Harvest 2009

We all know the sure signs of fall - the leaves start to turn brilliant red and gold, there's a crisp chill in the air, the beautiful harvest moon seems to hang in the sky all night, and you just can't get the purple stains off of your fingers. Well, that last one is certainly the case here in Oregon wine country. After a few real hot spells during the summer, the end of the growing season shaped up very nicely. We had a little rain in late September, but not enough to adversely affect the grape crop.

Harvest started early in central Washington, and like last year I got 100 lbs of Merlot grapes from the Tri Cities area in the Columbia Valley. The fruit looked good, but the acid was a little low, so we added some during crushing. While the wine pretty much made itself last year, it's looking like I'm going to need to develop a little more skill as a wine maker this year. I got the grapes home and made a yeast starter. That night the starter was foaming nicely and I added it to the must. Fermentation got going in earnest about 18 hours later.

A week later we started harvesting at Purple Cow Vineyards. Faithful readers will recall that I've had the good fortune to work with Jon and the other great folks at PC in various capacities over the past few years. On Sept. 27th we harvested a couple tons of Pinot Noir, and smaller quantities of Marachal Foch and Tempranillo. Jon and Galo have been making incredible Tempranillo from California grapes for several years, and are on the verge of having enough estate fruit to make an Oregon Tempranillo. Can't wait! After harvesting the grapes, we take them about 20o yards across the road to Apolloni Winery where Jon makes his wine. Cheryl and I went over to the winery a little early to help set things up. This included making sure the equipment was clean, positioning the crusher/de-stemmer under the sorting table, getting fermenting bins sanitized and ready, and a variety of other jobs.

Once everything was setup, we climbed up onto the sorting table and the fruit was dumped into one end. Now the sorting table isn't really a table, but a 10 foot conveyor belt mounted about 9 feet in the air with platforms along both sides where people stand and inspect the fruit as it goes by. We're looking for leaves, bugs, green berries, moldy clusters, etc. Basically, if we don't want it in the wine, we pick it off the belt. At the end of the belt, the fruit falls into the crusher/de-stemmer. This is a rotating drum with counter-rotating fingers in the middle that strip the berries off of the stems while gently breaking open the skin of the fruit. The drum has many holes that the grapes fall through, while the now empty stems come out the end of the drum. The grapes then fall into a big plastic bin where they will spend a week or 2 fermenting. Depending on the wine and the winemaker, several chemicals are added to the must (that's what the grapes and juice are now called) such as potassium metabisulfite to kill off undesirable yeasts, bacteria, etc., enzymes to break down the grapes, acid, and/or yeast food. The bins are then covered and set aside for a period of time before yeast is added.

Earlier that same day that I was at Purple Cow, Rachel and Tim drove into Hillsboro to pick up 100 lbs of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes for me, again from central Washington. So, when I got back from Purple Cow that night, I had to deal with my own grapes. The acid level was good, but the sugar level was a little high. This requires dilution, but if you just add water, you'll drop the acid level, so I had to add a little tartaric acid to the water to bring the sugar level down without messing up the acid. I had already made my yeast starter before leaving for the vineyard in the morning, so I was able to add it that night, and again, fermentation got started about 18 hours later.

During the fermentation of red wines, the grape skins form a cap over the top and rise up above the liquid. This cap needs to be "punched down" or pushed back into the liquid at least twice a day. Big wineries use something that looks like a large toilet plunger, but I use the back of a plastic serving spoon. About 2 days into fermentation of the Cab, I started to get slight whiffs of rotten egg smell. Jon says that you can pretty much know exactly how your fermentation is going just be smelling. This rotten egg smell may have been the beginning of a hydrogen sulfide problem usually caused by a combination of sulfur on the grapes and not enough nitrogen for the yeast. I added some DAP (a yeast nutrient) at that point and the smell quickly went away.

Once fermentation has reduced the sugar to about 2% or less, the grapes must be pressed to extract the juice from the skins and pulp. The Merlot was ready first, and the Cab about a week later. This involves scooping the juice along with the skins and pulp out of the plastic fermenter and putting it into a wine press. The juice is collected and poured into glass carboys to finish fermenting. Tim and Rachel helped with the Merlot, and Josh and Tim helped with the Cab, and I now have 3 carboys of wine slowly bubbling away in the winery (aka darkroom).

Meanwhile, back at Purple Cow, we harvested Muscat on Oct. 4th. Many of you have probably had a sweet desert wine made from the Muscat grape, but Jon makes a wonderfully crisp dry Muscat. This is one grape variety that tastes like nothing else. You know a Muscat grape when you taste it, and the wine tastes just like the grape. After harvesting a couple of tons of grapes, they were hauled over to the winery again. However, unlike red wine which is fermented on the skins, grapes for white wine are loaded immediately into a press where the juice is extracted and pumped into a closed tank. Yeast is then added to the tank and fermentation proceeds. The press we used looks like a big metal cylindrical tank lying on its side. The tank is prodigiously perforated to allow the juice to escape. There are doors along the top through which the grapes are loaded and a large inflatable bladder in the middle. Once the grapes are in, the doors are closed and air is pumped into the bladder. This squishes the grapes against the tank, and causes the juice to go through the holes. There's a big trough below the tank which catches the juice. It looks like a grape juice waterfall coming off the tank and into the trough, and it smells incredible! From there the juice is pumped into the fermenting tank.

Pressing white wine takes a long time because after you're done with the first press, you deflate the bladder and rotate the drum to re-distribute the grapes. You then re-inflate the bladder to get more juice. We did this about 5 times to squeeze out every bit of juice that we could. I think Jon was estimating about 250 gallons, but we ended up with nearly 300 - not bad!

The next Friday (Oct 9th) Rachel and I worked at Kramer Vineyards in the afternoon. I attended a few phone meetings from home in the morning, then we headed up to the vineyard. They had been harvesting Pinot Noir all morning and had picked about 7 tons. Rachel and I worked the sorting table for probably close to 5 hours (not counting a lunch break). Unfortunately we had to leave a little early to get Tim from the pool after swim practice. It was great fun as usual. Keith and Trudy's daughter, Kim, recently completed the winemaking program at Chemeketa, and it was fascinating to listen to Kim and Trudy discuss various aspects of winemaking during the course of the day.

