Calling al Oregon Win-os! Need your recommendations!
 

I've had an on again off again trip to the NW and it's on again at this stage.

A very good friend of mine is coming in from France. We need to go to some wineries in Oregon - yes, need to, absolutely have to, this is NOT voluntary.

We need to drink our way down from Washington through Oregon to the Sonoma wineries, otherwise, there is no point in driving through Oregon. (Just kidding, Oregonians!) :)

Any recommendations from you will be mucho appreciated. Good wineries, not rot gut. This is a discriminating palette (not mine, my friend's!). Please help! TIA!

I have visited the Willamette Valley on several occasions and have a few recomendations of the favorites:

Chateau Benoit (prefect for your French connection) - Good wines, fabulous views.

Ponzi Bistro in Dundee - or even the winery itself north of the town

Argyle - just across the street from Ponzi Wine Bar/Bistro above

Patricia Green Cellars -
Belle Pente - Favorite wines in Oregon - need an appointment
Sokol Blosser is also a nice stop.

Also my favorite stop in Portland is Wines on Broadway. They pour about 20 different Pinot Noirs and they are all great selections...

Ohhh fun! My husband and I go to the north Willamette to taste pinot noir every year. This site will give you contact info for making appts:

http://www.yamhillwine.com/

Our favorites include-

J.K. Carriere (Jim trained in France), Lange, Domaine Drouhin Oregon (daughter of Drouhin of France), Erath Vineyards, Torii Mor Winery, and Ken Wright (which you can only taste out of the barrel as they completely sell out in futures every year!)

I will say that I am a little less fond of Argyle than most, I think they have gone down in quality and the additions of their screw caps (Ponzi too) and plastic corks is hard for me to accept.

The area is just wonderful and has amazing restaurants also like Tina's and the Joel Palmer House. If you are looking to stay a night I highly recommend the Youngberg Inn B&B. Spectacular in every sense!!!!

By the way, the style of most pinot noirs in Oregon (Burgandy in French) is different so it should be interesting for your friend to try.

Please don't stop at Duck Pond! Your friend will never let you live it down! Just a little tip ;)

I'll add Brick House to what's already been listed. Tastings there are by appointment only (except for Thanksgiving weekend), and bottle prices in the $40 range.

Adelsheim is nice as a middle-of-the-road choice. I've yet to have a screw-cap bottle, but have generally liked Argyle wines. Ponzi, on the other hand... maybe give their Bistro a try.

:-? Where's "Pinot PammerSF" when ya need her???

We still love her for WesMar and Merry Eddie! :-X:-X

Which area in Oregon are you interested in? I have lots of favorites! Then we can narrow it down a bit. I just spent six weeks in Oregon and found lots of good ones.

I also dined out 23 consecutive nights in a row in some pretty yummy places. ***kim***

Kim,

Maybe you can give me some suggestions for the Roseburg area. We will be in that area and Ashland next week and plan to do some wine tasting. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I have some great suggestions for those areas, Chico! I'll post tomorrow, for now it's nighty-night time! ***kim***

Wow! see what happens when you get all caught up reading about "gender confused mules" on Fodor's? Missed these wonderful responses.

Awesome! montyw, stormygirl, and beachbum: Thanks ever so much for the suggestions! Have downloaded the names and will set up a route.

Kal: you're so right! Where are you, PamSF? Maybe it's because of the typos in my header; sometimes my fingers move so fast they miss/transpose letters. That's supposed to be "all wine-os".

kim: my friend likes red and I like white, so fire away with your suggestions. Just your favorites will be fine. We can't possibly sample everything in one trip. See, you've just confirmed my suspicions: you don't really have a home. you just go and stay in the best hotels, eat at the best restaurants, and imbibe at the best vineyards. If you want to recommend some restaurants, that will also be very much appreciated!

Night, night! Sleep tight! :)

ttt

Calling Kimamom! Calling Kimamom! Come in Kimamom! :)

Chico, my favorite is the Abacela, www.abacela.com We stopped there on our way home from Astoria in August. I love their Granache and they also have an award winning Syrah. Very nice wines there.

Near Ashland, I really loved the Paschal winery, they make a really nice Pinot Gris that I had tasted at the Peerless. When we visited their winery, I was very impressed. It's gorgeous, I wished we would have had more time there.

