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It's Time for a "Pink Me Up" on Saturday, August 7, 2010! | |||||
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Last of the total of 48 tickets are available!! No unpaid tickets are being held. Purchase online at: http://abbeyroadfarm.com/agrivino/Aug7.html | |||||
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June 2010
June 18, 2010
June 14, 2010
May 8, 2010 Winemaker Dinner with Joe Dobbes
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Lenne' Estate Stop Hit the Spot
[originally posted 4/4/2010] On a recent cold, rainy and windy Saturday I muscled out of my warm and cozy house for a little wine touring. I had the foresight to head out Highway 240 from Newberg toward Yamhill for a stop at Lenne' Estate. One lone car was in the parking lot as I pulled into it on this gray day. Heading into the tasting room, a couple were heading out -- aimed for lunch at Jory at The Allison and hopefully near the fireplace, they said. Winemaker Steve Lutz, the sole person in the tasting room, greeted me and my husband warmly and offered up his $5 pinot tasting. We three sipped, spoke of terroir and bud break and checked out the soil sample prominently displayed. Lenns predominate soil type is peavine, Steve told us, a nutrient poor soil which produces small clusters and berries. The resulting wines have a concentrated mid palate and long finish, with black cherry and mineral components in the nose.
In no time at all the day was warmed and lightened by the tasting of these wonderful offerings and I was glad I'd ventured out. Lenne' Estate are producers of handcrafted, estate grown Oregon Pinot Noir. This Oregon Pinot Noir comes from their small 20.9 acre vineyard near the town of Yamhill, Oregon, in the Yamhill-Carlton District. Their winemaking style is minimalist, taking advantage of the profound flavors produced by this unique Pinot Noir vineyard. Lenne' Estate's first two Pinot Noirs were released under the LeNez label and are sold out. They have released their fourth Pinot Noir under this label, the 2007 LeNez Pinot Noir which is 100% estate fruit. They have also released the 2007 Lenn Estate label, the Karens Pommard Pinot Noir and just sold out of the Jills 115 Pinot Noir under this label. All the wines under the Lenn Estate label represent the best barrels from the vineyard in each vintage. We went home with a 2007 Lenne' Estate label and a newly released 2008 Lenne' Estate Sad Jack 777, which I found to be the most interesting of the offerings. We took the 2007 Lenne' Estate label to dinner that night, meeting friends at the new SubTerra Restaurant in Newberg. www.subterrarestaurant.com (Which was excellent and reasonable.) Lenne' Estate's shallow soil, dense spacing and diverse clones (Pommard, 115, 114, 777 and 667) all lend to the fine wine produced on this beautiful vineyard. The tasting room architecture is French inspired and a joy to behold on the Estate hilltop. Can't wait to come back when the sun is shining; I'll be sitting on the deck and back for some more exceptional pinot noir. www.lenneestate.com
Win a Willamette Valley wine country getaway
[originally posted 3/4/2010] Win a Willamette Valley wine country getaway! 2 nights @AllisonInnSpa plus $250 gift certificate. Supports @Ecotrust. http://ow.ly/1bnL7
Link to: http://www.willamettewines.com/raffle_tix.shtm
Wacky Wayne Wows
www.abeautifuloregonwinetour.com
503-616-1918
March 20, 2010 Wine-inspired Dinner Announced
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Crazy for "no wood".
[originally posted 12/14/2009] I'm always hunting and sipping to find low oak or no oak Chardonnay. My new personal obession is Chehalem's 2008 INOX Chardonnay. $19 Check out the 'quotes" below; I am only one of many fans. Grab some dungeness crab and this bottle! Fabulous food Chardonnay. From their site:
INOX takes its name from the abbreviation of the French word for stainless steel, inoxydable. The wine was created differently from most Chardonnay you've had. We think we've succeeded in expressing the crisp, steely, and fruit-rich side that we love about some Old-World Chardonnays. What makes this possible is the use of exclusively Dijon clones, exceptionally well suited to Oregon's cool climate and exhibiting a richness that does not depend on oak. Entirely tank fermented, without malolactic fermentation or lees contact, INOX screams of the hallmarks of a cool climate-brightness, pinpoint fruit, and explosive aromas and flavors. We intend INOX for a full range of use, from hot weather chilling to elegant dinner complements.
