Willamette Valley Trip Report (long/boring) (updated with final day)

WINE TALK
21

Love the info…keep it coming!

22

Absolutely! We can talk Chard, and I’ll buy a few cases of beer to get me through until my next visit.

23

Not bored in the least! Phenomenal—and envy-making–write-up, Michael, thanks for such a comprehensive and passionate look into your adventures. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Haere Ra,

Mike

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Day Three (final day)

Day three was my mostly in and around Newberg day. I headed off to Belle Pente, where I had a 10:00 appointment. Belle Pente is in a pretty remote location, a few miles outside of Carlton. You have to take two gravel roads and go up a long driveway to get there. The view is astounding. The O’Donnells also had the most farm-like feel of any property I visited. Chickens, geese, goats, and sheep. Their house sites below the winery, which sits below the vineyard.

It turns out this was a bad day to visit; the 2014 pinot gris bottling had been pushed back from last week to today, so Brian was in a bit of a rush trying to prepare for bottling while hosting me. I did get to help him adjust the height of the bottling machine, so you could say that I was instrumental in the success of the 2014 pinot gris. You’d be wrong, but you could still say it. He laid out a great assortment of wines, and let me taste through them at my own pace.

I did get to try a sprarkling wine made from second crop pinot noir. I think it was an ’06, although I could be totally off there. I asked what the plan for selling it was, and Brian said they only had 20 cases. (?!?!) Seems like a real experiment. It was very good. The 2009 Riesling was also quite good, totally dry, lip smacking acidity. I was surprised by a 2013 Gamay Noir; I didn’t know they made gamay; Brian said they made 25 cases, and sell them out of the winery. It had a nice tangy blackberry aspect. I believe it was traditionally fermented; I didn’t get any carbonic-ness. The pinots were a mix of 2011 and 2012. The 2012 estate reserve was probably my favorite, but the 2011 Murto is drinking very well right now. I wasn’t as impressed with the 2010 Chardonnay, but it’d been open for a few days.

Brian clearly had his head in the bottling, so I headed into town to meet up with Todd Hansen at the Longplay tasting room. I’m a big fan of Todd’s wines, have purchased a bunch, so was excited to meet him in person. Todd had the only Coravin I saw on the trip (and the only one I’ve seen period), so he was happy to pour a whole bunch of wines. We tasted the 2013 chard (stony and precise, very good), and the full lineup of 2011, 2012, and 2013 pinots. I left with the 2013 reserve and 2013 “lucky 13”, although you can throw a dart at the lineup and get a good bottle of wine. On the whole these are solid Oregon wines, good balance of earth and fruit, good acid. His Berserker Day deals are always ridiculous, so make sure to keep him in mind this year.

It was interesting to hear about Todd’s history and involvement in the wine industry. Unlike most folks, Todd didn’t leave a desk job to start a winery. He left a desk job to start a farm, and makes a little wine on the side. 80% of his grapes are sold to clients; his wines are a mix of the blocks he likes best and doesn’t sell along with whatever leftover acreage isn’t sold. Todd’s a great guy with lots to say about how to make it (or not) in the wine business. We adjourned to lunch at Recipe after the tasting. I’m always interested in how people decide to make wine, and how they make a living at it. Picking Todd’s brain was enough to convince me to keep my day job, but I admire his gumption.

After Longplay, I headed out to August Cellars to meet Tyson Crowley. Tyson makes and stores wine at August, which is a coop. I asked if he was planning to move out; he said he thinks about it, but land use regulations make it tough to start a new winery. Apparently for small wineries, if you want to build one in an agricultural area it needs to essentially include 15 acres of vineyards, which of course drives the price up. (I found this link for those curious: http://www.stoel.com/webfiles/OregonWine/landuse.pdf.) Ken and Erica brought this up at Walter Scott as well.

