Thursday, August 12, 2010
We met this morning at 9:15a (after breakfast) and headed out to our first winery for today,
Beaux Freres Vineyard & Winery. It took nearly an hour to get there from Salem so we were our usual fifteen minutes late. Seems the estimate provided by the GPS is
a bit short of reality so from now on we'll add fifteen minutes or so to the estimate.
We added our third U-turn to the trip trying to find the winery which has no sign out front
and is in a pretty nondescript looking building. But we got there.
We were met by Rebecca ..
..who offered a vineyard tour before tasting which we elected to do. What we didn't know
was that it involved a half-mile trek up a gravel road at about a 30% uphill grade to get to
the vineyard.
Remember Beverly is in a walking boot as her broken foot heals.
No one had any real trouble doing it, but even though the temps were in the low 70s, we were all
pretty sweaty by the time we reached the top.
Like all Oregon vineyards, this one is completely organic and bio-dynamic. They never
irrigate nor apply any chemicals. Cool.
Heading back, we picked a few blackberries for energy:
We slid back down the hill to the winery/tasting room where we tasted their Pinot Noir.
Gael bought a bottle (we couldn't afford more than one at $90...) and then discovered a
$20 per person tour/tasting fee which no one mentioned in any conversation before.
Kinda took the bloom off the rose (grape off the vine?) ...
The tour added enough time to throw us late (seeing a pattern here?) for our 11:30a
appointment at the nearby Brick House Vineyards.
The tasting room was a collection of old and odd country items:
Alan, our host..
.. could not have been nicer and we really enjoyed the wines and his company. I bought a bottle of their
delicious Chardonnay for Gael (She really goes for the "Marlboro Man" type..) We also met Paul Tunnell, the owner and winemaker..
..and enjoyed our (brought with us) sandwiches beneath their grape arbor. Another beautiful day
to be outdoors in Oregon.
Then, off to visit Patricia Green Cellars. We were hosted by Jim Anderson who, together with Patricia Green, owns the winery.
He's a low key guy but quickly
discovered that we knew what we were about, so he brought out eleven wines to taste,
each one better than the one before and each with good price-points.
And then Jim disappeared for a moment and came back with a big wine thief to let us taste three
different wines from the barrel. We fell in love with the 2009 Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir
which won't reach the bottle until September. Soon thereafter several cases will make
their way to Atlanta, Louisville TN and Charleston SC!
And if that weren't enough, then he brought out a bottle from their winery library and we
tasted their 2006 Pinot Noir which shows why laying down a great wine makes it an
excellent one. Of course, none was for sale. 
We had such a great (and long) time with Jim that we were forced to cancel our planned
visit to Lange Estate Winery. Well, another reason is that we couldn't find it. At all. This gave us a bit of breathing room (and time to gas up) before our last winery of the day, Erath Winery.
Erath is a well known, high volume Pinot Noir producer and the setting was just lovely.
You can just see Mt. Hood..
Lauren claimed our tasting fees..
.. and then set us up on their sheltered patio to self-serve ourselves six of their wines.
We found them good but not great though their prices were among the lowest we've seen in Oregon.
Back into the vans for our half-hour trip back down to Salem and dinner at the Best Little
Roadhouse.
This is a very popular family restaurant. We were seated on the
patio and had some excellent and reasonably priced food, beer and martinis.
Not a single glass of wine was
consumed! Once we were done, we drove the few blocks back to the Grand Hotel and
turned in for the night even though it was only 8pm. Bill, Bob and Newsom returned to
last night's restaurant, Prudence Uncorked, to retrieve Bill's credit card and
Newsom's glasses case (and also to catch another glimpse of the bartender Katie (don't
ask)).
Dale and Allie Hunter will join us tomorrow morning as we leave the hotel at
9:30a for Stoller Vineyards, the first winery of Friday's HOB Wine Tour 2010.
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