Tag Archive: northwest wine


Days of Green and Gold

Filed Under: Travel, Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
December 5, 2012

Lemelson on a perfect fall day

Fall is winding down, heralded by the sloppy wet weather of the past couple of weeks. It can be easy to feel oppressed by the low dark clouds, to want to crawl back under the covers on cold and gray mornings, to believe that coffee is the only antidote for mid afternoons that feel like late evening. As we head into winter and the attendant fears and hopeful anticipation of snow or ice or other such dire weather, I find myself cherishing those singular days between storms.

The leaves have turned, and a goodly number (if my porch is any indication) have already fallen, but those that remain are gorgeous. This is when the evergreens are in their glory, when the grass is having a second birth from the rain we all curse, and when those trees still holding on to their golden glory seem to glow in the stolen sunshine.

Such was the Monday after Thanksgiving. It started as a cold and windy day, the last of the storm clouds gathering in conference over the distant Cascades to the east and thus a perfect day to head to Dundee. As much as I have loved the Wine Country Thanksgiving outings, this year I just couldn’t muster the energy to mingle with the enthusiastic crowds. Having a leisurely day in quiet tasting rooms seemed much more my speed, and I was not disappointed.

After our sojourn at the Republic of Jam, we headed back from Carlton, doing as we usually do – missing the turn off for the 99 and ending up taking highway 240 and then Worden Hill Road (a beautiful road, at least after you get past the gravel part, with the attendant potholes and such). But as we did, we passed a sign for Lemelson. And then we saw the place – a beautiful building in a gorgeous setting. We turned around and headed back.

It is a lovely tasting room, warm and welcoming, and we had the place to ourselves. Like so many in the area, this place is pretty much all Pinot Noir. On the menu this particular day was a very nice Chardonnay, one done in new and neutral oak that really took me by surprise. It was crisp and flavorful, with a nice mineral component and none of the cloying, buttery oak that has too often been the highlight of Chardonnay in this country. This was followed by three Pinot Noirs, all slightly different.

The Cuvee X was probably my favorite; we were told that this is the winemaker’s brainchild. I love these kind of wines, where the winemaker gets to play at being a mad-scientist of sorts, playing with the grapes to create a labor of love. This wine is a great example of just how well that can turn out. It is a fun wine, one with a peppery nose that is along the lines of a bigger red like a Syrah or a Merlot. It is a big wine; not the usual dainty and complex Pinot Noir I have come to know and love. This is Pinot Noir for the non-Pinot drinker. Yet as much as such wines usually bug me (if you are making Pinot Noir, make Pinot Noir…) I liked this one.  The flavor and complexity weren’t lost in the mix, they were just taken to a very different place.

I am, I fear, a bit spoiled now. I have my favorite wineries and my favorite wines. So it is good to get outside that comfort zone and try something new. This was a wonderful melding of new wines to experience in a gorgeous setting on a gorgeous day. It reminded me of my first wine tasting trip in this area, almost exactly six years ago to the day. The thrill of something new and interesting, the beginning of a new passion, all set in this golden glow of a stunning Northwest fall day. Maybe spoiled is the wrong word, perhaps complacent is better.

It becomes easy to take these days for granted, to whine about the weather, to whine about the distance, to whine about the wine. So for one day I was back in the glory of the green and gold, of the new adventure, of a perfect day with a good friend. No whining allowed.

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Wine, Wind, Fall

Filed Under: Shiny Things, Travel, Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
October 25, 2012

Bins waiting on grapes at Thistle Wines

Ah yes, Fall. October is almost over, I can’t believe it; it has been a relatively busy month. There were Wine Club Sundays sponsored by the Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association. This was a brilliant idea where if you belong to one wine club, you get a card making you an honorary member of 22 different wineries in the area. I was proud and somewhat shocked to realize that I had been to 18 of the 22 wineries on the list. Most of them multiple times… This coincided with wine club fall pickups, which made the drive out to the area just that much more fun.

Harvest was well in process, one of the earliest in quite some time and in stark contrast to the last two years. The leaves on the vines were already starting to turn, and the combination of the gray October skies, the yellowing vines, and the propane cannons (to keep hungry birds from those delicious, delicious grapes) made for a very atmospheric day. I swear there are times when I am out in the Willamette Valley that I really feel like I have stepped into an entirely different country. The rolling hills, the expansive vineyards, the gravel roads – sigh.