We tasted through a bunch of barrel samples, primarily 2014 chardonnay and 2013 pinot noir. I got a clonal lesson in Wente vs. Dijon on the 2014 Four Winds; for me the Wente was a more complete wine on its own, the Dijon lacking that extra kick that makes Tyson’s wines so compelling. (Tyson used the analogy of thread count, which I thought was apt.) Tyson was generally happy with the 2013 pinots. We tasted some LaColina with 0%, 30%, and 100% stem inclusion. The aromatics and structural differences were apparent. I think we agreed that our order of preference was 100, then 0, then 30, which goes to show you that there are always more variables than you can control for. The 2013s in barrel were very earthy and mineral, without a ton of evident fruit. Seemed like long term agers. We did try some of the 2012s in bottle, both the Entre Nous and the Four Winds, and both were definitely more accessible without any flab. I think Tyson’s doing a great job with both pinot and chard, and the barrel samples were definitely in line with his style.

August Cellars is on the far end of Newberg, so I had to hustle a bit to get back to McMinnville for an appointment with Jason at Eyrie. Jason is a friend-of-a-friend, and he really pulled out all the stops. We started by tasting some weird and/or rare stuff - a Muscat that’s being bottled this week, a barrel of Chardonnay that is being aged in a barrel half-full of Chardonnay grapes, the 2011 skin-contact Pinot Gris (that had some Meunier skins thrown in for extra color)… I got a whirlwind tour of 2014 barrel samples from most of their vineyard sites. Everyone is happy with 2014, and Jason was no exception. The wines were uniformly excellent. Broad and filling like the 2014s elsewhere, but with the classic Eyrie restraint. It was a bit intimidating trying to suss out differences in the various barrels without sounding like an idiot. I did ask Jason his impression of 2013 pinots, and his response was, “Yum”. So he’s in the non-naysayer category.

We talked a lot about phylloxera. All of the Eyrie estate vines are own-rooted, and Jason feels like this gives them a huge advantage. The vines ripen more slowly, which in warm years like 2014 (and apparently 2015) means they’re not rushing to pick with everyone else. The vines also endure dry spells much better than vines on rootstock (which is something David Autrey at Westrey said as well). But phylloxera is coming, and he’s trying to figure out what to do. He said it had already started in the south block, which is really a tragedy. The next decade will be interesting at Eyrie; I’m sure Jason will get through it, but it sounded like a real challenge.

I also asked about the new single vineyard bottlings, and if he expected that to continue or if they’d eventually be folded into the Estate label. Jason said that he was for more delineation of the vineyards, and that he felt like the site-specific wines were best. He also has a snazzy new label for the original vine bottling in 2013.

The last wine we tasted, which I hesitate to even write about, was a Macvin-style dessert wine made entirely of south block pinot. It was a solera of every vintage (I think, I wasn’t taking notes, and I was pretty stunned at this point), fortified with grape spirits distilled from south block pinot. It was ethereal and utterly delicious. Jason really seemed to relish these experiments; I kept asking what he was going to do with them, and he’d just sigh, and say bottle and sell them.

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Lessons Learned

I got a lot of value from reading threads on this board about trip planning, so here are my tips for future travelers:

  • Stay in McMinnville. It’s centrally located so you can go north or south and not be spread too thin. Good restaurants for dinner. Good places to visit.

  • Plan your days geographically. I was a bit spread thin trying to get from Crowley to Eyrie; Crowley to Walter Scott would’ve been an hour. Cluster appointments as best you can.

  • Make appointments! Meeting the people who make the wine was so much more rewarding than talking to tasting room staff. People here are generally friendly and willing to share their knowledge and passion. Take advantage of it.

  • You can’t visit everyone. I really regret not making it to Patricia Green; Jim Anderson was the first person I contacted when planning the trip, but the timing didn’t work out. A good reason to come back!

  • After a long day of tasting, a pizza and Heater Allen pils at Nick’s tastes pretty damn good. Go heavy on the chili oil, it’s delicious.

26

Wonderful write-up. Thanks!

27

Those are excellent lessons learned Michael. I’ll also add that traffic can be difficult on the 99 so allow some extra time or cluster your appointments to avoid it. Also, and you’re doing this, but avoid rush hour when travelling through/to Portland.