The Vineyards
Fruit comes primarily from our Estate Vineyards, predominantly Stoller, with a measure of Corral Creek. Dijon clones 76, 95, and 96 are fermented together for a fully complemented wine. The estate vineyards are planted on two different soil types: Stoller on Jory and Corral Creek on Laurelwood. In 2008, we also bought Dijon fruit from some of our Willamette Valley neighbors: Gran Moraine, Banks, Temperance Hill, Thistle, Elvenglade, Willamette Valley Vineyards, Roserock, and Willakia.
The Vintage
The 2008 vintage saw one of the coolest growing seasons on record, with 1,976 degree-days of heat during the growing season, versus the average for the last twelve years of 2,212 degree-days, and second only to 1,968 degree-days in 1999. This vintage resembles 1999 in the counterintuitive ripeness of the crop we finally harvested, and both vintages showed very good acid levels and excellent, full ripeness at lower sugars. Look for both whites and reds to excel this year, with very agreeable wines, rich and complex from release to old age. Lower croploads, almost half-crop in nature, also similar to 1999, brought some of this richness, with harvest dates that were two-plus weeks later than average but not experiencing significant rainfall.
Winemaker's Comments
Four Fun Days
[originally posted 10/12/2009] Friends from the LA area, who had never been to Oregon wine country before, spent four days in the Willamette Valley with hubby and me this last Thursday through Sunday. The weather was dry, sunny and bright; harvest was in full swing everywhere and other than one participant getting a yellow jacket bite in the butt -- all was perfect! Our agenda looked like this:
Thursday -- The friends flew into Portland, and drove to Dundee for lunch at Dundee Bistro. Then we got everyone settled at a wonderful house rental in Carlton. The afternoon was spent at Soter Vineyards for a private tasting and presentation by the winemaker. On the way in to Soter, we were flagged down by Owner Tony Soter, who was working with others to load up sheep ("the lawnmowers") from the property. Awesome. You won't see this in Napa. Sunset and pinot was shared with good Carlton friends at Rivenwood Vineyards. The hilltop view and setting sun was spectacular. Their home is at the top of the hill in the photo (left). Rough! Dinner that evening in McMinnville at Bistro Maison was excellent and our CA friends raved about the salmon preparation
Friday -- Our Dundee AVA Day. A breakfast start at Farm to Fork in Dundee, followed by a wonderful tasting at Archery Summit. Followed by an incredible three-course lunch and paired tastings at Winderlea Wines in the Dundee Hills. Cannon fire went off regularly across the vineyards as winemakers fought to keep the birds from eating the harvest. Many vineyards were being picked this weekend. Then another private tasting at Domaine Serene, where we arranged for a special bottle of "Grace" pinot noir. After a little rest for the afternoon, dinner at Tina's Restaurant in Dundee completed this perfect day.
Saturday -- Our Ribbon Ridge AVA Day. Breakfast at our home in Carlton for guests included fresh fruit offerings and baked goodies from the Red Fox Bakery in McMinnville. Next on tap was a tour and tasting at Trisaetum Winery, where we chatted with the owner and the winemaker and tasted fresh cold-press pinot noir juice. Cherry pie taste was yummy and portends of a great 2009 harvest. We watched the sorters working hard, but happily, and then toured the art gallery in the tasting room. One of our SoCal friends is an artist, so this was a nice connection. A few miles further up the Ribbon Ridge Road found us at our appointment at Styring Vineyards, where we got a look-see into the fermenting room (where the butt bite resulted on the way out!) A local picnic purveyor delivered a hand-selected lunch for our group, which we enjoyed and shared with the winemaker's family. Powering on down the hill toward Carlton again, we had a quick stop at Adelsheim Winery -- mostly for view and history, as our pinot noir palates were pooped! I had recently had a wonderful 2008 Pinot Blanc at an Adelsheim winemaker's dinner, so I had to score a couple of bottles of that. It's simply wonderful with seafood. Our last stop of the day was at Carlton Winemaker's Studio for a tasting of the Brittan 2006 Basalt Block Pinot Noir (which had been a much-enjoyed bottle at sunset Friday night). Our guests wanted to score some to ship home and they happily also came away with some 2007 Basalt. Robert and Ellen Brittan were kind enough to pour for us and to visit for a generous amount of time between their daunting harvest activities that day. We felt special indeed.
