In wine, truth. And the truth is that we visited only five, count them, five wineries today on our tour of Willamette Valley. We had pre-booked a personal wine tour with Mike of Wine Tours Northwest so neither of us would have to drive during a day of wine tasting. We wanted to visit three wineries recommended by Carol and her daughter, Sarah. Mike was one of only a couple tour companies that would let us pick our wineries. He also suggested a fourth winery when we initially booked, then we added a fifth as we were touring today. In order of our visit we stopped first at Dobbs Family Vineyard, one of Mike's suggestions which ended up being our favorite. Next was Argyle which Sarah recommended for their sparkling wines. We agree that their sparkling wines were better than their still wines. Mike took us to lunch at Farm to Fork, a small restaurant that locally sources their ingredients. We both enjoyed our lunches especially the brioche bread used for our sandwiches. The next winery was our last minute addition, Stoller Vineyards with a very nice view overlooking the vineyards, (see photograph). The last two wineries were both recommended by Carol: Willakenzie and Penner Ash. Both were very good.
Willamette Valley is noted for their great Pinot Noirs, and we sampled many of them today. But we also found some nice un-oaked Chardonnays, a Grenache Blanc, and a Gamay Noir.
We had a great time and Mike was very knowledgeable about the wineries, the wine makers, and the area. Oh, and we bought a few bottles to ship home. No surprise there, eh?
3 comments:
So, who are these two guys you met??
this Gamay Noir guy,and his friend Grenache Blanc. They sound like furriners. Are they?
Me thinks they are Oregonians.
That sounds like a perfect day!
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