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Westrey photo courtesy of Mr. Bob Wood - TN: 2008 Westrey Pinot Noir (USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley) - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

Bob also had some standard trip recommendations:

  1. Avoid 99W through Dundee during rush hour and whenever possible
  2. Views are best from Bethel Heights, Elk Cove, and Linda Lindsay’s vineyard
  3. Try out the Wheatland Ferry
  4. Plan your winery visits geographically. Places are further apart than they look on the map.
  5. Prepare to be annoyed if you pester Bob Wood (or even if you don’t).

[cheers.gif]

RT

29

When I was there, Richard, there wasn’t even a barrel with a sign!

I didn’t have any problems on 99W, but I might’ve just gotten lucky. I relied extensively on Google Maps for navigation, which takes traffic into account. I did see some gnarly traffic northbound yesterday around 4, but I was headed south and it was clear. For what little it’s worth.

Michael

30

Great job, Michael. I think that’s the most interesting and complete write-up I’ve seen from a Berserker visiting the WV. You definitely had an all-star lineup!

31

A bypass is being built between the east side of Newberg and the west side of Dundee. It’s supposed to be finished in late 2017.

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One more story for anyone still paying attention:

This trip was my first time barrel tasting, so I asked almost everyone what they look for when sampling from barrel. John Paul said he’s ignoring nose, looking for texture and length. Wines were closer to finished (and had been homogenized) at Walter Scott; they were looking at the complete wine.

Jason Lett, though, kind of shrugged. He said that wine tastes to different day to day, depending on his mood, who he was with, what he had for lunch, etc., that he felt that barrel tasting was basically a crap shoot. He did the best he could, but he didn’t have high confidence in his ability to find the best barrels.

Michael

33

The latest because of the poor state of OR finances the bypass will be shorter than originally planned and two lane with the provision of 4 when money can be found. Not to get too political, but the state of roads is abysmal and rampant population growth is not going to help alleviate the problem. [snort.gif]

34

The bypass should alleviate the daily traffic jam getting out of Portland toward Wine Country, as long as motorists can figure out how to get on the thing. As far as the traffic jam on the way home from Wine Country and the Beach, there will be a traffic light at the west end of Dundee and a left turn onto the bypass that will likely result in no change in the current traffic pattern. Given that McMinnville is paying for a healthy share of the non-federally funded portion of this, I’m not pleased.

35

I’ve always said my kids will be in college by the time it’s completed, this fall both are in high school.

36

Thread drift here, but I predate the boomers by a couple of years, and everything has gotten built after I have moved on. [snort.gif]

37

These are great tips, thanks! We randomly decided to book a trip for Labor Day weekend, so I’ll be scrambling for appointments over the next couple weeks. It’s proabably horrible timing, given harvest + holiday weekend, but I’m sure we’ll make due and have fun.

38

Thanks for the great write up Michael! I’ve been reading old threads here and there looking for recommendations myself. It’s been a while since I was last able to visit the Willamette Valley – there are lots of producers that I have learned of through this forum that I’m looking forward to visiting. I was planning a trip this fall, but it looks like I’ll have to postpone that until next spring – probably easier to get appointments in April than October anyway.

I like Bob Wood’s recommendations on the ferry, although not knowing about it is the best part. My wife and I were on a trip there about 8 or 9 years ago – before google maps was on every phone. We had been using the navigation in our car, which was working great. Similar to google, but no warnings about “toll road ahead” or “ferry 1 mile ahead”…… travelling through some nice scenic back roads between wineries, then BOOM!, a ferry where a bridge should be! We looked at each other in amazement – like, what the hell is this doing here!!! Anyway, made for a great surprise and a fun little adventure.

39

One of the things that frustrates me about Google Maps (disclosure: I am in the business of Google Maps) is that I felt much less connected to the geography of the place than I used to when navigating by hand. It’s much easier to experience things as a series of disconnected destinations when you’re using turn-by-turn navigation. It’s also harder to take a scenic route; I found myself mapping out a bit of a detour and turning off navigation just to see the countryside.

That said, I didn’t get lost, which was great.

Michael