The changing colors of the vineyard

It was also the 50th anniversary of the “Big Blow” this month. The huge Columbus Day storm that literally decimated orchards in the region and caused damage from Northern California to Southwest Canada. The result of an extra-tropical cyclone (Typhoon Freda), the storm registered wind gusts of 145 miles per hour at the Oregon Coast (before most of the anemometers stopped working, toppled by the winds) and upwards of 100 mph in the inland cities of Portland, Salem and even Renton, WA. This was a story I first heard in a visit to Winter’s Hill winery a few years ago. Looking at the orchards that share real estate in the Willamette Valley with the myriad of wineries, I learned that many of those vineyards stand on places where orchards were destroyed. Interesting how we adapt.

In any case, Halloween is fast approaching with Thanksgiving nipping at its heels. Days are growing ever shorter, but what should be sleepy time of year is actually quite busy. In a good way. How is your fall falling?

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White Wine Weather

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April 22, 2012

The weather is warming up here, we had our first 80 degree day, and a nice little stretch of sunny weather. That, to me, means it is time to pull out the white wines. Now yes, I know there are those who adamantly believe that it is a wine’s duty to be red, but I am not one of them. Spring and summer are white wine weather for this girl.

Few things are as decadently wonderful as a nicely chilled glass of Viognier or Pinot Gris sipped on a sunny deck. Nothing is as incredible as a good rose of Pinot Noir on a day like today. There is a reason I refer to Sokol Blosser’s rose as summer in a glass! A crisp, slightly off-dry non-red wine is filled with the taste of summer fruits; the green apple, the melon, the citrus undertones; it is the adult version of eating big, cold, juice slabs of watermelon by the pool. Granted, it is missing the joy of seed spitting that often ensued. Then again, nothing has stopped me from spitting cherry pits out of the car well after the age when such things are, well, expected. But I digress…

Today I opened a bottle of Dobbes Viognier. I sat with my feet up, a book in hand, windows wide open and just enjoyed the evening. I would have sat on my deck, but currently I have no chairs there and it has been taken over by a fairly industrious spider (who has spun a web directly in the center of the deck, an impressive feat of engineering that I can’t quite make myself destroy at this point). The breeze through the flat, the sun, the coolness of the wine, it made for a pretty spectacular late afternoon.

As a result, a couple of bottles of rose have been added to the fridge, a pair of Pinot Blancs, an organic Chardonnay; all are chilling in anticipation of the onset of a warm summer ahead. The reds are nicely tucked away, waiting for a cool night, a perfect meal, maybe even the fall. Because right now it is white wine weather. Right now it is time to experiment with sangria made from Albarino and apples. Right now it is about Prosecco or Cava for a Sunday morning Bellini with white peaches. Right now it is about a nice rose with a grilled bread salad. I’m looking forward to the next few months, to the heat and the sun and wine whose duty it is to be straw pale and pink. Because around here? In wine country? Summer is often found in a glass.

 

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Good Day Sunshine

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April 7, 2012

I woke this morning to sunshine. Sure, there was frost on everything, but there was sun. The last several days have been the very best representation of ‘line squall’ on a loop.  Dark cloud, rain or hail, sun; lather, rinse, repeat. But today – today was cloudless, today was sunny, today needed to be got out in. Now. Fortunately for me there were wine clubs to be fetched which was the perfect excuse to get out of the city and into the open air. Ah. Spring.

It started with a very pretty drive down some back roads, along twisty, narrow places where the trees arch overhead and the sun dances through the buds and new leaves. There were filbert orchards to pass, horse farms to ogle, pretty vistas and picturesque barns. It was lovely. Then it was a quick dash into McMinville that let me score some very yummy hot cross buns and a fresh, crusty baguette at Red Fox Bakery. I was thrilled it was open as I always seem to get there about twenty minutes after they close.

After lunch and more coffee than I probably needed, it was off to Sokol Blosser for the first wine club. I like everything about this place. The wines, yes; the wines are wonderful. But the view and the people are also pretty awesome. It was nice to see some familiar faces and to yak with some new folks. TK and I wandered a bit, snapping pictures, playing paparazzi to a flock of chickens, exclaiming over flowers and views and such.

Next stop was Dobbes/Wine by Joe. The name still tickles me. Wine by Joe. How can there be anything pretentious or snobby about such a place? And there isn’t, not a thing. More really good wine and more chances to talk with wine folk. And yes, more wine to take home.

That alone would have made for a spectacular day, but TK wasn’t done yet. Our next stop was a scenic overlook at Willamette Falls that I always joke with Beth about. The one we never stop at. Today TK pulled the car over and we stood watching the rushing water. The rivers are pretty full around here at the moment, all that rain and the beginning of snow melt and it makes for some pretty spectacular scenery. It was an impressive sight, with mist rising from the falls and the sound of the wind and river. We snapped pictures like a pair of tourists.

