Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Pinot, Pinot, Pinot and heck, why not? More Pinot

I could hardly wait for my friends Erin and John to get here from the Bay Area. We had a day of wine tasting planned for Friday, and I did not want to disappoint as tour guide. Meghan was kind enough to be our driver and used her sharp internal wine navigation system to get us to Domaine Drouhin in a flash. We tasted the chardonnay, pinots and some of the wine from DD's sister winery in France-which was cool. We were joined by Erin's cousin Alix and her fiance David...in between sips we gawked at Alix's ring and gave David a hard time for being a mad scientist (for real). All in good fun-as you do when tasting wine at noon.

David suggested our next stop, White Rose, which was just down the road. We pulled up and all admired the super cool architecture of the tasting room. It was faintly familiar and when we got inside I realized I had in fact been there before-a long time ago. We waited for someone to show up, as the tasting room was empty. It looked as though a tasting had happened earlier, with lots of glasses out and open bottles. We called the number on the business cards, but no one answered. Curious about the wine, we figured a small sip wouldn't hurt. Well, John appeared to like what he tasted enough to leave $60 cash for a bottle and we hit the road. (we did leave a note!)

We thought Stoller would be a good next stop, with such a pretty setting and modern tasting room. It was here that I ended up behind the bar (with permission from the nice tasting room gal). This was beginning to be a very "interactive" afternoon indeed.

More wine was tasted and we decided it was time for a snack. Off to Carlton where we refueled at the Horse Radish. Meats, cheeses, olives and hummus, along with some more....Pinot. Satiated, we were on a mission-Penner Ash. We were happy to taste some white varietals as well as the Pinots, knowing that a good crisp, dry white would be needed for our Saturday night dinner of Raclette (think fondue but better). Viognier and Riesling in hand, we left just before closing. On the way home we decided to pop into Fox Farm tasting room in Newberg-why not? Erin and John did a flight tasting, while Meghan and I sipped on the Memoirs Pinot (another label based decision).

I would say by the end of the weekend, our guests felt like they had a good grasp on the Oregon wine scene...and if nothing else, can rattle off a laundry list of Pinots that have now passed their lips.

3 comments:

  1. Did you taste the Memoirs at Fox Farm? I ask, because that wine is made by Mo Ayoub (the picture is actually Mo's family when he was a child), and so I find it interesting if you tasted it at Fox Farm.

    And for the record, the Memoirs (and Ayoub for that matter) is one of the best Pinots in the valley.

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  2. Amy, thanks for bringing your friends and for "sharing the love"! the Memoirs is the 2nd most-popular wine here- it rocks, and the label is certainly eye-catching...

    We are always adding new wines here, and we try to be true to the moniker "Multi-Winery Tasting Room". Right now we feature (alphabetically) : AlexEli, Atticus, Ayoub, Beacon Hill, Cleo's Hill, Crumbled Rock, Dukes Family, Fox Farm Vineyards, Thistle, Truffle Patch and Vitae Springs Vineyards.

    Please keep in touch... maybe we can schedule a time for you to come in and I'll invite the winemakers to chat.

    -david (503) 538-8466

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  3. Hi John,

    Read the comment from David. Yes, we did indeed taste the Memoirs at Fox Farm tasting room. It was really nice, and I am excited to have a bottle added to my collection.

    Amy

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