Oregon is clearly quite popular among Berserkers this time of year. Or perhaps it’s just the growing vibe on the forum for Oregon wines, both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, in no small part due to the active involvement of extraordinary winemakers on our (Todd’s) site. I’ve loved getting to see notes from @JustinP and @Rohit_B and am certainly not going to compete when it comes to pictures, background, or even detailed notes on specific wines. I do hope, however, that my trip impressions are helpful for anyone planning a journey to Oregon wine country in the next few months or even years. We had a compressed trip mostly planned during the three weeks or so before we headed out on account of what has been an awful work schedule. Had I had more capacity to focus on planning I might have chosen a few different wineries. But Oregon is vast, tasting timings are hard to judge, and we rolled with some wine newbies who had never been to any wine country. I tried to pick a fun mix of places that were close together so we weren’t driving all over the place, and they mostly delivered.
PART ONE
Purple Hands Our friends travelled to Oregon a day before us so one of them, an Oregon native, could visit with his mom in Lake Oswego. His brother is a wine collector and is a big fan of Purple Hands. I noted it was right on the way from PDX to McMinnville where we were staying, and so we agreed to meet at the main tasting room to kick off the trip. It’s a lovely tasting room with barrels, tables inside, and a nice seating area outside. Weather was about 77 degrees with a light cool breeze and we’d come from Dallas where it was more like 97 with a breeze akin to the one that sears off your eyebrows when you open the oven after broiling a steak, so we decided to sit outside. Outside is still adjacent to a road so there is some noise, but it was very pleasant nonetheless. Purple Hands has a separate winery tasting room at the Haakon/Lenai property, but that was not available for our schedule.
My wife and I got there about a half hour early and so ordered a bottle of the 2023 Haakon/Lenai pinot noir to sip on while we waiting, thinking we’d just take what was left on to the hotel. The tasting room manager, a kind and intelligent young woman named Emma, brought a 2022 Haakon/Lenai by accident (it was in the wrong bin). I was frankly happy about the mistake, since the 2023 H/L was on the pinot noir tasting menu, a detail I’d overlooked. The Purple Hands pinots are a little bigger than many of the Oregon pinot noirs I typically drink, but the 2022 H/L was a solid big boned wine with nice fruit, sarsaparilla, potpourri, and nice acidity and structure. I thought it was a nice win, drinking well, and a solid start to the trip.
I chose the chardonnay flight, which consisted of 2 reserve chardonnays and 3 vintages of Purple Hands’ Haakon Lenai. I thought it was generally disappointing and wished I’d chosen the pinot flight. TLuckily my wife chose pinot, so I got a little sniff and sip of each of hers. The 2022 and 2023 reserve chards were fine, bright and light, but a bit simple and more quaffable than contemplative. The 2021, 2022, and 2023 H/L chards were more interesting and a clear step up in quality and complexity. I preferred the 2023, which showed nice brightness but well rounded fruit and complexity. The 2022 was solid, just a hair less exciting than the 2023. The 2021 was an interesting wine that was plenty complex but not to my tastes. It had a saline edge that I did not feel melded well with an almost kettle corn note in the wine.
The pinot noirs were interesting, with the 2023s showing a bit more chewy and bright, but the 2022s more integrated, as one might expect. The 2023 Haakon/Lenai was not as good as the 2022 to my tastes, but was among the rest of the crew’s favorites. I thought it was a little chewy, though showed a nice fruit profile. 2022 Freedom Hill was pretty decent, the Shea juicier than the rest but my wife’s least favorite, and the 2022 Latchkey pretty darn solid. I thought the 2022s were pretty uniformly solid wines.
General Takeaways
Good spot for an interesting “retail” tasting. The chardonnay flight is interesting because it shows the same wines vintage over vintage. The pinot flight more interesting because a greater swathe of vineyard/location influences. I ended the tasting thinking the 2022 Haakon/Lenai was the best pinot of the tasting and was surprised it was not for sale on the tasting room’s purchase option list. Huh. It was a good bit better than the 2023, which was showing very young and a bit more rough hewn.
Home Base - Atticus Hotel - McMinnville
Our home base for the trip was at Atticus Hotel, McMinnville. McMinnville is located in the heart of Oregon wine country with easy access to the Dundee Hills and the Ribbon Ridge area to the north, and Eola-Amity hills to the south. It also has a solid restaurant scene and nice places to stay. And @Rick_Allen’s Heater-Allen brewery, which makes what must be one of the best pilsners in the United States (I had a few while in town!). The Atticus Hotel is gorgeous and has impeccable service. We had work calls every morning of our trip before the tastings began, and so got a room with a separate living/dining area in which we could work early before the other had to get up for their calls. It worked perfectly. Cypress, the restaurant in Atticus, is supposed to be delicious and the limited snacks we had (brussells and hummus with fresh baked pita) were excellent.
McMinnville is a bit of an odd place in that it has all these great restaurants and wineries and tasting rooms and cafes. Their hours are just wonky as hell. No, seriously. Cypress is closed on Tuesday. Wildwood (a breakfast joint) is open on Monday, just not the Monday we were there (there was just a whiteboard sign in the window saying oh, decided not open today but come back tomorrow!). Crescent Cafe was open Monday, but not Tuesday, but yest Wednesday. Pura Vida wasn’t open Monday but La Rambla is. Brittan’s tasting room is open from 10am - noon on Monday, but closed Tuesday-Thursday. Many restaurants close at 8:30 (or at least stop allowing entry). It makes for funky logistics and is just an oddity. It’s a cool town and we loved it, but I’ve never been in a wine-tourist place with so many places having such weird hours. Especially in the summer during the travel season.
Sunday Restaurant - Capo
Capo’s pizza is excellent. Were I eating alone or just with my wife I would have happily eaten an entire pizza on my own. But decorum and all that, so I had about 2/3 of a pizza and hid my pouting about it. Fun wine list had a 2023 Brick House Gamay Noir, which was a fun pizza wine, with rich grapey and marionberry fruit cleaned up with a hint of rhubarb and spice. Nice match for the pizza, and on list for like 50 bucks. The pizza and service were excellent. I would happily go back.
Next Up - Eyrie and Goodfellow, Grounded Table
Then - White Walnut Estate, Argyle (needs must), DDO
Finally - Kelley Fox, PGC - Pinch
What I’ve always very much appreciated is how kind and respectful Marcus is even if and when he’s disagreeing with me or anyone else. I love drinking good wines, but I love getting the know the people behind them even more, and so was very excited to meet and spend some time with Marcus.