The next day (Saturday) was the final day of Harvest at Purple Cow. We had already harvested everything except the Dijon 60 Pinot Noir which just wasn't quite ready on our other harvest days. Now it was finally ripe and ready to bring in. We had a good sized crew (maybe 10 people) and the work went fairly quickly. At around 11:00, Jon mentioned that Alfredo and his crew could use a little help over at the winery, so Doug and I headed over to see what we could do. Chuck put me to work moving barrels and Anne had Doug pump out the fermented must from the red wines that were ready to press. We then helped with crushing of some of the Apolloni fruit (I weighed out the chemicals and added them along with dry ice as the crushed grapes fell into the fermenter), and also helped with the pressing of the reds after we'd gotten most of the liquid pumped out. It was great fun, and I learned a lot as usual. Unfortunately, the forklift was having problems, which delayed things quite a bit (you need the forklift to load grapes onto the sorting line and into the press). First, the alternator died. Fortunately, one of the volunteers on the Apolloni crew was a mechanic, so after a quick trip to the local auto parts store, they had that fixed. Later, however, a hydrolic line broke so that the forklift could not tilt. This was a bigger problem, and took the better part of 2 hours to get fixed. During that time, we all did whatever odd jobs needed to be done around the winery under Chuck and Anne's direction.

Finally, around 5:00pm or so, we were ready to do the Purple Cow pinot that we'd picked in the morning. By this time, most of our picking crew had gone home, but the Apolloni volunteers were more than happy to stay and help. We finished ours and did a few more bins of Alfredo's, when he decided that they could finish in the morning and sent us all home. It was almost a 12 hour day and I was sore and tired, but very happy. I really enjoy my time in the vineyard and the winery, and as long as I keep learning, it stays interesting.

Finally, I just picked up the last of my own grapes this morning - 100 lbs of Sangiovese. These have been crushed and are waiting to have the yeast added tonight. I'll probably follow up with another post as these grapes go through the process.

It's been a great harvest, and I'm looking forward to following this wine through the various stages over the next year or so.

Vacation in Libertania

Many years ago, my grandfather had some friends over to his house for a slide show. For years these friends had traveled around the country and around the world and taken many pictures of the wonderful places that they'd visited, and my grandfather, who didn't travel much, would patiently sit through them. Well, this time it was my grandfather's turn to show off his travel pictures as he'd just gotten back from a trip to Libertania. Sadly, none of his friends had heard of this small country, so he used the slides to tell the story of Libertania's history and culture. He had pictures of various statues of important Libertanians, he had pictures of some of the more famous buildings, natural features, and natives of the country. Everyone was delighted with his travelogue and quite pleased to have learned about this obscure little country. It was only after the slide show and discussion was over that my grandfather revealed that every single picture had been taken within about 10 miles of the small Illinois town that they all had lived in for the past 20 or 30 years! None of them had recognized the pictures of their own town because they'd never really bothered to explore it.

His point was that you don't need to travel half way around the world to have new and meaningful experiences. Often, you need travel no further than your own Libertania for a great vacation, and Rachel and I got to do just that last Saturday thanks to Ben's generosity. He travels a great deal for his job, and had some hotel points that were going to expire soon, so he asked if we'd like to spend the night at the Westin Hotel in Portland.

We started the day at the farmer's market on the PSU campus. It's one of the bigger farmer's markets in the area, and it was amazing to see all of the wonderful produce, grass-fed meat, farm-made cheeses, and baked goods. If we weren't having dinner in Portland that night, I would probably have bought everything in sight and made a huge dinner. As it was, we bought some cheese, baby artichokes, bread, a pork loin and bacon. We had originally planned to go to the Portland Pirate Festival next, but it had been raining all morning, and we really didn't feel like being soggy pirates, so we went home with our bounty from the market (it was too early to check into the Westin). This worked out well since we were able to get our purchases put away in fridge and freezer, and I got to watch the Dodgers-Giants game on TV and Rachel took a nap.

After the baseball game, we packed up and headed back into Portland. The Westin is near Pioneer Courthouse Square, the art museum, the symphony hall, and many restaurants and shops. They don't have an accessible parking garage, but they do have curbside valet parking, so we unloaded our bag and left the car with the attendant. There was some slight confusion at the front desk because the reservation was in Ben's name, but he had been clever enough to add Rachel to the reservation so we were able to check in without any problems. The clerk then mentioned that we'd been upgraded to the Presidential Suite, and that he'd call up to make sure it was ready. It was, and we headed to the elevator for our ride to the "Deluxe Apartment in the Sky" on the 19th floor. We were a bit confused as we got off the elevator and the sign to help you find your room showed that 1901-1906 was in one direction and 1907-1914 was in the other direction - our room was 1906/1907. It turns out that 1906 was the door into the sitting room and 1907 was the door into the bedroom.

The presidential suite was amazing: there was a huge sitting room with a bar, a dining table, and a remote controlled fireplace with a big screen TV above it. The bedroom was a pretty typical hotel bedroom, but the master bath was huge! It had a jacuzzi, large shower stall and a long counter with 2 sinks. We relaxed and enjoyed the view of the west hills out the window. One could also see a building about 3 blocks over that had 4 big wind turbines on the roof.

