Labor Day Wine Tasting

As harvest nears, it seems that many wineries are working hard to get the last few visitors in before the end of summer with special events, dinners, etc. This past weekend the Chehalem Mountain Winegrowers association held a special event called "Explore, Tour and Taste" featuring most of the wineries in the AVA including many that are not usually open. The Chehalem Mountain AVA is a large sub-AVA of the Willamette Valley extending across the north end of the valley from highway 47 west to I-5 near Sherwood. It's a big area, and honestly seems more like a geographical convenience than any real cohesive chunk of terroir. Soils in the AVA range from marines sediments to Columbia River basalts to ice age loess giving rise to a widely diverse range of wines.

While some of our favorite wineries on Calkins Ln and Ribbon Ridge Rd are part of Chehalem Mountain, we decided to head out toward Sherwood again. Faithful readers may recall that we spent an enjoyable day near Sherwood over the Memorial Day weekend, and in looking down the list of participating wineries, we thought "What about Sherwood?"

Our first stop was Utopia Vineyard and Winery on Ribbon Ridge Rd. It turns out to have the smallest tasting room I've ever been in, but some pretty decent wines. The owner/winemaker moved to Oregon from Napa in 2000 after realizing that he could actually afford a vineyard here, and planted Pinot Noir in 2002. They were tasting the 2006 and 2007 estate Pinot Noirs, both of which were pretty good, but we preferred the 2007 for its structure and complexity. He was also tasting a couple of wines from his Napa days - a 1997 Malbec and a 1997 Cab Franc. I'm not sure if they were great examples of either varietal, but they had aged well and we enjoyed them very much.

Our next stop was Privé Vineyard and Winery on Bell Rd., another new-to-us winery. They were tasting a couple of different wines along with pizza and a full glass of one of the wines for $20. We didn't want a full glass of wine since we had a lot of wine to taste that day and $20 for 2 tastes and a piece of pizza seemed excessive. Rachel bargained them down to $5 to taste and we tried their Pinot Noir and some kind of red blend that I don't remember. Whether it was the wine itself or our dislike of the tasting concept, the wine was forgettable and we tasted and left.

We continued driving along Bell Rd. through the big sweeping curves (aka the Bell curves) and arrived at Laura Volkman Vineyards on Quarry Rd. We had tasted her wine a couple of years ago at August Cellars and thought it was OK, but not wonderful. She has a very good reputation, so we wanted to try it again now that we were a little more experienced. She was tasting a Chardonnay and 3 Pinot Noirs. The Chard was lightly oaked and wonderfully floral - a very fine example of a good Oregon Chardonnay. The 3 Pinots were again good, but not great in our opinions. All were 2007's - two vineyard designates and a blend. They were elegant, but all seemed to be missing something - perhaps some depth and finish.

Turning northeast on 99W we continued to head toward Sherwood and arrived at Quailhurst Vineyard Estate. Yes, there's a vineyard there, but you've really just driven into horse country. From the huge multi-horse barn to the dressage ring and the immaculate grounds, you know there's a lot of money in this place. The tasting took place in a large tent erected for the event across the drive from the dressage ring. The tasting staff were knowledgeable and friendly and the food was pretty nice too. They were tasting a vertical of their estate Pinot Noirs from 2001 through 2008 along with a couple of white blends, a rosé, and several vintages of the PN port. The whites were not very good - little fruit and somewhat bitter and thin. The Pinot Noirs were all pretty good, each showing what we would have expected for those vintages that we were familiar with (2003 through present). The ports were OK, with the older (2005) being the best. The 2007 port hadn't integrated well yet and was harsh.

Our last stop of the day was a favorite from Memorial Day: Alloro Vineyard. David was tasting most of the same wines that he had tasted last time we were there. We tried all 3 2007 Pinots - the estate, the Winery Block, and the Church Block. All were wonderful, but our favorite was the all Pommard clone Church Block. Interestingly, I looked back at our Memorial Day notes and we had preferred the Winery block then, thinking it more interesting than the Church Block. David said that the Church Block had evolved quite a bit over the summer. Interesting! They also had their wonderful Riesling and (I believe) a very nice Chardonnay. They will be open over the Thanksgiving weekend (as well as the weekend before) and will be tasting a new 2008 Pinot Noir - 3 Gables. We'll be there for sure!

On Monday we headed south along Hwy 47 toward more familiar territory. Our first stop was Sejourné's new tasting room in McMinnville for their 2007 Pinot Noir release party. It turned out that about 8 of us arrived at the same time so we all sat down at the bar and Kevin poured for us all and described each wine. I can't remember everything he poured, but the wines included the brilliant 2008 Pinot Gris and Chardonnay (both done in stainless), a Rosé from Arcane cellars (not very good), the 2007 Pinot Noir (good, but probably too early to drink) and the 2006 Zenas Meritage (very deep and rich). So far we like their whites better than the reds, but they are definitely on the watch list for the future. And, one of the nicest rosés we've had has come from them too.

