Memorial Day Weekend, Day 3

After two full days of wine tasting, part of me really just wanted to stay home on Monday. But, we had places to go, wine to taste, and (unbeknown to me) people to see. Besides, it was another gorgeous day in Oregon wine country.

We left the house late - about 10:45 since our first stop was a local winery in Forest Grove that didn't open until 11:00. We had visited Montinore Winery a couple of years ago when we were starting to get serious about wine, and had thought that the wine was not bad, but nothing amazing either. During the past year, they've participated in Forest Grove First Wednesday several times, and I've been impressed with the improvements in their wine, so we figured we should stop in for a full tasting on our way down highway 47. Montinore is pretty big for an Oregon winery, and the tasting room looks out over their 230 acres of vineyards on the estate. Many wineries have a winery dog or winery cat to greet visitors, and Montinore's mascot, Miss Kitty, was dozing peacefully on a bench as we approached the tasting room. They had 17 wines available for tasting, but each person only got 5 tickets, meaning that we had to choose 10 wines between the two of us. Fortunately, we're pretty good at sharing. We ended up tasting the '06 Gewürztraminer (very floral and bright), the '07 Reserve Gewürztraminer (interesting with a touch of oak), the '07 Reserve Riesling (crisp and acidic), the '08 Borealis (a white blend that was either not sweet enough or too sweet), the '07 Estate Pinot Noir (a very nice PN for $19), the '07 Reserve Pinot Noir (slightly smoky), the '07 Parsons Ridge Pinot Noir (earthy with some smoke), '07 Columbia Valley Merlot (OK, but without much personality), '07 Columbia Valley Syrah (jammy), and the '07 Frolic (a sweet Müller-Thurgau with good balance and fruitiness). The wines were all good, but still not great. Their lower priced wines are a great value, but the higher end Pinot Noirs, while quite nice, aren't the best examples of $30-$35 Pinot Noirs.

Our next stop was Patricia Green Cellars. Patricia Green specializes in Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, and although we've driven by many times, we've never had her wine. She only sells futures on her Pinot Noir, and apparently usually sells out. After paying our tasting fee and getting our Oregon Pinot Noir glasses (oh boy!), we tried the three Sauv Blancs. The first was the 2008 Dollar Bills Only, a $10 wine that was made from grapes that didn't quite make the cut for her regular Sauv Blanc. It had good acid, but too much green pepper for me. The second was her regular 2008 Sauv Blanc (very nice round flavors, cat pee, hints of grass), and the third was the 2006 Panama White - a monster at 16.3% alcohol (too big, too hot for my taste). We then moved on to the 2008 Pinot Noir barrel samples. She sources fruit from many different vineyards in the Willamette Valley and creates something like 8 or 10 vineyard designates. Today we tried samples from 3 vineyards with Jory soil (volcanic) and 3 vineyards with Willakenzie soil (marine sediments). It was time to test what we learned at Ken Wright Cellars! The three from Jory soils were Ana Vineyard (restrained and elegant, some earthiness with a short finish), Balcombe Vineyard (more nose, but otherwise similar to Ana), and Winerlea Vineyard (formerly Goldschmidt Vineyard - big smoky nose, not as much up front but a longer finish). The three from Willakenzie soils were Whistling Ridge Vineyard (earthy, minerals, somewhat restrained), Bonshaw Vineyard (spicy finish, earth, minerals), and the Etzel block of the estate vineyard (big, earthy and smoky). All were good, but we definitely preferred the earthiness and spice of the Willakenzie soils. We were able to turn in our glasses and get some of our tasting fee back too!

We tried Pinot Noir from the Anderson Family Vineyard at Lemelson yesterday, and today we visited the vineyard itself. In addition to selling some of his fruit to several high-end wineries, Cliff Anderson also makes wine from his grapes. The winery itself sits at the top of a fairly steep hill surrounded by the vineyard and provides a commanding view of the valley below. The view obviously inspired a little captain in Rachel! We first tasted several very nice whites. All were perfectly clean with good acid. We tried the '06 Pinot Gris (lots of crisp acid, very fruity), the '07 Pinot Gris pre-release (acidic, slightly green, less fruit than the '06), and the '06 Chardonnay (slightly oaked, crisp and acidic). Do you get the impression that we like a lot of acid in our white wines? We then moved on to the Pinot Noir. We tried their '06 Estate Pinot (fruity but not over the top, nice structure) and the '07 Estate Pinot (dark for an '07, structured and earthy). We were then shown down the stairs to the underground barrel cave - one of my favorite places to be in a winery. Cliff Anderson himself was down there cleaning up after a small wine explosion earlier in the day. He keeps his fermentation temperatures very low for the whites and also for the ML conversion for the reds. His 2008 whites are still going through primary, and the Pinot has just started ML. Apparently he topped a barrel a little too high and when he took the bung out, it released a small geyser. Fortunately, he invited us down onto the floor anyway, and we got to hear the snap, crackle, pop of Pinot Noir going through ML in a barrel. Very cool! Because his main income is derived from grape sales, Cliff can take his time and make his wines slowly and to his own exacting standards. The results are marvelous and I'm sure we'll be back again next year.