At a bit after 7:00, we headed down to the lobby and walked about a block and a half to Pazzo, an Italian restaurant. We'd eaten there many years ago and thought it was OK, but not great. However, it's gotten such great reviews that we thought we should try it again. The wine list is extensive, but we quickly honed in on a bottle of 2003 Elio Grasso Barolo. Faithful readers may recall the immense pleasure we derived from a bottle of their 2000 Barolo with Tony's pizza last Christmas in San Gabriel. While the 2003 isn't quite as good as the 2000, it didn't disappoint - dark warm fruit with dusty tannins, developing into a subtle cherry cola with time. For food, we did the whole 5 course Italian meal, although we only ordered one of everything except the Secondi and shared. We had a prosciutto plate as our antipasto which came with baby cress, pickled melon, and grilled ciabatta rubbed with lots of garlic. Mmmm! We then had a very nice Caesar salad (although they didn't called it that) which had tons of garlic in the croutons and anchovy in the dressing. For the pasta course we had pappardelle with lamb ragú that was delicious. For our secondi, I had seared fresh halibut with ultra-crisp shaved ciabatta slices over an heirloom tomato and herb salad with herbed olive oil. It was excellent. Rachel had muscovy duck breast with duck confit, mustard greens, a cornmeal tart and rhubarb. It was great also, and Elio went well with all of it. For dessert, we shared a large serving of pistachio ice cream sandwiched between several slices of chocolate cake - what could be bad!? I accompanied that with a glass of Warre's 1985 vintage porto, which I loved, but Rachel had to make "the face" when she tried it.

After a short walk, we were back on the 19th floor, and settled in to watch some TV after I used the remote to start the fireplace. Pretty cool!

As we made the short drive back to Forest Grove on Sunday, we talked about how much fun it is to take a vacation in Libertania. There's so much to do and eat so close to home. I enjoy exploring other parts of the country and other parts of the world, but one shouldn't overlook the great things we have close to home, especially when an opportunity comes up such as Ben gave us.

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.

Catching Up

Wow, I've fallen behind in my writing! I usually like to write about our food and wine adventures soon after they happen, but it's been a busy couple of weeks, so I'm going to catch up by combining several events into this post.

Merlot Bottling

Nearly a year after crushing the grapes, my first vintage is in the bottle! On August 29th Rachel, Tim, and I bottled the Merlot. I filled the bottles and Rachel fed the bottles and corks to Tim who operated the corker. A few days later we added the capsules and labeled the bottles. They're all quietly resting now for a couple of months to get over bottle shock. I may break one out around Thanksgiving to see how its doing. There are only 2 cases, but they represent a lot of work over the year. As I write this, I'm preparing to pick up the 2009 Merlot grapes tomorrow and start the process all over again. I'm also getting Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese this year, so I guess that means I'm tripling my production!

Yamhill-Carlton Tasting

On Monday, Aug. 31st, Rachel and I attended a tasting of wines from the Yamhill-Carlton district at the Gerding Theater in the Pearl District of Portland. It did seem a little odd to be driving into Portland to taste wines that were grown closer to Forest Grove, but it was a great opportunity to taste a lot of different wineries in one location. The price was hard to beat too - $25 admission with no additional tasting fees for 24 wineries and light snacks from 5 restaurants.

The Yamhill-Carlton district is a sub-AVA of the Willamette Valley in the northwestern part of the valley. The predominant soil type is marine sedimentary and like all of the northern Willamette Valley, this is Pinot Noir country. Several of our favorite Pinot producers were at the event. What was particularly interesting about this event was that regardless of where the winery was located, all of the wines being tasted had come only from vineyards in the Y-C district.

Now, the frustrating part of this is that I took lots of notes on the wines that night, but I can't find them! For some reason I didn't use the little notebook that I usually take to tastings, and the paper that I was writing on has just disappeared. So, until I find my notes, I'll just list the wineries that were there: Anne Amie Vineyards, Atticus Cellars, Barbara Thomas Wines, Belle Pente, Biggio Hamina Cellars, Bishop Creek Cellars, Carlton Cellars, Carlton Hill Wine Co., Elk Cove Vineyards, Ghost Hill Cellars, Ken Wright Cellars, Kramer, Lemelson Vineyards, Monk's Gate Vineyard, Panther Creek, Resonance Vineyard, Roots, Shea Wine Cellars, Solena Cellars, Sotor, Stag Hollow, Twelve, Wahle, and Willakenzie. All were pretty good, with Lemelson having the best Pinot Noir, and Roots with a killer Melon. Ken Wright and Anne Amie were a little disappointing, and Ghost Hills is one to keep an eye on.

After the tasting, we walked about four blocks and had a wonderful dinner at Andina, a Peruvian restaurant. They serve small plates and recommend 5 or 6 different plates for 2 people. The selection was overwhelming, so we put ourselves in the hands of our waiter and asked him to bring 5 plates that he thought represented a good cross-section of the menu. We were not disappointed! Our meal included quinoa-stuffed pequillo peppers, a Spanish-style potato fritatta, a fresh fish ceviche, crisp prawns, and of course, empenadas. Although they have a fantastic wine list, we were pretty wined out, so I just ended up with a glass of Malbec from Mendoza. We ended the meal with a trio of creme bruleés. Very tasty!

Matello Winemaker's Dinner

We first met Marcus Goodfellow (winemaker and "head fool" at Matello wines) a couple of years ago at a Memorial Day wine tasting event. We had driven by the Adea Wine Company on the way to McMinnville for years, but because they aren't usually open, we had never stopped. However, they are open over Memorial Day weekend, so we were excited to visit. The winery itself is host to several winemakers in addition to its own label, and nearly all of them were tasting their wines. The Adea wines themselves were not very good, and I really don't remember the wines from any of the other winemakers, except for one - Marcus. He was tasting a couple of his Pinot Noirs, a mostly dry Riesling, and a great dessert wine. All were wonderful, and we bought a couple of bottles. We have gone back to Adea since then, just to get more Matello.

Fast forward to late August of this year as we were driving home from the Oregon Star Party. As were were approaching Madras, I was able to get signal on my iPhone and decided to check my email. There was an email from Marcus describing a winemaker's dinner that he was doing at clarklewis restaurant in Portland featuring samples of wine from his first commercial vintage in 2002 up through 2008. What a cool concept! As there were only 20 seats available, I replied right then and there as we drove into Madras. You gotta love technology!

So, on Wednesday Sept. 2nd, we drove into Portland to the restaurant on Water St. near OMSI. clarklewis (http://www.clarklewispdx.com/) is fairly new on the Portland restaurant scene, and is housed in a building along the river that used to be a loading dock. It was a very pleasant temperature that evening, and they had all of the garage doors open, giving us the feeling of al fresco dining. The cuisine is generally Italian-inspired using fresh local ingredients, much of it cooked in a wood fired oven. All of the food was served family style, and it appeared that this may be the norm, not just for the winemaker's dinner.

