Love the Heater Allen Pils [worship.gif]a
“Personally, I wouldn’t visit Patty Green/Red Hills Market/White Rose and then go to Cristom/St. Innocent. Don’t get me wrong you can accomplish this but you’ll be in a rush. Depending on your priorities, I would try to restrict the tastings to the general vicinity or AVA to get the most out of the area. For example, you could easily accomplish tastings at Cristom, then St. Innocent, and then Walter Scott. (Trust me, go to Walter Scott which is by appointment, you won’t be disappointed). But if Patricia Green is a priority then your second option is possible. If you’re tasting at Matello/Goodfellow I would literally walk 100 feet and go to Brittan for a tasting as well. You get to taste Brittan as well as Winderlea. Have fun!”
I completely agree with the above advise.
I go to this area about once a year and was just there this past Dec. You’ll never have time to do all the winery’s on your list and have lunch in McMinnville. Factor in 35-45 minutes from downtown Portland to land in the wine country depending on traffic. Stick with the AVA approach and hit what’s in that area. Plan on 3-4 wineries at the most.
You can say that again. I’ve had better luck getting an appointment with John Thomas than John Paul. ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
John’s business model is built around self-distributing to restaurants and retailers primarily in Oregon. He isn’t staffed to handle visits - everyone who works there is out in the vineyard or working on something in the winery. It’s just the way he does things.
Understood and no complaints from me as long as I can continue to find/buy his wines at retail.
I did not do the navigating, so forgive my geographical haziness around what is near where. I made my first trip up that way last month, and my favorite tasting experience was with John at Evesham Wood. Favorite wines as I taste through the 3-4 cases that I purchased there are definitely those of Domaine Drouhin, followed by St. Innocent. We did taste with Maggie Harrison at Antica Terra, and it was an entertaining tasting - informative and enjoyable. But there was a bit too much going on (for me) - carving a Spanish ham leg, putting out cheeses, changing the turntable, introducing wines that were not Antica Terra, other people at the tasting. It made it difficult for me to just focus on the wine. I rarely do that kind of tasting, so it surprised me (I did not navigate nor do the agenda, so I had no idea where we were going or what the formats were in advance).
I concur with all of the recommendations. I’m still not sure of your exact itinerary, but I’m assuming that your tasting at PGC is at 10 AM versus 11:30 AM. With that assumption, you can grab lunch at Red Hills Market by 11:30 AM and be at White Rose by noon. As others have mentioned, it’s about 30 minutes to Eola Amity. It’s not ideal to travel across the Valley in one day, but it can be done. You can be somewhere in Eola Amity by 2:30 PM at the latest. Cristom and St. Innocent are excellent, but Walter Scott, Vincent and Grochau (2 for 1), Bethel Heights and Evesham Wood would be other great options in Eola Amity. Ken with Walter Scott and Vincent are both very passionate about Oregon wines and the tastings reflect their energy. Plus you gain so much more information by tasting with the winemakers. I’m uncertain if Vincent is hosting tastings at Grochau. He’s a frequent contributor here, so look him up. Speaking of views, Bethel Heights offers a great view from their outdoor patio.
I only recommended Dundee Hills versus McMinnville for lunch because your original post mentioned somewhere with a view. Marcus at Goodfellow/Matello, Todd at Biggio Hamina, Brittan/Winderlea, Eyrie, Westrey, and Rick at Heater Allen for beer would provide just as wonderful experiences in McMinnville. I asked about dinner in the Valley because you could get your view and lunch in Dundee and head to McMinville for afternoon tastings and dinner. The Valley Commissary is a wonderful lunch option, but not open for dinner. If you were staying in the area for dinner, I would recommend picking up a bottle from Woodard Wines shop and going to Thistle.
The Oregon wine (and beer) folks are wonderful people. You’ll have a great time. Now, I’m really anxious about my return in less than 2 months.
James
Whoa, thanks man!! That is the plan as of now. Although that may change a bit due to some of the suggestions. I’d hate to rush. But the plan for this time, regardless, is going to keep us in the vineyards and we are going to save McMinnville for the next trip, tentatively happening in the fall.
Cheers! I am super stoked.
James, since you asked, yes I do tastings by appointment at Grochau’s place. I can usually make something work. John has a tasting room open Fri-Sun at his winery. Thanks for the kind words.
We had a killer trip!
So for our day we hit:
Patricia Green
Red Hills Market (Lunch)
White Rose
Cristom
St. Innocent
My favorite tasting experience of the bunch was most certainly Patricia Green. Huge shout out to Caroline who hosted an amazing tasting, where we covered lots of ground tasting 13/14/ and a sneak peek at a few of the 15 barrel samples. Highlights here were all of the 13’s, the 14 Balcombe/Mysterious and the four barrel samples we tried. The 15’s were the biggest surprise here as they seemed more fresh and refined than the 14’s tasted. They were not at all what I expected and were phenomenal. The quality here top to bottom was very impressive. And the 2007 Reserve we took to enjoy at dinner on our last night in town was incredible for the money and drinking beautifully.
White Rose was amazing and the views were great. The wine is way overpriced compared to what you can get elsewhere in the valley IMHO but the quality was nonetheless top tier. We tasted three 2013’s and a couple of 14’s. The 2013 Anderson Valley Pinot was one my favorite wines I had all week. And I preferred the 13’s here over the 14’s by a great measure.
Cristom was next and we tasted their 2013 line-up. My favorite of the tasting was the Marjorie and I found the style here to be very similar to White Rose. Killer stuff. Love the whole cluster. We also tasted the 2012 Syrah, which I was not the biggest fan of.
Last but not least was St. Innocent. They were tasting a line-up of the 2013’s, all of which were extremely well balanced and flat out delicious. I am looking to hop on their mailing list. I was not a huge fan of their whites. They weren’t bad by any stretch just missing something. Luckily, the Pinots were killing it.
My biggest takeaway was that we need to come back out and spend some more time in the valley! I feel like we only scratched the surface. It was a killer day. We are eyeing the fall. Maybe September. I am ready to book a flight.
Thanks again to everyone for all the suggestions! After this day we headed to Walla Walla for a couple days of tasting there as well, and I will be posting a play by play of that in another thread.
Cheers!
When we were at St Innocent we were not poured the Chardonnay but I asked about it and a bottle was opened. It was easily my favorite wine there, closely followed by the 2013 Momtazi Vineyard Pinot Noir.
15 is, surprisingly, the shit.
Nolan - we actually didn’t taste the Chard! But your take is not surprising. We tasted the Pinot Gris and a couple of recent vintages of a semi-sweet. They were solid, but far from the quality of the superb pinots IMHO.
St. Innocent and Walter Scott make fine Pinot Blanc, IMO the sleeper white varietal of OR.
Glad you had fun Adam.
I almost said something about White Rose’s pricing but their tasting room and view is worth the price of admission and their wine is outstanding. So I didn’t want to steer you away from a cool experience.
When you come back next time you have to plan to stay for at least 4 days so you can see more 
Two days in Dundee, a day in Salem, McMinnville and Carlton.
Once you get a feel for the vineyard sites you can delve into the tasting rooms where Vincent and Marcus I’m sure would be happy to pour for you. Both of them make some incredible wine.