That surely would have been a capper for the day, but soon we were heading up to Rocky Butte and wandered around. This is an amazing place, with incredible views in all directions. On this clear day not only was Mt. Hood visible, but Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. You don’t get that much. I stood there in the wind, just amazed at the view. It was one of those moments when it all comes together for me; when regardless of how awful the weather has been, how frustrated I may be with, well, everything; I know how fortunate I am to live in this corner of the country.

Willamette Falls

Vineyard View from Sokol Blosser

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Tastes Like Chicken

Filed Under: Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
March 20, 2012

In the world of wine there are many, many – MANY – words for describing what you are tasting. Some are pretty universal and prosaic; we talk of the pepper spice in a good Zinfandel or the green apple in a Pinot Blanc, for instance. Some are a bit more unusual; such as talking about the tobacco in a hefty Cabernet Sauvignon, or referring to an earthiness in a red blend. They are terms that mean something, describe something we can all wrap our minds around. Sometimes we understand the flavor more for its aroma than actual taste. For example I have read descriptions of a big red wine being ‘redolent of wet earth” or a chardonnay having a hint of green grass.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t ingest either wet earth or green grass (for that matter most grasses are just not on my menu), but I can understand the flavor because of the aroma that green grass – especially freshly mown grass – is pretty pungent to the point that you can almost taste it. We talk about the grassy flavors of other foods and drinks – green tea and beer jump to mind. Most people have had the experience of a strong odor leaving a taste in our mouth and the connection between scent and taste is well documented.

But back to wine tasting. And vocabulary. I am totally on board with the notion that we all taste things just a bit differently from one another. It again has to do with that scent-taste thing. I am happy to give leeway to the vocabulary of wine tasting because of it. Mostly the flavors you hear people point to are somewhat generic – people talk about the dark fruit aspect of a wine, or they refer to red berry or citrus as flavors they pick up. It is a nice little lexicon that embraces the fleeting flavors you find when drinking wines or even beer.

Sometimes, however, it goes a bit too far. There are flavors that are pointed out that make me tilt my head and say “what?” Because really, have you actually tasted that thing you are comparing your wine to? I have to wonder. Today I ran into one of them. In fact, I pretty much ran head first into it. And sadly it came from a pretty well respected magazine, one with some serious experience in the world of food and wine.

The flavor profile of a wine (a well respected Northwest wine, I might add) was described as having “layers of mocha, tobacco and underbrush.” Yes. Underbrush. I am fully on board with the first two, but underbrush? That term brings to mind for this desert transplant the scent of creosote, dust and dry leaves. Not an appetizing combination. Had I not had the wine in question, a really good red blend, I would be rather put off. Underbrush. Really?

There is a part of me that wonders if this rush to terminology is one of those unfortunate pretentious side effects of being a wine lover. Note I didn’t say connoisseur. That term denotes an expert and quite frankly I have never heard a sommelier – a person who arguably is a connoisseur – use a term like underbrush (nor have I heard one refer to a wine as ‘saucy’ or other anthropomorphic personality traits).

But I feel I should be generous here; perhaps it is more a case of a lack of vocabulary. A dearth of terms that adequately describe a wine that leads us to try to find new and unique terms. After a while referring to the spice of a wine; the peppery aspects, the citrus, the green apple and melon; maybe we ache for a newer or better term lest we fall into that trap of describing everything in similar ways.

Much like how every exotic meat apparently tastes like chicken, we fear that every white ends up the same; every red has leather and licorice, every sparkling wine is zesty and effervescent, every white is citrusy and perfect for a hot summer’s day. It can drive us all to the Pythonesque extreme I suppose. And yet, still – underbrush?

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Little Gems

Filed Under: Coffee, Food, Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
February 14, 2012

There are places in the city, hard to find, out of the way, not easily come by; places that require a bit of hunting, a bit of commitment to the cause, but that pay some pretty decent dividends once found. I keep stumbling upon them, and I am grateful. Some I have talked about before, others are a bit newer to me.

What I love most about these little gems is that often I discover them through the auspices of another little gem that I stumbled upon before. There does seem to be a rather prominent domino effect to it all; this place leads to that place, leads to. Kind of cool, really, when I think about it.

