It’s been recommended already upthread, but I’ll just add that the Antica Terra tasting experience is such a treat for us wine nerds. I purchased a taste of a 1961 Tondonia Grand Riserva during my experience that was just spectacular. I saw on Instagram that they’ve got Selosse on the board this week for tasting. Who else does that?!
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Most excellent Willamette Valley trip just after Memorial Day weekend. First stop was a real highlight right off the bat - Megan took us on a journey of eight different Goodfellow still wines, and gave us the matching in depth geology lessons for the sites along with it. Some of the wines were an unreleased preview on the heels of a visit from a reviewer. Standouts for me were the 2023 Whistling Ridge Riesling, 2022 Temperance Hill Chard (clearly not ready, but oh so promising) and 2022 Temperance Hill West Field Pinot. 2022 Durant Pinot was open for business and a crowd pleaser. Marcus stopped by for a chat as well and dropped off the three currently released sparklers. Enjoyable now, but they really could use some time - the one bottle that had been open for a day (Durant BdB?) showed much better than the other two.
Then on to Maysara, which has beautiful grounds and affordable pricing, especially considering that they hold off on releasing some of their wines (all estate from Momtazi fruit) until eight years after vintage.
Our grand finale of the day was at HiFi Wine Bar, where Davis did a fantastic job tasting us on Martin Woods and offered to take advantage of bottles (both unreleased and library ones) that winemaker Evan Martin had dropped off after opening them for a reviewer (see above… someone definitely had a like mind in booking their appointments). 2017 and 2021 Jessie James Pinot side by side was a special treat, especially with the excellent duck confit. 2021 Hyland Noble Rot capped it off with dessert. Go early if you want to geek out with your host and eat in a quiet and relaxed atmosphere, as the place turns into a cool nightlife spot after 7:00pm-ish - no wonder Robert Dentice picked it for his Oregon Riesling Study, it couldn’t have been a better fit for that.
Our second day started at with Steve at the Maresh Red Barn. The 2022 Arterberry Maresh Dundee Hills is a great value, but we really loved the 2018 Maresh. Just in a perfect spot right now. Hard to beat tasting the reserve bottlings while looking at the old vines planted in 1970 that they are made from.
We wrapped with an expedition to meet Matt, vigneron of McKinlay, and champion of his son’s Jacob Martin label. Time flew by as Matt told us how he got into wine, worked his way up to UC Davis and assistant at Hanzell, before striking liquid gold in the hills of Ladd Hill. We fell in love with the early hints of greatness that the 2021 Ladd Hill showed, but were blown away by the value of the 2022 Jacob Martin Chardonnay, possibly the best AVA-level I’ve had to date. All the vines are own rooted and going on 35 years. Try to find the wines where Northwest Wines https://northwest-wine.com/collections/mckinlay places them in distribution, you won’t be disappointed.
We had an open bottle to finish, so for dinner we got food to go from Bistro Maison - Dungeness crab cocktail and cassoulet were delicious.
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And an excellent restaurant as well at the Allison.
I highly agree on Red Hills Market, especially if you want food to take with. And my wife’s cousin and her husband are owners.
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If you’re looking for a quick bite for lunch anywhere near Lafayette, I can recommend Martha’s Tacos. Well, haven’t been in a couple years, but no reason to expect things have gone downhill.
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