The menu was a six course extravaganza paired with 11 Matello wines! Up first was an incredible combination of watermelon slices topped with raw goat's milk feta cheese, gaeta olives, shredded mint, and fleur de sel. It was absolutely wonderful, and was Rachel's favorite dish of the night. It was paired with the 2007 Rosé of Pinot Noir - one of the nicest rosés we've had. The second course was a housemade spaghetti with shredded Oregon dungeness crab, fennel, heirloom tomatoes and summer herbs. The pasta was perfectly al dente and the sauce was a great light summer red sauce. It was paired with the 2003 and 2008 Pinot Gris. Marcus had said that he only brought the 2003 to torture us, and it was definitely past its prime. It was musty and waxy and oxidized, but it was interesting to see what 6 year old Pinot Gris was like. The 2008, on the other hand, was wonderful - crisp, floral and acidic. The third course was pork belly - yum! It was a cube of melt-in-your-mouth tastiness seared and slightly sweetened with black currants, summer corn, and purple orach. This was the first course where there was nothing left on the serving platters when we were done. It was paired with the 2004 Hommage a'A&D and 2004 Souris Pinot Noirs. Both were very good; I preferred the slightly more structured and complex Souris to the more approachable and fruity Hommage. Moving on to the entrée, we were served slices of lamb saddle with cannellini beans, baby mustard greens and black plum jus. The flavor was excellent, but the lamb was slightly too fatty for me. Rachel loved it! This was served with the 2003 Hommage and Souris Pinots. These were obviously 2003s (big, warm, fruity) but quite nice. The cheese course was a hard raw goat's milk cheese that was paired with the 2002 Hommage and 2002 Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs. The pairing was perfect and the older Pinots were structured and very interesting. Finally, for dessert we had a tasty apple tart with blackberry ice cream. The menu indicated that we were going to be served the 2008 Whistling Ridge sweet Riesling with this, but first Marcus brought out the 2006 slightly sweet Riesling - the first wine of his we ever had. What a treat - and it was still as good as I remembered it.

Fortunately, the dinner took over 3 hours, so even with the 11 wines, we were still seeing straight when we left. It was a great time, with great food, and we ended up sitting fairly close to Marcus, so we had a good opportunity for some conversation. These winemaker dinners are a lot of fun, especially when they're held at great restaurants.

Forest Grove Uncorked!

When we first moved to Forest Grove many years ago, the best restaurant in town was a toss-up between the Dairy Queen and the Mexican place on Main St., and if you wanted wine, you could buy whatever the Safeway was selling. How things have changed! We now have a nice selection of restaurants including a brewpub, middle eastern food, and Thai, and we have not one, but 2 great wine shops. Forest Grove is also attempting to position itself as a destination for wine tourism, being at the northern end of the Willamette Valley and surrounded by at least 5 or 6 pretty good wineries. In fact, some of the oldest, if not the oldest, Pinot Noir vines in Oregon are planted at David Hill Vineyards just outside of town, hence our new slogan: "Forest Grove, the birthplace of Oregon Pinot Noir."

To celebrate all of this, the City Club of Forest Grove along with several local businesses put on an event to show off Forest Grove's food, micro brews, and wine called "Forest Grove Uncorked" on Saturday, Aug. 15th. Rachel had to miss this one, but I went with our friends Rhonda and Tracy and we had a wonderful time.

Most of the wineries that were there are old friends, but there were a few new ones and a couple that we don't really care for. Rhonda and I arrived just after it opened at 5pm and Tracy joined us about an hour later. They had blocked off the downtown section of Main St. just as they do for the farmer's market.

We tasted at the following wineries: A Blooming Hill Vineyard, Apolloni, Artisanal, David Hill, Laurel Ridge, Raptor Ridge, Bodhichitta, and Ardiri. The standouts for me at this event were the Gypsy Dancer Pinot Gris (sold by Ardiri who bought the vineyard from Gary Andrus), the Raptor Ridge Pinot Noirs, the David Hill Blackjack Pinot Noir, and the Apolloni Pinot Gris and Rosé. Most of the others certainly had some good wines too. The big disappointment was a new winery, Bodhichitta, whose wines just weren't very good.

This is likely to become an annual event, and I look forward to it next year.

Bite of Oregon

Every year restaurants, wineries, and breweries from all over Oregon gather on the waterfront in Portland for a weekend to showcase the best of Oregon food and drink. In addition , there's music, cooking demonstrations and an Iron Chef competition. They also usually bring in a celebrity chef. This year it was Rahman "Rock" Harper, the winner of Fox TV's Hell's Kitchen. We didn't watch that show, so we'd never heard of him, but in previous years they've had Guy Fieri and Cat Cora from the Food Network.

Rachel and I arrived around noon and took a quick walk around to see what was there. We then headed into the wine tasting area where about 38 Oregon wineries were pouring. We like to survey the whole scene before jumping into the tasting, and it was great to get several shouts and waves from folks we know at various wineries. Although it's certainly growing, the Oregon wine industry is still relatively small, and we've gotten to know many winemakers and tasting room staff during our various wine adventures over the years. After our walkthrough, we jumped into the tasting. Although we didn't bring paper cups for spitting we managed to find some, and I'm getting pretty good (and less self-conscious) about using the spit buckets provided. Like Newport, wineries at The Bite charge a per-taste fee for each wine you want to try, usually between $0.50 and $2, although they'll often give you a special rate if you want to try all their wines. At events like this, we are a little pickier about what we try, usually looking for wineries we haven't tried for a while or real favorites.

