Friday, August 13, 2010
We got our usual "a bit late" start today heading out for the first winery of the day,
Stoller Vineyards. This one was easy to find and somehow we arrived a few minutes early.
Here's the road up to the Stoller winery on the hill:
They have a "better than average view", I'm thinking:
Earlier
HOBers Dale and Allie Hunter had flown out from Tullahoma TN to join us for the last
two days of HOB 2010 -- and were waiting for us at Stoller when we arrived. Great to
see them!
We were hosted by Payden who was fun to work with. As we've said over and over
again, half the wine tasting experience is carried by the person behind the counter.
We liked their wines a lot -- Gael bought a bottle of Chardonnay and a bottle of Pinot Rose
for our daughter and son-in-law.
As usual, Fran was with us in spirit if not in body.
We learned a cool fact about the by-now-familiar Riedel Oregon Pinot glass.
The glass is perfect for someone who is only allowed a single glass of red wine a day. This glass holds an entire 750ml bottle of wine. Doubt that? We did; so Payden poured an entire bottle into the glass as a demo. It worked!
Then Payden introduced us to Ken Stoller (one of the owner's twin sons)..
.. who gave us an extensive tour
of their high-tech winery. It's on multiple levels and was fascinating to see the array of
stainless steel tanks.
It did throw us late in departing for Owen Roe but it was worth it.
Finding Owen Roe was a challenge. The GPS took us to their driveway but there was
no signage to indicate we were in the right place. Newsom had a map with an entirely
different address so off we went to find Owen Roe at a different place. We reached the
new place which was completely unmarked as well -- only to find that we had been in
the right place on our first attempt. Good news is we knew how to get back to it; bad
news is that we wasted nearly an hour going back and forth.
For some reason, Oregon wineries like to hide from their prospective customers.
It's not the first "can't find the $@%^&* winery!" experience of the trip.
We were hosted at Owen Roe by the lovely Rose..
.. who did a great job explaining and
pouring their wines.
By the end of the tasting we were so far behind schedule that we had
to call Carlton Cellars and beg off.
Since now we had some time, we had a picnic at the Champoeg State Park. Gael had picked up sandwiches, water and grapes at Safeway this morning (just as she had
yesterday), so we pulled two tables into the shade and ate and vegged for an hour. The
weather had turned quite warm today; at lunch it was in the mid-90s but with zero
humidity it wasn't bad at all.
In lieu of a nap (mostly)..
.. we headed off to Sineann Wines. Another cluster-f**k. The address they'd given us was a shared tasting room in Newburg. The young lady there, Hope, wasn't
expecting us and gave us directions to the winery. Another tour of Western Oregon
trying to find an address with no signage. We finally arrived at the Medici Vineyards which
turned out to cohabit with Sineann Wines.
Norman behind the bar poured nearly a dozen wines for us to try.
The winemaker,
Peter Rosback ..
.. was there working with a trio of wine tasters so we never got past a
"hello" with him. This winery uses glass stoppers exclusively (instead of corks) and we learned a lot
about why.
Bob bought a bottle of Abbodonde and Newsom and Beverly bought a case.
Too bad Gael was asleep (and standing up, at that)...
This is a particularly bad design for a table in a tasting room; ask Newsom..
Just after 5:00pm we started our 25 mile trek back to Salem for dinner. We agreed to go to the
hotel to freshen up and then walk to dinner at Da Vinci Ristorante..
.. which was only a couple of blocks away. Bob and Mary had dinner plans elsewhere with friends, but Steve and Allie, friends of Newsom and Beverly, joined us for dinner so we had eleven in attendance.
Steve is the fellow who sold Newsom his race car:
Check out the car (and Newsom's racing career) at Baker Motorsports.
Dinner was excellent; Chris had set us up in the semi-private dining room upstairs. The
menu was eclectic and varied and everyone enjoyed his/her meal immensely.
Just a two block walk and we're in for the night at 9:30p. Tomorrow is our last day  in Willamette
Valley.
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