries in the area I like include Stoller and Domaine Drouhin and Domaine Serene, the later two being across the street from each other. Beaux Freres, run by Parker’s brother in law, is open by appointment. I liked the wine. While trying to find Beaux Freres I pulled into the parking lot for Patricia Green Cellars, another well-known place that may offer tastings by apponitment.
Belle Pente makes excellent reds and whites is only available by appointment. Not too far away from Belle Pente is the Carlton Wine Studio, which showcases a variety of smaller winemakers. I wasn’t impressed with the wine there but I want to go back and I’d suggest you consider it as well, especially if you go to Belle Ponte.

I would suggest staying west of the Dundee bottleneck. Newberg is on the eastern fringe of the wine area. Something in the Dundee/McMinnville/Carlton area would be better IMO - more centrally located from both a winery and dining standpoint. There are a number of good B&Bs in this area. One that comes to mind is the Brookside Inn, outside Lafayette. It’s not close to dining but it’s just about equidistant from Dundee Hills (Torii Mor, DDO, the Palace, et al), Ribbon Ridge (Beaux Freres, Patty Green, Brick House), Carlton (Winemakers Studio, Scott Paul, and a host of others), and McMinnville (Eyrie, Panther Creek, Westrey)

From a dining perspective, I would concur with Tina’s - excellent. In addition, I would particularly recommend Nick’s Italian Cafe in McMinnville. Great food and a very good wine list (the only place you can still buy the 1975 Eyrie South Block Reserve). Also in Dundee, the Dundee Bistro, Red Hills Cafe, and Farm to Fork (haven’t tried this yet - brand new). Also in McMinnville, La Rambla and Bistro Maison. If you like mushrooms, there’s always the Joel Palmer House.

Other things to do, McMinnville has a small and slightly funky downtown area and a good Farmers Market on Thursday afternoons. The Evergreen Aviation Museum is just out of town.

Hope you have a great trip. Stop by for a beer if you have time.

Good advice, though if you stay in Newberg you can simply avoid the Dundee bottleneck by taking Red Hills Rd. from 240 to get up into the hills and come down into Dundee from the “back” side. Alternately, you can avoid Dundee entirely by using 240/Kuehne/Abbey Rd. to get to Lafayette, where you now have easy access to Stoller, DDO et al, or 240/Kuehne/Hendricks to get to Carlton. From there it’s a straight shot into McMinnville on either 47 or Westside Rd.

Totally agree with Tina’s and Nick’s Italian Cafe, but I’d also suggest stopping for truffle fries at the Dundee Bistro. Mmm mmm.

Thanks guys and gal! This is great stuff.

One other event to look for at Dundee Bistro is their weekly pig feed - every Wednesday.

In the interest of full disclosure, I sell beer to most of the dining establishments I mentioned.

I certainly hope so. Besides, if you leave off your customers that probably only leaves Martha’s and maybe Lumpy’s as places to eat.

I think it means he works with Big Jay for RMP. Notice his disclosure was after the fact.

Hey, at least I was the same day!

De Ponte Cellars in Dundee is low key and has some good pinots. Domaine Serene is gorgeous but not exactly low key (great pinots though).

I’m probably way in the minority here, but Domaine Serene totally bums me out. Gazillion dollar physical plant coupled with haughty attitude and overpriced wine. Just my opinion.

But you gotta love the view.

A couple of other winery suggestions. Winderlea and Ayoub in Dundee area. Soter and Couer de Terre in Carlton and McMinnville.

Part of this is a cross post from Wine.

We’ve mostly finalized our trip plans to Oregon. It’s a general purpose trip; night 1 in Portland (Hotel 50), then going with the SO’s brother and wife to Crater Lake for 2 nights (staying at C.H. Bailey house in Roseburg). Next 2 nights midweek in Willamette (Carlton’s R.R. Thompson House) followed by 3 nights in Portland (The Nines). As an aside nearly all of the recs for places to stay were already booked (e.g. McMenamins in Portland and McMinnville) but I’m pretty pleased with our choices.

So plans are looking like driving up pretty early from Roseburg on Tuesday Sept 15 maybe stopping at a winery in southern Willamette (Evesham Wood?) but maybe going straight to Carlton. Thinking afternoon appt at Belle Pente then into town for Scott Paul/Solena and/or the Winemaker’s Studio before dinner at Cuvees. This is a little too aggressive so I’ll cut it down a bit. Will I need a reservation for Cuvee on a Tuesday?

Next day, we’re thinking packing a picnic and getting an appt with Jim Anderson at Patty Green, and then maybe Penner-Ashe, Brick House, or Ayres (either 1 or 2 of the 3). Alternatively we’ll follow PG with the Torii Mor Terroir Tasting (SOs only request – she loves their wines). Lastly perhaps Westry or Panther Creek in McMinnville if we have time1. Either plan will end with dinner at Nicks. We’ll stick to 3 or 4 visits max.

On Thursday, we’ll be driving into Portland but I was thinking of taking the SO to one of the big Napa style places since she hasn’t seen that scene. I’m thinking Domaine Serene (I know, I know), lunch at Tina’s if we can swing it and then Archery Summit before heading into Portland. if we don’t do Torii Mor on Wed that’ll replace either Serene or Archery Summit.

So we’re in Willamette Sept 15 leaving on the 17th (obviously we could do visits later from Portland too but we want to go to the Gorge and see Portland).

Before I start calling for appts I wanted to know whether the wineries are going to be involved in more pressing matters like, say, the harvest. If so, are the places with open tasting rooms a better bet?

Lastly, I’m still open to suggestions if something looks completely out of whack. For those whose suggestions were ignored please understand that we only have a limited amount of time – but I reiterate the big thanks.

As I said in Wine Talk, nothing’s likely to be happening around that time. It’s looking like October 5-10 right now.

Thanks Bob. I noted your recommendations on avoiding 99. I’ll definitely be using them!