This last week was all about the little gems. The first was a day outing where I hunted down, through the back streets of the industrial end of South East Portland, a little gem called Hip Chicks Do Wine. First off, the name. How can you resist a place with such a name? Hip Chicks Do Wine. Both a place name and a statement, because we all know that hip chicks do do wine. In any case, this gem is in an unlikely warehouse across some railroad tracks, down some roads that feel more like driveways, and around a corner. A big barn of a building, utilitarian industrial green in color, you are sure that you  made a wrong turn somewhere; but when you open the door you are in a lovely cool and inviting space.

There I met Sterling, the very nice young man who took me through a flight of wines that were fun and interesting. With names like “Drop Dead Red” and “Wine Bunny Blush” you might be tempted to write them off as yet another gimmick winery. But don’t. You would be missing out on some very nice wine. The Drop Dead Red is a great all-purpose red, and besides you wouldn’t discover a very nice Malbec, or the Cosette’s Cuvee made under the Tiernan Conner label  and that would be a shame. Hip Chicks came onto my radar as being an urban winery after visiting them at the Chocolate Festival a few weeks back. Domino down…

The other two gems are places I have discovered before, but find myself going back to; indeed they are places the get me to contemplate moving. Cellar Door Coffee is my new favorite coffee place, and that is saying something. I am on my third bag from these folks, each one just a bit different. The first was the Bali Kintamani that I wrote about previously. The next bag was a Costa Rica Tarrazu, and now I am enjoying the Ethiopia Limu. Each time I go into the place I find a new coffee that I fall in love with.  Cellar Door was discovered when Deco Distilling hosted a coffee tasting in their storefront just before Christmas.

And finally, it was Pacific Pie Company. I have sung their praises before.  This little gem is a great, inexpensive lunch. Pot pies made with the most amazing crust you have ever tasted. A good selection of beers on tap, some incredible dessert pies to finish it off, and usually a rugby, cricket or football (soccer to this corner of the world) match on the big screen. Not to mention a great group of friendly and funny staff to round it all out. Come to think of it, Deco sent me there as well.

It is a bit of a schlep for me to get to these places. A different schlep than the one that takes me out to wine country, but a schlep none the less. And I don’t mind making it. I look for reasons to make it. A rugby match, a need for a bag of coffee, a friend visiting. I want to take them to these places; introduce them to these finds. To stand by and smile while they sip or taste or just experience the place, to see that look or hear that ‘ohhh’ of appreciation. Sure, there probably are grander places to take an out of town visitor, but these are the places that I want to go, because these are the places that make us unique.

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Drinking Local

Filed Under: Food, Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
February 1, 2012

This blog post from the Southern Oregon Wine Blog has got me to thinking. I like it when that happens. So let me say right off the bat, I think the post asks some good questions, primarily why don’t more restaurants have more local beverages? Not just wine, there is a whole lot of local going on in the beverage realm in the Northwest.  Why not take advantage of it?

Most places are very good about having local and regional beers on tap. You can walk into just about any restaurant in Portland and Seattle and find a decent selection of local taps going on. So much so that it comes as a surprise when I go into a place and they have the Bud, Bud light, Sam Adams taps lineup and nothing else.  Which means that either the regional brewers are better at placement or there is less resistance to local beer.

I suspect it is more the latter. The area has a fairly long standing reputation for really good local brews. Heck, I can think back quite awhile ago, two decades to be somewhat precise, when I dreamed of moving to Portland because of a brew pub my brother took me to. Seriously, until that time I had not been much of a beer drinker outside the usual university cheap pitcher of beer and greasy bar food realm. But more to the point, it gives me a data point on the timeline. Good beer has been a hallmark of the region for quite a while.

Winemaking has been going on in the region for a while too, but I think the recognition has been a bit slower in coming. This is purely anecdotal on my part, I admit. Partly, I think, it has been overshadowed by the glamor of our neighbors to the south in Napa. Heck, Napa overshadows other California regions in the minds of many. I can still hear the words of a friend who laughed at me just over a year ago because I went wine tasting around Livermore; and she lives in California. It seems to be a bit of a mindset, at least on the West Coast, that wine in this country comes from Napa.

And maybe there is another factor at play, and that is a bit of wine fear. Beer is a known quantity. Most people understand what a red ale or an amber ale or an IPA is. Servers have a good vocabulary for describing it – bitter, sweet, malty – words that are easy to connect in your head. IPA, lots of hops, a bit more on the bitter side. Espresso Stout, lots of malt, sweeter and dark. Great. Now try to describe a red blend. Or the difference between two Pinot Noirs. Not as easy. A lot of us tend to go with that known quantity. I am put in mind of another friend describing a big label out of California, she commented once that she liked them because they were so ‘consistent.’  She was confident that the brand’s Chardonnay was going to be the same year after year, as was the Cab, as was the Pinot Grigio.