After tasting through about half the wineries there, we decided it was time for a break, so we headed out of the wine area in search of food. All of the restaurants serve small plates for a few dollars, so you can sample several different dishes without getting stuffed. Last year we had some incredible lamb tacos, so we were expecting great things. Sadly, the food was just OK this year. Over the course of the afternoon, we ate a jerked pork sandwich with red cabbage slaw, liver paté with pickles, a sausage, and a few other things. We also caught one of the Iron Chef competitions on the chef's stage. In case you don't know about Iron Chef, it's a competition between 2 chefs to produce a meal highlighting a specific ingredient. The catch is that they don't know what the ingredient is until the battle starts. There are 2 identical kitchens on the stage, and each chef brings an assistant. At the end of the designated time period (30 minutes in this case), the chefs present their food to a judging panel. The secret ingredient for this battle was rack of lamb (one of my favorites!) and the final dishes looked really good! The announcer for the competition this year was local chef Lisa Schroeder, and although she tended to be a bit over the top, she was much better than last year's announcer - a local radio personality who had no clue about food.

After Iron Chef, we went back into the wine area and finished up our tasting. We then bought way more wine that we had intended, most of it from Hillcrest Vineyards - one of our favorites. Rachel was flying to Boston that night, so we drove straight to the airport from the Bite and I dropped her off and headed home. Although the food was somewhat disappointing, the Bite is always fun, and I'm sure we'll go again next year. One thing to remember is to bring more cash than you think you'll need. We've needed to use the on-site ATM both of the past 2 years, and they do charge a hefty fee.

Here are my tasting notes from the wines:

Witness Tree:

08 Pinot Blanc - Crisp, fruity, very good acid. Yum!
06 Elemental Cellars Pinot Gris - Good, but lacking acid
06 Elemental Cellars Viogner - Crisp, slightly spicy
07 Chardonnay - Nice, oaky, not quite enough acid
08 Termpranillo Rosé - Decent, but forgettable
07 Chainsaw Pinot Noir - Very good value ($20), smoky earthy
07 Estate Pinot Noir - Long finish, not quite as structured as the Chainsaw
06 Vintage Select Pinot Noir - Less interesting, low acid, flabby
05 Elemental Cellars Syrah - very peppery and smooth. Nice cool climate Syrah
07 Ice - OK, too sweet and not enough acid

Arcane Cellars:

08 Riesling - Very nice initial taste, but gets thin
08 Pinot Gris - Good, but not spectacular
06 Cabernet Sauvignon - Good fruit, but metallic finish

Silver Falls:

Chardonnay - Over-oaked, too buttery
Pinot Gris - Average, slightly sweet, not enough acid
Riesling - Floral and fruity, good finish, not enough acid
03 Pinot Noir in Stainless - Very fruity, smooth, slightly sweet (!?)
06 Pinot Noir in oak - Smoky, earthy and complex. Great value ($22)
06 Pinot Noir in stainless - Smooth, one-dimensional, boring
La Valle:

07 Dry Gamay Noir Rosé - crisp, light, delightful
07 Pinot Gris - dry, crisp, OK
08 Riesling - sweet, crisp, OK
06 Pinot Noir - a bit rough
07 Syrah - decent warm climate Syrah, nothing special
06 Cabernet Sauvignon - fruity but somewhat bitter

Hillcrest:

I like Dyson DeMara's wines a lot! We spent about 20 minutes tasting with him, and I didn't even write down any notes - they were all good.

Terra Vina:

Sangiovese - fruity, good flavor, too hot, good with food
Cab Franc - slightly harsh
Malbec - smooth, fruity, good acid

Rizzo Winery:

This was a strange duck - a very new winery that has tried to position themselves as an exclusive high-end winery with very expensive wines on allocation. Hmmm, good wines, but I don't think they're going to be able to sell them at those prices.

06 Yakima Cabernet Sauvignon - very complex, smooth tannins ($48)
06 Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon - good, but not as interesting as the Yakima ($60)
06 Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir Reserve - good, but not worth the price ($90)

Zerba Cellars

06 Cabernet Sauvignon - decent fruit, tannic, good with food
06 Sangiovese - Fruity. R didn't like it
06 Barbera - Smooth and fruity

Edenvale:

Tempranillo - good, but not great
Claret - flavorful, but not big and full enough. Not enough fruit.
Syrah - Average to poor warm climate Syrah.

Cliff Creek

04 Claret - Deep and rich. Yum!

Wilammette Valley Vineyards:

Eidelvise (white blend) - nice, but I'd rather drink their semi-sparkling muscat

Henry Estate:

Gewurztraminer - weak.

Seufert:

07 Hawks View Pinot Noir - light, strawberry, complex
07 Vine Idyl Pinot Noir - cherries, earth
07 Coleman Pinot Noir - smoke, plum, black cherry
06 Barrel Select Pinot Noir - fruity, but not everly

Pheasant Valley:

07 Tempranillo - fruity and interesting. Almost spicy
05 Cabernet Sauvignon - Fruity, smooth, a bit young, very nice

Maragas:

Pinot Gris - very nice, balanced, almost yeasty, slightly sweet
03 Zinfandel - nice, warm, full bodied, spicy
05 Zinfandel - simple and fruity, very tasty
Muscat - slightly sweet, muscat flavor is not quite intense enough

Chateau Bianca:

Riesling - very nice, good acid, slightly sweet
07 Triumph Marechal Foch - smooth and fruity

Trinity:

08 Viogner - spicy, slightly sweet
06 Pinot Gris - average
06 Pinot Noir - smooth, not too fruity, simple
06 Syrah - good example of Rogue Valley Syrah

Cottonwood:

06 Sauvignon Blanc - grassy, not enough acid
05 Marina Piper Pinot Noir - earthy, fruity, good
05 Brigette Catherine Pinot Noir - barrel select, fruity
04 Syrah - best warm climate syrah so far, big, tannic
Four Graces:

08 Pinot Gris - slate, minerals
07 Pinot Noir - complex and smoky
06 Pinot Noir - typical 06, not over the top, good

Palotai:

Bulls Blood - very good, fruity, smooth
Dolcetto - smooth and simple
Attila - nice claret with absolutely no finish

Girardet:

08 Baco Noir - smooth and simple. Nice Baco this year.

Argentina (long!)

July turned out to be a very busy travel month for our whole family. Faithful readers will recall that I started July with a trip to New York, and then traveled to LA for a long weekend. Near the end of the month I drove down to southern Oregon to give an astronomy talk and star party for a friend's church camp, and had one day back home before heading off to Cordoba, Argentina for business.