We ended up purchasing a really nice Pinot Noir from Paschal. I hope you get to visit this one, but plan on a nice chunk of time to really enjoy it.

There was a samll group that was in the lounge, having a party while tasting the wines there. It looked really fun, but we had a sleeping DD in the car and still had over an eight hour drive ahead of us.

These would be my two favorites for this area. But while in Ashland, stop in the Chatuealin wine shop. They are very informative. Enjoy Ashland! Where you will you be dining? ***kim***

www.paschalwinery.com is the website. Another one we really wanted to visit, but didn't get a chance was Chateau Lorane. I loved some Marachal Foch that I picked up at the Wine Haus in Seaside, OR. Their winery looks really pretty, with a lake on the property.

Easytraveler, I some suggestions for you, also! Which part of OR will you be visiting? And where would you like restaurant suggestions?

Chico, do you like Mueller Thargau? I really enjoyed the Henry Estates MT that I first tried at Kalypso in Seaside, OR in August.

Abacela also makes a nice Viognier that I purchased, but they may not have that for tasting in the late fall months. ***kim***

Kim:
Thank you so much for the information re Paschal and Abacela wineries...we will be sure to visit both of them this week.

I haven't decided for sure on a restaurant for dinner (Saturday) in Ashland. Thinking of Chateaulin, Beasys or the Plaza Cafe. Any thoughts on these? Thanks to your previous recommendation we will be staying at The Ashland Inn & Suites.
I enjoyed your review of the Post Ranch in Big Sur. We haven't stayed there, but have visited. My brother who could stay anywhere, insists it is the best spot in the world.
Many thanks

We loved Chateaulin, we dined there during the holday season. It was so cozy and wonderful. We had the prix fixe menu that included two glasses of wine. There was a guitarist playing Christmas songs but the highlight of the evening was when the carolers walked in and sang to all of us.

It literally was like something out of a storybook. Brought a girl to tears, I like that kind of thing, ya know!

The Plaza is very nice, we usually book the jacuzzi suite that is great. The Ashland Springs Hotel is also very nice. We have stayed there many times and have always enjoyed it. I'm a bit intrigued with that place.

I would also recommend the Peerless, it is wonderful. Haven't tried Beasy's on the Creek, it's right next to the Plaza, but it isn't in the same league as Peerless or Chateaulin.

We had a bad experience at Cucina Biazzi, but the owner has offered us a complimentary meal. I recently heard from another diner that they too had a bad experience there, so I'm begining to wonder if the place is slipping.

Sierra Mar was quite the experience, one I'll never forget. I hope my hubby liked it, it was his BD present! (I kind of think he rather enjoyed it, also.) ***kim*** Feed the swans for me in Lithia Park! Will you be seeing a play?

Here I be..just home from work! I have only tasted wines in the Willamette Valley and those of the valley. Ponzi was a nice tasting room although I wasn't that impressed with their pinoteven though the reserve had gotten a 91 from Wine Spectator. We did eat at their bistro in Dundee and it was a nice stop. I'd say Google Broadley and see if they are open for tasting. This is,by far, the best pinot noir I've had from up in those parts.We just had a bottle of their 2002 Reserve Pinot Noir with grilled salmon and it was sublime. It was not as heavy as the California Pinots(which are actually my favorite) but it was great. It's about $30 a bottle. I have some down in the basement and will try to remember to check out the bottle for the address. I'll just list some of the others I can remember off the top of my head: Elk Cove Pinot Gris and WillaKenzie Pinot Gris are both very good in my opinion. I think Willakenzie is up in the Willamette part of the state.Both are less than $20 a bottle. For good old stuff(I know they are in the Willamette area I just don't remember if their tasting room is open) A to Z both their Pinot Gris(less than $12 a bottle) and Pinot Noir (less than $20 maybe even less than $15). I think the Willamette is supposed to resemble the climate conditions of Burgandy. I wholeheartedly agree to skip Duck Pond and I might skip Sokol Blosser as well
although the view from their tasting room is lovely.

Oh and stop in Portland for certain. There is some very good food to be had. I'd recommend Bluehour in a heartbeat!