Dinner Saturday night -- which really demands an entire post -- was at the Chef's Table at Jory Restaurant in the Allison Inn and Spa in Newberg. This is a private room for eight people where you can simply order off of the menu or you can have Chef Nathan create specific plates for you. You can also say: "suprise me". This is THE dining experience. We did a mix of options. Chef Nathan brought in a huge portebello mushroom (never eat a mushroom bigger than your head?) and then made magic with it for one offered course. Jory is just an unmatched dining opportunity in the area.
Sunday -- Found us flagging a bit, but the good coffee, excellent breakfast and breads at the Crescent Cafe in McMinnville perked us up for the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museums for a tour. The husbands were extremely happy at this point of the morning. We ladies browsed the offerings in the shops and left the men to tour the Spruce Goose, SR71 Blackbird and other exhibits.
An awesome tour with great friends on a perfect fall Willamette Valley weekend!
Lovely white fruits, flowers, and spice, locked in a lushly rich Chardonnay, this INOX continues the long-lived, perfectly balanced food wine weve made now for seven vintages. There is jasmine, pear, mineral oil, kiwi, lime, vanilla, pineapple, fruit candies, and stone, suspended by a tension of ginger, minerality, and acid. The wine is both brightly acid-driven and richly emollient, finishing dry and bracing.
Quotes
Wine Enthusiast, December 2009, Paul Gregutt: 90. INOX is Chehalem's unoaked Chardonnay, and Chardonnay doesn't get any more transparently fresh. Flavors of flower water, mineral, kiwi, lime, fennel and bracing minerality deliver pure pleasure. A great food wine.
Portland Monthly, September 2009, Oregon's 50 Best Wines, Cond Cox: #41. Firm green-apple acidity and not a whiff of oak. Virgin Chardonnay.
Wine Advocate, August 2009, Jay Miller: 88. Baking spice and apple aromas, a dry, crisp, vibrant mid-palate, good balance, and a lengthy, refreshing finish.
Unoakedchardonnay.com: Delicious! Sometimes a smooth unoaked is just the right thing for the moment. Sometimes it's a crispy unoaked that hits the spot. As presented in 2007, this vintage continues to have zing. Refreshing. A definite fruit presence, but not sugary-sweet. It's just right... we know by the labels that the makers view their product as a work of art. We agree: it's lovely.
Paulgregutt.com, August 25, 2009, Paul Gregutt: Chardonnay doesnt get any more transparently fresh. Flavors of flower water, mineral, kiwi, lime, fennel and bracing minerality deliver pure pleasure. A great food wine.
NPR (National Public Radio), June 13, 2009, The Splendid Table featuring Ray Isle: One of my favorites and one of the ones that started this trend in the US toward unoaked chardonnay...lovely sort of spicy melon-pear flavors and what I think of as a tongue-tingling texture. It really brings your tongue to live instead of sitting on it like an elephant. One of the models of the form. It's a really wonderful wine. To listen...
Wine Review Online, June 23, 2009, Thinking Outside the Barrel, Robert Whitley: I had to go to Oregon's Willamette Valley to find an example of oak-free New World Chardonnay that satisfied the Chablis craving within me. Chehalem's 2008 INOX is made from estate vineyards that were planted a few years back to the Dijon clone of Chardonnay, which is well-suited for cool-climate Chardonnay production. From the first sip I knew this was the Hold Grail of un-oaked New World Chardonny...
New York Times, July 29, 2009, Eric Asimov: Chardonnay producers have already been moving away from overt oakiness for several years. I expect to see even more chardonnays using no-oak marketing terms like naked, virgin, inox, metallico and the more plain-spoken unoaked.