While I can honestly say that I had a great time once I got there, the traveling itself was pretty miserable. First off, it's a long way away - four hours from Portland to Dallas, 10 hours from Dallas to Santiago de Chile, and over an hour from Santiago to Cordoba, not counting layovers. To make matters worse, it is thunderstorm season in Dallas, which makes everything more interesting.

On Monday, I arrived at the Portland airport about 2 and a half hours early, and checked in at the ticket counter. The check-in machine offered me a first class upgrade on the PDX to DFW flight for a reasonable price, so I bought it, thinking that 4 hours in first class beats 4 hours in cattle class. The ticket agent said that the flight was slightly delayed because of the thunderstorms in Dallas, but I should still have plenty of time to make my connection to Santiago. "Excellent," I thought, and went through security and had a leisurely lunch at Gustav's (beer and sausage - what could be bad?) As I was finishing, I got a call from one of my traveling companions telling me that the flight was even more delayed, and that our 3rd traveler had gotten booked on an earlier flight to Dallas. Hmm, I thought, so I went to the gate to see what was up. When I got there, sure enough the flight was so late that I was likely to miss my connection to Chile, so I asked to be put on the earlier flight too. Sadly, it was overbooked, and all they could do was put me on standby. It turns out that ticket counter agents have a lot more power than gate agents. Both Ed and Tad had been put on the earlier flight by the ticket agent, but my gate agent couldn't or wouldn't do that for me. I called American Airlines, I called the travel agency, but to no avail. In the end, Ed and Tad got on the earlier flight, and I got to hang out at PDX for another 3 hours.

When my flight finally left, I did enjoy the first class seat and meal, but I was sure I'd missed my connection to Santiago. Upon arrival in Dallas, I saw that my connection, which was supposed to leave at 9pm, was now scheduled for 9:50 (it was 9:35). I got on the train between terminals and arrived at terminal D just in time to be told that they'd closed the doors and would not let me on. I saw the plane sitting at the gate, but couldn't do anything about it. Worse yet, the next flight was 24 hours later. I got re-booked (at least they got me an exit row) and asked about my suitcase. "No," I was told, "you can't get it." So, there I was at 10pm in Dallas with just the clothes on my back and 24 hours until my flight. I checked into the Hyatt Regency at the airport, and washed out my clothes in the sink and ironed them dry. Rachel had suggested that I buy a T-shirt in the airport so that at least I'd have something to sleep in.

I spent most of Tuesday in terminal D at DFW. Fortunately, it's a pretty nice part of the airport - lots of restaurants and shops. I got some work done on my notebook PC and wireless internet, had lunch at a nice Tex-Mex place and made the best of it. During my walks around the terminal, I discovered that there's actually a Texas winery that has a tasting room in the terminal. Not one to ignore an opportunity, I tried several Texas wines - a Pinot Grigio, a Merlot, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Meritage. All were actually pretty good.

At about 8:15pm they finally started to load our flight, and by this time I was certainly ready to leave DFW. Other than being long and crowded, it was a reasonable flight. I had a mini-bottle of Sutter Home Merlot with my airline braised beef. It was sort of like wine with something that somewhat resembled food. They woke us up at about 6am for a light breakfast, telling us we'd be landing in about 2 hours.

We landed in Santiago about 30 minutes late, and I had a tight connection to Cordoba. Fortunately I made the connection to the Cordoba flight, and settled in for the flight over the Andes. The snow covered mountains were beautiful, and we had a wonderful clear day to fly. I arrived in Cordoba around noon, went through health screening (Argentina was in the middle of a swine flu outbreak), and through passport control. I got to the baggage claim area and waited and waited for my bag. Sadly, it never arrived. I filled out a lost bag form with the LAN Airlines baggage agent, who, between her halting English and my halting Spanish managed to get the right information about where I was staying, etc. I took a taxi into Cordoba and was dropped off outside the Intel office.

Cordoba is an amazing city of about 2 million people. There are no freeways, so we drove through town and I got to see a lot of the city. More details of the city will come later. Upon arriving at Intel, I had several meetings, then walked the block and a half with Ed to our hotel. The Windsor hotel is a modern hotel with nice rooms. Interestingly, the key fobs are HUGE, and you're not supposed to take the key with you when you leave. Rather, you just leave it at the front desk and then pick it up again on your way back in.

I had earlier expressed interest in visiting the historic observatory in Cordoba (the Museo Astronomico) and Pablo Passera, one of the engineers, had generously offered to drive us. Originally called the Argentinian National Observatory, it was dedicated in 1871 and is one of the earliest modern observatories in South America. The original building was demolished and replaced by the present building in the 1920s. The observatory/museum now houses the original transit instrument from the 1870's, the Gautier Double Astrograph used to create the Carte du Ciel atlas, and a beautiful 33cm refractor with a lens made by Alvan Clark and Sons on a Warner and Swasey mount. We were given a thorough tour of the museum in Spanish, and Pablo translated for us. We even got to look at the moon through the refractor. Certainly one of the high points of the trip.

After driving us past the university, Pablo dropped us back to hotel. To my great delight, my luggage had been delivered from the airport! I was able to shower and change into some clean clothes, which both I and those around me appreciated. From the hotel, Pablo drove me, Tad, and Ed to a great restaurant called San Honorato where we met up with Leandro, José Luis, Claudio, and Guillermo. The restaurant is housed in an old bakery and includes a brick oven and wine cellar. Diners can spend some time in the cellar sampling wines and food before deciding what to order. We tried some Malbec (of course) and a wonderful cured ham, similar to prosciutto. Back at the table, we ordered our meals. I started with a slightly spicy peanut soup, had cheese stuffed beef loin as my entreé, and an interesting dulce de leche wrapped in filo dough for desert. We ordered bottles of a couple of different Malbecs from Mendoza. The first was the 2006 Salentein Reserve from the Uco Valley in Mendoza. It was darker and earthier than most Malbecs, not a lot of fruit - quite good. The second was a 2005 Viniterra, and was fruity and less complex than the first, but also quite nice. We were also served a very strong and tasty lemon liqueur with dessert that warmed the throat as it went down. Because dinner is traditionally eaten pretty late in the day, we didn't get back to the hotel until around 11:00.

