Oregon Wine Trip

[William P]

As many know Oregon’s Willamette Valley produces some fine wines. I spent four days last week visiting a few wineries and thought I’d give you a short summary of the wineries at which I tasted.

There were two wines that really stood out. I’m talking Grand Cru quality. The first was Lingua Franca. It’s owned by Larry Stone and David Honig and the winemaker is Thomas Savre, who was educated in Burgundy. Dominque Lafron is also involved in the venture. It is situated in the Eola Hills

The wine that really grabbed me was not their pinot noir, though it was very good, the standout were the Chardonnays. This is how the winery describes it:

Chers Amis is a special Wine Club offering that is produced in very limited quantities. This is a wine of great intensity from a neighboring site to Lingua Franca Estate that expresses a distinctive mineral characteristic. The resulting wine has a focused, intense character that feels light and pure, finishing with refreshing gunflint, lemon, and crunchy mineral nuances. It has weight but it is vibrant, filled with energy.

It was a beauty!

The second is a very small winery called Rose Arrow. It is partnership that includes the ownership of Seven Springs Property, some local money with some guidance from Liger-Belair of La Romanee. As I understand the philosophy, with the help of “wine geologist”, they map the entire vineyard. Then they use the map to decide which blocks goes into what pressing. The point being a true expression of the soil type. I tasted two wine where the plots were 10 feet apart and they were very different though vinified in an identical manner. The wines are pricey but a beautiful expression of the earth.

So now for the very close seconds. It no particular order:
Archery Summit, pricey but beautiful pinots! Dunee Hills.
St. Innocent, new location and facility but still great.
Walter Scott, wonderful pinots and chardonnays. Eola Hills
Domaine Drouhin. Their non-domaine label is RoseRock and the chardonnay was every bit as good as the Drouhin label. Drouhin’s pinots were also exceptional. Dunee Hills.

The next level is very good.
Ken Wright Winery. Ken is a good wine maker, I just don’t like the commercial thrust of his winery sales staff. Carlton.
Flaneur Winery. A very small winery in Carlton. Great pinots and Chardonnays.
Failla Winery. This new Oregon winery has moved in the location left by St. Innocent. Ehern Jordan now is splitting his time between Sonoma and Willamette Valley. The wines were fine, but I suspect they will be much better after experiencing a few vintages from Oregon grapes. Eola Hills.

Good level
Mayasara Winery. Mayasara is a beautiful winery. Maybe you know it by its vineyard name Momtazi. The wines are good, but go just to see the vineyard. McMinnville AVA.
Bjornson Winery. This winery has many wines and many are not worth mentioning. However Edward was a nice wine.
White Rose Winery. Beautiful location with sweeping views of the Valley. The wines were a little heavy for me but still well made.

OK but not my style
Sokol Blosser. This winery has been around since the beginning of the Willamette ascent. It is a nice winery structurally but the wines I tasted were a bit over-extracted.

[stefan]

Nice report, Bill. I belong to the St. Innocent and D. Drouhin clubs and buy quite a bit of Ken Wright locally. I like Archery Summit, but their wines, as you noted, are over priced. I will look for Chers Amis as my quest for a white Burgundy substitute continues.

A couple of things give me pause: Evening Land got an exclusive on grapes from the Seven Springs vineyard and cannot produce a good wine from them even with Dominique Lafon as the consulting winemaker. Seven Springs was Mark Vlossak's flagship wine before Evening Land's made its deal.

[William P]

Stefan, what you say it true, but I do not believe that EL is making the wine decisions nor is his winemaker. Still, this is a young project and we will see how they develop. Also at this date, RA does not purchase any grapes from Evening Land vineyards. BTW I did buy a bottle of Seven Springs from Walter Scott. Enjoy your present journey to the middle east.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

Grapes in Hilo had Willamette Valley Vineyards (I assume this is the same as your Willamette Valley) "Whole Cluster" pinot bottling last year and it was really good. I think it is their entry level bottling and is variously sourced (i.e. not necessarily from their vineyards or even leased/controlled vineyards). We'll probably never see it here again, which is too bad. It was like $20.

[William P]

Actually Willamette Valley Vineyards is now a neighbor to the new St. Innocent location. Occasionally you see it at Costco and it's usually carried by Safeway. And you are correct that bottling is their entry level wine and not bad for $20.

Bill

Coming over in October, maybe a lunch is possible, unless you want to come up to Holualoa for dinner.

[Nicklasss]

I like wines from Oregon. A friend of mine recommended me an orange Pinot Gris from Oregon. I'll look for it.

Quality/price ratio is very fair I guess. So William, if I ever go to Oregon, and I'll go one day, I will remember your Grans Crus and other recommendations. Say hello to Linda.

Nic

[Claret]

Nice trip, wish I was there!

Yes Oregon Chardonnay is really good. Hard to beat Walter Scott. St. Innocent will always be special to me.

Bill, how would you rate the PN vintages of 14-17 with respect to high or preferably lower ripeness levels and overall quality? Not having tasted newer vintages lately my take on 14 is bigger style and they can be good, 15 not tasted-hottest vintage on record, 16 small sample but good, 17 untasted.

[AKR]

Sounds like a good trip. We drove through there last summer, and I had a few local PN while commuting between PDX/SMF.

When we went it was right after the horrible fires and it looked like something out Dresden circa 1944 all along the highway. The whole air was heavy with smoke and our eyes burned. (Luis Guitterez would have identified it as a 'fire day')