We then headed out 99W toward the Dundee Hills and arrived at Domaine Serene. They have developed quite a reputation for great Pinot Noir, and we've enjoyed their wines a couple of times. We first visited a couple of years ago and bought a bottle of the 2004 Evenstad Reserve PN - the most expensive wine we'd ever bought at $52. When we went back last year to try the 2005, they had sold out (it had been one of Wine Spectator's top 100 wines of the year that year). Fortunately I was able to buy a bottle from a wine merchant, but we'd never tasted it. So, one of the reasons for our trip now was to make sure we got to taste the 2006 before they sold out. We did, and were a little underwhelmed. It was a very good wine, but it just didn't push our button the way we remember the 2004 had (especially Rachel). We also tasted their Two Barns PN, and wonderful Chardonnay, and a Rockblock Syrah (meh).

Addendum - we returned to Domaine Serene the next weekend because they were having a reserve tasting that included the 2005 Evenstad Reserve! It was more like we had remembered the 2004 - a taste that Rachel describes as "pine." So, we are now confident that our bottle of 2005 that is resting quietly will yield great enjoyment when eventually opened. We also tried the 2005 Jerusalem Hill PN (wow, very nice) and the 2005 Mark Bradford PN (wow, even better).

Our next stop was White Rose Vineyard right across the road. We had tried to visit there in the past, but they weren't open. Before we get to the wine, a quick note to winery architects - when designing a tasting room on a hill overlooking one of the most beautiful sights in the Dundee Hills, add some windows! You walk up from parking next to the vineyard, taking in the incredible view and end up in a dark, cave-like tasting room. What were they thinking??? They make only Pinot Noir, and were tasting 4. They were all OK - well made, technically good, but seemed to lack character and personality.

As we were driving down from White Rose, we thought maybe we should stop at Winderlea again. This was a new winery at an old vineyard (Goldschmidt) that we had stopped at about a year and a half ago right after the new owners took over. We weren't terribly impressed, but wanted to give them another chance. Sadly, they were closed. So, we decided to head back toward home toward our last stop. However, as we drove up over Worden Hill Rd, we saw that Bella Vida Vineyard was actually open! Every time we've ever driven by in the past, they've been closed, often with a "sold out" sign up. We turned into the driveway and happily started up the long gravel drive. Then it got steep. Fortunately, although they haven't paved it, they have put narrow cement "tracks" on the steepest part and there are signs that tell you to keep your tires on the cement tracks. Fun. We finally got to the top, and they too have a great view (and their tasting room has windows!). There is no winery here; Bella Vida is just a vineyard. They contract 3 well-know winemakers (Jacques Tardy, Jay Somers of J. Christopher, and Brian O'Donnell) to make wine from their grapes. The result is a wonderful lesson in how winemakers can influence the final product since the grapes all came from the same place. All 3 wines were very nice - the Tardy was still a little too young to drink, but had great structure and depth. The J. Christopher (Jay Sommers) was more approachable with good earthiness and red fruits. The O'Donnell was screaming "drink me now" and was very smooth and elegant. We bought a couple of boxed sets of all 3 and plan to hold a couple of tasting parties over the next few years with them.

Our last stop of the day was another local favorite - Kramer Wines near Gaston. Trudy, Keith, and the whole gang are a lot of fun, and today they had live music and good food. They were tasting through all of their wines (they make a lot of wines!) and also had Jon Jennison there pouring his Thistle Wines. We didn't make it through everything, but got a nice sampling of their whites (a couple of oaky Chardonnays, a Pinot Gris and a Muller Thurgau), and then moved over and had Jon's Pinot Blanc. Jon likes crisp, acidic, food-friendly wines, and his Pinot Blanc was just that. We then tasted through the Thistle Pinot Noirs (all quite nice), and moved to the Kramer reds. Trudy makes a range of Pinot Noirs from the simple estate blend, through several reserves, and some from specific areas of the vineyard. They mostly had 2006s which are not my favorites at this point. I loved the 2005 Cardiac Hill PN, and while the 06 is good, I don't like it as much. They were also tasting the 2005 Heritage PN from the oldest vines in the vineyard, and I liked that one very much.

We came home having bought more wine than we intended over the 2 days (don't we always?), but much of it will be put into storage for future years. We had a wonderful couple of days of tasting, and I feel blessed to live in the middle of beautiful Oregon wine country.