Thursday morning came early, and I had a full day of meetings on my calendar: 9:30am until 6:00pm with no breaks. I had 1:1s with several of the engineers, attended a team meeting, and was educated on the Scrum methodology, along with several other meetings. The Intel facility in Cordoba looks a lot like any other Intel facility - grey and blue cubes and conference rooms. However, during several meetings it was obvious that we weren't in the US. Many of the engineers bring their mate gourds into the meetings and drink mate throughout the meeting, much like we'd bring coffee in. Mate is a traditional tea-like beverage that is brewed in a hollow gourd and drunk through a metal straw that filters the leaves. Although it was a long day, it went by quickly and the meetings were very worthwhile. One can certainly conduct business over the phone, but meeting face to face and building personal relationships makes it so much easier to collaborate with people thousands of miles away.

After work, Ed, Tad and I took a short walking tour of central Cordoba. Cordoba is an old city, founded in 1573 by Geronimo Luis de Cabrera. The central area of the city contains many beautiful buildings built during the Spanish colonial era, including the Cordoba Cathedral, the Cabildo, and the Monserrat School. We had dinner on our own at a northern Argentinian restaurant that Guillermo had recommended. None of the staff spoke English, but the menu had translations, and I knew enough Spanish to communicate with the waiter. The food was simple, traditional, and delicious. We had a simple lettuce salad, empanadas, BBQ short ribs, and flan. Tad wanted a beer, and ended up with a liter bottle all to himself. Ed and I shared a bottle of so-so Malbec.

Fridays start with several people bringing food into the office for "Happy Friday," so breakfast wasn't a problem! I had several meetings during the morning, then got to go to lunch at a place that advertises "Comidas por Kilo" (meals by weight). This is a buffet restaurant a few blocks from the office where one chooses food from a buffet table and puts it into a plastic container. On Fridays, they also have barbecue going. You then take your tray to the front where they put a piece of plastic wrap over the top and wrap it up in butcher paper. It is then weighed, and the price calculated. Mine came to 12 pesos (about $3.50). After lunch it was time to head to the airport. Pablo flagged down a couple of taxis outside the office, and we made it to the airport in good time. We had extra time before we were allowed into the gate area, so we did a little shopping. Tad bought his own mate gourd, but he hasn't brought it into any meetings yet. The flight to Santiago was quite uneventful (thankfully), and we had a couple of hours to wait for the flight back to DFW. The Santiago airport has an incredible wine shop, but we didn't buy anything. Probably just as well, because the TSA doesn't consider Santiago secure enough, so we were subject to a hand search of all carry-on items as we boarded the plane. No liquids were allowed on board, even if purchased after we'd gone through security. Tad, however, managed to smuggle his 2 liter bottle of water onboard.

We landed at 6am Saturday at DFW, and had a very easy time getting through emigration and customs. I was very pleased to see that my bag had made it this time, and I happily re-checked it to Portland. We had a couple of hours before the flight to Portland, and decided to get something to eat. Now, when Tad and I had been in New York, we learned that you shouldn't just eat at the first place you see at an airport, because there may be something better a few gates down. Sadly, we didn't follow our own advice, and ended up eating at a really lousy breakfast place - tasteless eggs, tasteless grits, lousy OJ. We would have done better at McDonald's. Oh well. We waited at the gate after breakfast, and all looked well, until...

About 45 minutes before we were supposed to take off, the gate agent came on to let us know that our plane had a maintenance problem and hadn't even been released from the hangar yet, we didn't have a cabin crew because they were on an delayed inbound flight from Tulsa, and the weather was getting really nasty and they were about to close the ramp. Other than that, everything looked good. The sky had turned black by this time and all of a sudden it started raining harder than I've ever seen it rain. Ed and I walked down a few gates to the restroom, and on our way back, passed by a waterfall coming in through the ceiling that hadn't been there 3 minutes earlier when we walked by. Fortunately, the weather cleared after about 20 minutes, they told us that the airplane that had been sitting at our gate for about an hour was, in fact, our airplane, and the crew had appeared. We were ready to go! The plane left only about 40 minutes late, and we arrived back in Portland just after noon.

It was a long trip, but absolutely worth going. I spent most of the time during my flights and waiting in airports on the way down muttering that I'd never travel again, but I got home looking forward to my next trip to Argentina. We were treated so well by all the Intel folks there, we accomplished so much in terms of building relationships, and Cordoba is a pretty cool place. Next time, I'm going to spend more time and try to drive over to Mendoza for the weekend to visit some wineries.

The Parkway Grill

Last weekend I headed home to southern California to attend a reunion of my high school marching band. I had an absolutely fantastic time at the reunion, and as an added benefit, got to visit my parents for a few days. Normally when we visit, they take the whole family out to a nice mid-range restaurant for dinner. But this time, since it was just me, they decided to go high end and took me to dinner at the Parkway Grill in Pasadena.

A landmark of the food scene in Pasadena for 25 years, the Parkway is one of several restaurants in the Smith Brothers empire, consisting of six upscale area restaurants. We arrived around 6:30, left our car with the parking valet, and went in. I had made the reservation using Open Table under my name, and let the hostess know that we had arrived. We were about to be shown to a table, when a young man (apparently an assistant manager) came bounding up to us and greeted my father like a long lost friend. Now, I know that he used to eat lunch there occasionally, but I didn't realize quite how well known he was. Apparently he'd once brought Hugh Downs there for lunch, but he's never given them his name. He always pays with cash, and the staff has tried to figure out who he is. Well, they now have his last name since I made the reservation. Anyway, the assistant manager showed us to one of the best tables in the house, next to the window in the atrium. He knew exactly the kind of cocktail that my father wanted, and gave him the first one on the house. Wow, I thought I was just going to dinner - I didn't realize that we were going to get rock star treatment!

The food and service were excellent. My dad and I each started with oysters on the half shell, and my mom ordered the famous black bean soup with tomatillos and crème fraîche. I had a nice glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with the oysters, and my mother ordered a glass of California Chardonnay. For the main dish, I had some wonderful braised short ribs with scalloped potatoes, tomatoes, and a port-truffle veal glaze. I paired this with a delightful Meritage from BV. The food was very well executed, but not terribly innovative.