Easytraveler, I was also going to recommend Broadley to you. Their 1994 Claudia Choice Pinot Noir scored a 97 with Wine Spectator, the highest score yet! I didn't see any Oregon wines over a 91, so this must be VERY good.

When we were at the Chateaulin wine shop, we asked for the best Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, we bought a Broadley Pinot Noir and a Raptor Ridge Pinot Gris. My DH drank all the Broadley before I could taste it (wine-hog, lol) but I'm assuming it was VERY good.

We took the bottle of the Raptor Ridge Pinot Gris to the Sanctuary in Chinook, WA for dinner and drank the whole thing! It was excellent. www.raptorridge.com and www.broadleyvineyards.com will save you from googling it, unless you still want more info on their wines.

Around the Portland area, go to www.winesonbroadway.com Portland has some cool wine bars. 750 ML, the Wine Down, Table, Noble Rot are all fun.

We also like the Willamette Valley vineyards, they have a beautiful winery, up on a hill on Enchanted Way. They make a really nice wine for the holidays that is good served warm in the chilly weather.

I'll keep thinking of more as they come to mind, but this is a good start for you! The Bluehour in Portland is excellent and Paley's Place was also top-notch.

Sorry it took so long to respond, we were in water polo tournaments for two days. The team came in 2nd out of 16 schools. Very intense, I lose 3lbs. each tournament, they are so exciting! My DD made two girls cry (they are really rough with her) and got ejected the last game twice, our best player was majored (3 ejections.)) The semi-final game went into sudden-death but we ended up winning and went to championships. Whew, I'm glad that's over! ***kim*** :)

I'd have to disagree with PamSF on the Elk Cove wines. A had a couple of glasses of their Pinot Gris in some restaurants we were in and they just didn't seem right. The Henry Estates also makes a decent Pinot Gris.

And Chateau Benoit is also nice. We tasted their pinots at the outlet malls, where they have a small wine shop there. I'm not sure where the winery is located, tho. ***kim***

www.chateaubenoit.com is the website. I checked my supply and we also purchsed a nice Muller Thurgau from Chateau Benoit. The Pinot Noir is already gone! LOL ***kim***

Here is Broadley information: Broadley Vineyards 25158 Orchard Tract Road Monroe, Oregon 97456
(541) 847-5934 FAX (541)847-6018
I'm assuming the following is their e-mail: [email protected]
I absolutely say you should try some of this stuff. The full on name is Broadley Vineyards Estate Pinot Nopir Illamette Valley Oregon 2002.

Regarding the Pinot Gris: I'd definitely try to taste at WillaKenzie.

whoops that's Willamette Valley.

Easytraveler, I just thought of another very famous Oregon wine. While we were in the Seaside, OR area for half of the summer, we would go into the Wine Haus frequently to sample their PNW wines there.

We tasted one that we loved, but didn't have a chance to visit the winery. It is called Big Fire by RStuart. They had very nice Pinots there. www.rstuartandco.com is the website.

I also read in the Pelican Post that this wine is featured in some of the north coast restaurants. I believe the Wayfarer in Cannon Beach may have it on their wine list there. Cheers! ***kim***

Easytraveler: will you be on the northern coast at all? I could recommend some very nice wine shops for tasting in that area. ***kim***

AWESOME!!!

Truly, truly awesome!!!

Thanks so much for all the wonderful references! I've set up a tentative itinerary and will definitely go by way of McMinnville. Found a wine tasting place there called "The Oregon Wine Tasting Room" where many different types of wine can be sampled. Most importantly, these include ones from vineyards that are normally closed. Has anyone tried this tasting room? Or can you recommend a better one?

PamSF: Great recommendations! Definitely! Definitely! I'll try the Broadley and maybe acquire a few bottles! :)

Kimamom: Great recommendations too! Will try at least one of the restaurants on your recommended list! Our itinerary is not quite set, so haven't selected the perfect one yet!

As for the north coast of California, yes, we will be headed down along the coast but will not be taking Highway 128. We're planning on a tour of the coastal towns up to Fort Ross and then we'll cut over to the Sonoma Valley.