Our next stop was Vidon Vineyard. We've had several friends rave about the wine, so we had to stop. Besides, they had a great Latin Jazz guitar duo playing, and weren't giving away any glasses! Unfortunately, we weren't blown away by the wines. They had several different Pinot Noirs to try, and some barrel samples of soon to be released whites. We tried the '06 Chehalem Mtn PN (nice smooth fruit, great clonal mix: 115, 777, and Pommard. Didn't really go anywhere), the '06 Mirabelle Reserve (cherry cola nose, nice ripe red fruit, more interesting finish. Nice mid-pallate but not much character), '07 Briggita (777 clone, lots of big fruit, some finish, w/o personality), '07 Hans (Pommard clone, lots of fruit, some smoke, classic Pommard - warm up front but very little finish), the '07 Mirabelle (115 clone, most complex of the 3 '07s so far, decent fruit with a finish), and the '07 3 Clones (nice blend of the 3, but slightly bitter at the end). We also had some barrel samples: '08 3 Clones Pinot Noir (less fruty than expected, some gamy notes in a good way), an '08 Chardonnay and '08 Pinot Gris (fruit from Anderson Vineyard, so the flavor was great, but not nearly enough acid - flabby), and an '08 Rosé (great nose but we didn't like this at all). And yes, I did have my head buried in my notebook taking notes with the beautiful vineyard spread out below me. In all, the wines seem to be almost too well made - they're all clean, but really don't have any personality or interest. They are very approachable wines, but there's not much beyond the initial impression.

Our penultimate stop was another favorite from last year: Stag Hollow. I still don't know much about the winery other than the fact that they're rarely open, and they make some great Pinot Noir. Maybe I'll do more research next year. Their tasting room seems to be the lower level of the winemaker's house, and rather than a tasting bar, you are escorted from station to station by a representative of the winery. They're very friendly and knowledgable, and while it may sound slightly intimidating, it's not. In fact at one point, our pourer couldn't contain himself any longer and had to comment that Rachel was the first woman he'd ever seen at a wine tasting who would spit. She told him that it was more like drooling actually, which almost sent him into hysterics. We tasted the '07 Field Blend (nice red blend, more complex that David Hill Farmhouse Red), '07 Vinnae Pinot Noir (very nice for a $19 Pinot), the 2000 Vendange Selection Pinot Noir (very nice smoky aged Pinot), '06 Yamhill-Carlton PN (20 clone blend, nice ordinary Pinot, smooth and easy), '06 Vendange Selection (wow, smooth tannins, slighly closed, could use some age), '06 Reserve (smoky nose, good structure), '05 Reserve (funky, mushrooms), '06 Muscat (good floral nose, slightly weak), '07 Muscat (similar to the '06, not as good as Purple Cow). We bought a few bottles, stashed our glasses on a nearby window sill and left.

Which brings us to our final stop - Carlton Hill Vineyard. This was our last stop last year as well, and they basically throw a party in the barn at the vineyard. The food was excellent both this year and last year, although we thought that this year's lamb ragout wasn't as good as last year's lamb burgers. The surprise happened as we pulled into the parking area. As we drove in, I saw a couple standing near a car waving at us. "How friendly," I thought. Then I recognized our friends Rhonda and Tracy. Apparently Rachel had emailed them to meet us there at 4:00 (we pulled in right at 3:58:24 according to the GPS log), but hadn't told me. There were 3 wineries pouring in the barn: Carlton Hill of course, along with Resonance, and Roots. Resonance was pouring their '08 G3 (mostly Gewürztraminer, soft and slightly sweet), ;07 Estate PN (light and structured), and '06 Estate PN (rich dark fruit). Carlton Hill was pouring '07 Estate PN (amazingly ripe fruit with good structure), '06 Estate PN (dark fruits, good tannin, quite complex), and '06 Estate Reserve PN (very smooth with good fruit, not as structured as the Estate). Roots was pouring '08 Riesling (wow, lots of acid, good floral flavor), '08 Viognier (floral nose, but evaporates on the tongue), '07 Crosshair PN (fairly light but structured), '07 can't remember the vineyard PN (a bit darker but still fairly light). It had been a long weekend of tasting, and I must admit that I didn't spit here at Carlton Hill - after all, it was party time. It was great to see Rhonda and Tracy, and I think they had a good time too. In total, we ended up tasting about 180 wines from something like 36 different wineries most of which were quite good, a few were pretty bad, and some were exceptional. We learned more about Pinot Noir clones and also about how different soil types affect the taste. Mostly we just had fun, and I'm always grateful for the opportunity to spend time with my lovely wife (purple teeth and all!). Looking toward next year...