Sadly, I'm writing this now almost a month after the fact, so I can't remember what we had for dessert, but I remember that it was very good.

July 4th Weekend

Oregon has the reputation of being wet and rainy most of the time, but the truth is that it only rains through July 4th, then it's usually pretty nice until late fall. This means that it's pretty gutsy to schedule an outdoor concert on July 3rd, but that's just what David Hill winery did this year, and they beat the odds with a beautiful warm and sunny evening. Rachel and I took the long arduous drive from our house up to the winery (all of 3 minutes I think) and met our friends Rhonda and Tracy there. The Dick Lappe band was again playing, but this time they'd set up under the huge tree in back of the yellow farm house. It had been a warm day and we were all grateful for the shade of the tree.

Rhonda and Tracy had bought a bottle of Farmhouse White, and we bought a bottle of Blackjack Pinot Noir. The winery had brought up The James Gang BBQ company to serve food, so we were set for a nice evening of wine, food, music and friendly conversation. Dinner was BBQ brisket, half a game hen, beans, and a pasta salad, and the Blackjack was a great accompaniment to the smoky flavors in the meat. As we were sitting there drinking really nice wine, listening to great music and looking out over the setting sun lighting up the vines up the hill, I had to smile broadly and be thankful that we live in such a great place. It was a great evening and it was fun to spend time with Rhonda and Tracy.

On the 4th itself, we had a fairly quiet day. I watched the poor Dodgers get beat by the Padres, but did try a bottle of my new stout with lunch (hot dogs, of course). It needs another week or two in the bottle before it's fully carbonated, but I think it's going to be very good. It's slightly sweeter with a bigger, smoother mouth feel than my previous stouts. For dinner, I made spicy lamb burgers which we served with Rachel's Greek yogurt sauce and feta cheese and paired with a tasty Malbec from Mendoza. After it got dark, Rachel, Tim and I lit off fireworks in the driveway, while Josh stayed in the house. He said it was dumb to light off fireworks that someone else had made (??). The most exciting part of the evening was when the big pinwheel shot some sparks into the dry landscaping and started a small fire. Tim, who usually doesn't notice anything, was the first to see it. We stomped it out pretty quickly with no harm done.

On Sunday the 6th Rachel and I went to first meeting at church and then headed down south toward Canby to attend the open barn at SuDan farms. You may recall that they supplied all the great lamb to the Dundee Bistro for our lamb feast in May. It wasn't quite what we had expected, although I'm not sure what we were expecting. In addition to lamb, they raise chickens, ducks and turkeys. We got to see several batches of chickens of various ages, starting with the baby chicks in cages to the mature chickens in the movable chicken houses in the pasture. We also saw young turkeys and ducks. We put in our order for a one year old sheep (parted and frozen of course) and took home a few lbs of ground lamb (more lamb burgers!) and riblets.

On our way home, we thought we ought to stop at a few nearby wineries. Rachel had seen the signs for St. Josef winery on the way there, and since we'd never had their wine before, we decided to try it. There aren't a lot of wineries near Canby and St. Josef certainly isn't a big name, so I was expecting a small mom and pop operation. As we turned into the driveway it was obvious that this wasn't the case - it looked like Temecula again with a long driveway lined with arbor vitae leading to a large building that looked like it wouldn't have been out of place in the alps. After we parked and were walking toward the tasting room, I could see a lot of serious winery equipment just down the hill - this was a real working winery.

We were met by the very friendly tasting room pourer who took our picture in front of the tasting room before we went in. Josef, the owner and wine maker, emigrated to the US from Germany in the late 50's and eventually found his way out to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The first vines were planted on the estate in 1978, and they had their first commercial vintage in 1983. All of the grapes for their wines come from the estate, so they have the typical Oregon varieties: Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Noir. Surprisingly, they also grow estate Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon! We tasted through pretty much everything they had open and were quite impressed. The whites were generally crisp and clean with good acid. They had both an unoaked stainless Chard that had not gone through ML, as well as a slightly oaked version that had gone through ML. Both were very good, just different styles. The Rieslings were OK, but at just the wrong amount of residual sugar for me. I prefer Rieslings to be either nearly dry (1-2%) or fairly sweet (5+%) and that area in the middle generally doesn't do it for me. Both the Pinot Noir and Merlot were good, but not great, but the Cab was just amazing, especially considering it was grown in the northern Willamette. It was fruity and ripe, but not over the top, with good tannins and acid. All told, a very nice experience and some good wines.

We then headed northwest to Newberg and decided to stop at Vercingatorix (aka VX) Winery. We'd not tasted their wines before either, but I'd heard that their Pinot Noir was pretty good. Actually getting there was harder than I thought it would be. They have the nice little blue signs in Newberg pointing the way, but the roads kept getting narrower, then turned to gravel and went up over hills, around curves, through the forest, etc. Fortunately, the winery had posted encouraging signs like "You're almost there" to keep our spirits up.

The tasting room is in a barn on the estate; the wine itself is actually made at Northwest Wine Co. in McMinnville. VX is strictly a Pinot house, which often means just Pinot Noir, but in this case it also included Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. The Pinot Blanc was crisp and refreshing - an ideal summer wine with light food. The Pinot Gris was OK, but tasted a bit harsh. They were tasting 3 vintages of Pinot Noir - the 2005, 2006, and 2007. They had recently taken the 2007 off the tasting room menu since so few people were liking it, but someone had wanted to try it earlier, so they had a bottle open. The '05 was good - nice fruit, smooth tannins, fairly well balanced. The '06 was very ripe and fruity, maybe a bit too jammy. The '07 was magnificent - subtle fruit, but earthy with hints of mineral. It needs some time, but I think it's going to be great. I suppose that most people didn't care for it in comparison with the huge '06, but I've really learned to see past the seduction of the big fruit and look for more complexity in my Pinot Noir, so I really much preferred the '07 (we of course bought a bottle and stashed it away for a year or 2).