My wife and I met up with 2 other couples and headed out for 3 days of Willamette Valley wine tastings.
Day 1
-Picked up the SUV from the airport and headed south
-Lunch at Red Hills Market in Dundee. Great sandwiches and salads on offer. Nice
-Wine tasting at ROCO: We wanted to start in a celebratory mood, so we headed to this winery run by Rollin Soles, who founded Oregon’s sparkling wine movement when he built its first sparkling house, [Argyle Winery] in 1987. Faves were the 2015 and 2020 RMS Brut. Ended up purchasing these
-Wine tasting at Winderlea: Time for some Pinot and Chardonnay. Beautiful tasting room with spectacular views overlooking not just their vineyards, but several of the famous Willamette Valley vineyards. The revelation of this trip began here, with my realization that I have been drinking my Oregon Pinots waaay to young. Favorites/purchased:
2013 Pinot noir Imprint
2013 Pinot noir Winderlea Vineyard
2021 Pinot noir Shea Vineyard (friends had a new granddaughter named Shea
2021 Pinot noir Weber Vineyard (one of my favorite vineyards from Patricia Green-got for comparison)
2018 Chardonnay
Off to McMinnvile and check in at the Atticus Hotel. This place was a fantastic boutique hotel right in the middle of McMinnville and all the shops and restaurants. Rooms were nice and the staff went out of their way to be helpful-including making you a glass of bubbly, cappuccino, or espresso whenever you asked. Essential for a group of Floridians trying to stay warm in Oregon Fall weather!
Dinner was at Cypress at the Atticus Hotel. This was a wonderful little Mediterranean restaurant that had both great dinner and breakfast (ate here twice for breakfast).
-Appointment at Longplay Winery. Cold rainy morning. We showed up, but no Todd? He called and said he was running late. He gave us the security code to get into the winery and we warmed up while waiting for him. For the right price, I’m willing to give the first 3 numbers in the code
Todd made it up to us by opening a wealth of bottles and beginning an epic “Supertramp” vinyl retrospective on the stereo. Todd has a fascinating backstory and his career prior to getting into winemaking is about as far from farming as you could imagine. Lots of fun to hear.
Once again, the pinots with age were by far our faves. Ended up joining his wine club with the option of getting older wines. Our group faves/purchases:
2016 “Hi-Tone” Pinot Noir
2016 Lia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir
2017 “Jory Bench Reserve” Pinot Noir
2016 “Jory Bench Reserve” Pinot Noir
Well into the 3rd Supertramp album, we realized we were going to be late for our Patricia Green appointment. Todd assured us they wouldn’t mind (because he sells them fruit from his Lia’s vineyard), but gave us a bottle of wine to give them to grease the late arrival
-Appointment at Patricia Green: After making our apologies, we were seated at a large dining table and given both a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc… while a hearty meat/polenta dish was served. On a cold, rainy Oregon day, this really hit the spot. I honestly lost track of the number of wines that were opened and put on the table for us to try. And we were told they would be happy to open anything else we wanted to try. Did I mention it’s good to be a member of the PGC wine club? Absolute pinot heaven!
After a homemade desert and a chance to try the Jim Anderson 2020 Whiskies, we managed to limit our purchases to only 15 bottles (all to be socked away for 8-10 years at least). Faves:
2021 Durant Vineyard Chardonnay
2021 Durant Vineyard, Bishop Block Pinot Noir
2021 Notorious Pinot Noir
2021 Weber Vineyard Pinot Noir
2021 Estate Vineyard, Etzel Block Pinot Noir
Had “dinner” at the Hi Fi Wine bar…no one was really very hungry after our PGC experience, so we just noshed on a few plates
-Appointment at Evesham Wood. Arrived at the vineyard to be greated by a spectacular view on a sunny (yay) day and 10 bottles open for tasting. Got to taste both the Haden Fig and the Evesham Wood wines. The HF wines are serious quality for the price and are perfect “weekday wines” to drink while you let the Evesham wines sleep. Sounding like a broken record, but the older pinots were sublime. Spent 2.5 hours with Chris trying the wines and exploring the caves. Could have easily stayed for hours longer. Purchased:
2015 HF Riesling
2021 EW PN Cuvée J
2021 EW PN Sojeau SV
2015 EW PN Sojourner SV
2014 EW PN Mahonia MV
Off to get a quick bite for lunch and then on to Eyrie
-Appointment at Eyrie. They are normally only open Fri/Sat/Sun for tastings, but they were gracious enough to allow us to make an appointment on Thursday. So much history here, with David Lett the true pioneer of Oregon pinot noir. Had a blast trying wines I’ve never/rarely tasted. Ended up getting:
2018 Pinot noir The Eyrie
2019 Pinot noir The Eyrie
2019 Pinot noir Roland Green
2019 Pinot noir Outcrop
2019 Pinot noir Sisters
2019 Pinot Meunier Estate
2021 Pinot gris Estate
2018 Melon de Bourgogne Estate
Dinner that night at Humble Spirit was fantastic. The homemade "oreo’s and milk were sinfully good
Checked out Friday and went hiking on the way back to Portland to assuage our guilt for the calorie loads.
I concur on the homemade Oreo dessert at Humble Spirit. So good. The whole meal I had there over the summer was outstanding. We went to Okta too, and while it was great, you can’t argue with the QPR on Humble Spirit.
This is exactly how I felt! I was so excited to check it out, but needed a break from wine each day and that happens to coincide with all the times I’d plan to go to Hi-Fi. Next trip I’ll have to plan it out a little differently.
