If you are heading to Willamette Valley for a wine tasting experience, it means that you must love Pinot Noir. After all, 68% of all grapevines planted in the valley are Pinot Noir. Similarly, if you head to Napa, you must love Cabernet Sauvignon. But what really gets my Pavlovian responses into overdrive is when I discover the “other wine” of the region. These wines typically are not publicized, are listed last on their website, and not included in the basic tasting. And that is what makes finding them so much fun. The wines are typically pet projects of the…
Leave a CommentStrong Coffee to Red Wine Posts
So you are planning a wine country tasting vacation. How exciting! I love visiting tasting rooms, and I never grow tired of it. My mouth and taste buds, on the other hand, have experienced fatigue to the point that I could no longer smell or taste the unique characteristics of the wines. Don’t do that for sure. Besides killing your palate, there are a few other “do’s and don’ts” that you may not be aware of, so for this post, I compiled a list of tasting room guidelines and etiquette to ensure that you have the perfect trip. Wine Country…
1 Comment
It was a beautiful and warm day on Parrett Mountain in the Chehalem AVA of Willamette Valley, Oregon. I, along with about ten others, was walking the Le Cadeau Vineyards property before we sat down to sample four of the Pinot Noir wines made from the fruit from the various blocks on the property. In total the property is twenty-eight acres of which sixteen are planted. From where we started the walk at the top of the slope you could see the entire property. It is amazing how large and how small sixteen acres are. One the one hand, we…
1 Comment
Yes, Gary and I are still drinking rosé this fall, and we will continue to do so through the winter. Our journey of drinkable pink wines has been a blast, and I want to share some of the bottles that we have sampled and loved. Some of these new wines we now buy by the case as they are that good. Drinkable pink – two different tastings. First, I taught a rosé class at Edison James Island as part of my educational wine tasting series. (Sign up here) A second tasting then happened a couple of days later when we…
3 Comments
Last week, I was part of the Wine Writer’s Educational Tour (WWET) to Willamette Valley in Oregon. Four intensive days of classroom, tasting, touring and wining & dining throughout the northern section of the Willamette Valley AVA (American Viticultural Area). Each day, I would rise at 7:00 am to be on the bus by 8:00 am only to return to the hotel around 11:00 pm. Over these four days, I tasted upwards of 140 different wines from wineries all over the AVA. The wines were mostly Pinot Noir, but we also had a session on Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Riesling, and…
1 Comment
I dare say there is not an adult in this country that has not eaten a Clif Bar at some point in their life. Thanks to the success of those bars, Clif Family has also ventured into winemaking in Napa Valley. And like anything that they do, they do it incredibly well, and they go big. Many successful wineries in Napa may offer five wines. At Clif Family, I counted 24 on their website. As I said, they go BIG. Clif Family Winery On A Whim During my May of 2018 trip to Napa, we made a last-minute stop at…
Leave a Comment
Three White Wines beyond The Big Three If you drink white wine, it is more than likely a Chardonnay, Pinot Gris/Grigio, or Sauvignon Blanc. And if you like one of them you probably are not fond of the other two. That is just the way it is as we are conditioned to stick with what we know. But I am here to tell you that there is so much more in the white wine world to be consumed and you are truly missing out on some great juice. I have recently been on a white wine quest, and I wanted…
2 Comments
A Horse of a Different Color When the Ehlers Estate 2018 Sylviane Rosé was released last Spring, I was super stoked. The 2017 vintage was my #1 favorite wine last year. Everyone I knew that tried this vintage swooned over it. It was a 100% Cabernet Franc rosé that really knocked it out of the park. So with the 2018 vintage released, I was ordering my first case, no problem, with more to follow I was sure. Now I knew that there was a new winemaker at Ehlers. After all, I did run a Q&A with her last fall. (You…
2 Comments