Smaller labels, regional labels, aren’t looking to make the exact same wine year after year. A 2005 vintage is going to be noticeably different from a 2009. A good winery is going to be consistently good, but their wines are most likely not going to be consistently similar, not to mention that the same varietal might vary quite a bit from winemaker to winemaker (I talked a bit about this in a previous post). Most of us aren’t that comfortable with uncertainty, and so we throw the dice with wine by going with a name or a region we know. I am guilty of this. It wasn’t that long ago that if I wanted a Cab I was picking a name that had “Napa” after it, because, well, it was Napa . Now I tend to look for Eastern Washington, and increasingly I look for Southern Oregon. So maybe it is an education issue.

And finally, the newest beverage player on the team are the local craft distilleries. They perhaps have a bigger battle ahead of them. We have been bombarded for decades with flashy ads from big name producers. Stoli has become synonymous with Vodka. People are heard to order a” Chivas” and Tanqueray and tonic is an accepted request in a bar. I am pleased that my liquor cabinet, such as it is, has local booze in it (other than that rogue bottle of vermouth that is used only for cooking). But this is my interest and my passion. To someone not as interested that bottle of Portland 88 or Aviation Gin might be just a tad too adventurous, or at the very least an unknown entity.

But I have ranted on long enough. I’ll end with this thought – a chef I knew once told me that food that grows in the same ground naturally goes together. It makes sense to me; terroir isn’t just for wine. If I am going to have a great meal made from locally sourced meat and produce, why wouldn’t I have a locally sourced wine?

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Perspective

Filed Under: Food by Kathryne — Leave a comment
January 21, 2012

I’ve said it before, it is nice to have your passions validated or reinforced by others. Especially if those others are folks who don’t live here. This morning I got a bit of that validation from a call with Brother Geoff. We were talking about his trip here over the Thanksgiving holiday and how much he had enjoyed it, and how he was thinking of returning at some point in the near future. As he said, there is some really great food here and he is all about the food (and the wine and the rest of it were pretty good as well).

I can be narrowly focused about the food, about the wine, about the spirits, about the coffee that I have such easy access to. So much of it is so very good. So much of it is made with passion and commitment which really does shine through in the finished product. I am so very lucky to be here, to be in a place where I can talk with the people who grew the produce I am buying or who made the wine or distilled the spirits or roasted the coffee.  Often times I am one person or less removed from the product I am using. How often can we say that?

When I go to the supermarket and pick up say a can of beans or a package of rice, what is my remove? There is the person who grew the product, the person who processed the product, the person who packaged the product, the wholesaler, and the market where I buy it. Of all of those folks, I have an interaction with the cashier at the market. Not that this is a wholly bad thing, it really isn’t. I like that I can buy rice, or beans, or lentils or whatever at my local market. But there is something kind of satisfying, rather bonding, about having a connection with the producer of this item I am drinking or eating or cooking.

I think that started with me when I would buy my produce at Sosios in the Pike Place Market several years ago. These guys were a remove, but they knew the majority of the farmers that had grown the stuff. They would actually stop me from buying things they felt were out of season or maybe not up to snuff. They were the ones who would ask what I was buying those tomatoes for and if I said salad they steered me to that group, or if I said sauce they pointed me to the ones that were better for that use. They educated me. I missed it when I spent several years in San Diego (not that I couldn’t have gone to the infamous Chinos Farms, about a 45-minute drive up the coast…). It just wasn’t the same.

And maybe that is it, the education, that appeals to me about this region. I can talk to a chef in a small restaurant and get his or her perspective on a dish. I can talk to a winemaker and come to understand how the weather affects the wine that they make. I can chat with a distiller and learn how access to quality cucumbers changes each batch of gin that is made there. I am even intrigued when I am told that sorry, we can’t divulge exactly what grapes go into this wine, or what varieties of peppers are used in this vodka infusion. That alone gives it a personal touch somewhat akin to someone’s grandmother’s secret recipe for whatever.

I feel incredibly lucky to live here, to have been given this opportunity to learn about these things. That I have the opportunity to write about it here and in other places. That I have friends who feel the same way and love to talk about it. But it is nice, now and again, to have someone who’s opinion you value agree with you about it. It is good to get that outside perspective; helpful even. So yeah, I am passionate and sometimes narrowly focused. But I have good reason to be so!

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