Our journey so far is:
Columbia Gorge - views ((p))
McMinnville - drinks ((d))
Oregon Coast - views ((p))
N. Cal Coast - sunset ((r)) and redwoods
Sonoma - more drinks ((d)) ((d))
San Francisco - sleeping I-|

She returns home to Paris, drunk with scenery and wine! :)

For one evening, she wants to watch the sunset over the Pacific - from her bed! (I honor all strange requests!)

YEEEHAA! Oregon! Here we come!

Thanks a million! Fodorites are the bestest!

We've gone to the Tasting Room and it is good, I like going to the individual places better. If you use the link I posted you can call and make an appt. with almost any and all of the wineries. Almost all the wineries are closed except by appt. It's just that they are small and don't have a lot of people working, not exclusive or upity though so definately call and make a few appts. You'll be treated to private tastings, tours and more!! Cheers!

Hi easytraveler, I meant the north coast of OR, not CA! LOL There are some fun wine shops on the Northern Oregon coast if you will be in that area. ***kim***

stormygirl: Thanks for the website. Is it the Yamhill Wines one? I'll definitely try and make some appointments for just a select handful. Thanks again!

kimamom: We might go up to Astoria to start the Oregon coastal portion. I'd be open to going to any wineshops you might suggest. Already I'm getting this "How could Californian or Oregonian wines compare with our French ones?" Oooo lala! This IS a challenge, a slap on the face with a rubber wine bottle so to speak. Messieurs et Mesdames, our honor is at stake, Mon Dieu! :)

easytrveler- yes it's the Yamhill Assoc. site that I posted a above.

We've had a home in Astoria for over fifteen years, so I know this quaint, adorable little town full of culture and history like my backyard. www.oldregon.com is a website for you!

The Wine Shop on 10th Street is a new wine shop that where you can sample many PNW wines. It's a beautiful little shop, located downstairs on 10th, just follow the signs. There's a very nice tea house that just opened right next door. Windsor House of Tea is there.

If you and your friend like spas, the Columbia River Day Spa is very nice. I'll give you some great restaurant suggestions for Astoria: The Ship Inn for fish and chips, The SilverSalmon Grille for salmon, The Cannery Cafe and Fulio's for the best Italian food on the coast. Peter Roscoe has done an excellent job this this place since his move from Portland.

There is also the Shallon Winery, www.shallon.com which has some very interesting unique wines there.

In Cannon Beach, the Wine Shack is a nice place and in Seaside, go to the Wine Haus, very informative owner and LOTS of PNW wines there to sample.

If you go over the bridge, it's not as scary as it looks, go to the Sanctuary in Chinook, WA for some wonderful food or little further up the road is the 42 Street Cafe with the best wild salmon around! Always crowded and always excellent. Enjoy Astoria, we're re-locating there in three years after our youngest is graduated from high school.

***kim*** :)

www.thecellaron10th.com is the website for the shop in Astoria. I hope you get to go to the Maritime Museum, we have been asked by the curator to display "our goods" in the museum for the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial. It's an honor to be able to be a part of this historic event!

Thought of another great place to eat. Schooner's Bistro on 12th Street, right across from the Hotel Elliott. They have a really good sea scallop and linguini there and a REALLY nice Sauv Blanc from New Zealand that I really like. Check out the Peter Pan Market & Deli for some really good sandwiches and the best baked goodies in town. Their carrot cake and rocky road fudge squares are really yummy!

Where are you staying in Astoria? Or are you just passing through? ***kim***

My recomendations for Willamette wineries were based on a few things!
1: MY favorite wines (thus Belle Pente, J. Christopher, Patricia Green )
2: Favorite Wineries for view atmosphere etc...not necessarily the wines! Thus Sokol Blosser, Chateau Benoit
3: Easy stops along the way i.e. Food and wine - Thus Ponzi Bar in Dundee and then just across the street Argyle.

All of the suggestions here have been great. Be sure to check out the Pinot Gris from the various places as they can be outstanding - I am a pinotphile and find the bigger name producers to not have my style.

We have visited on both the Thanksgiving and Memorial day open house weekends as well as several other regular weekends - if you get the chance go during the open house weekends.

Make sure to find at least one place where you get an appointment as the experience will be different than the fast serve counter :)

Hello from Portland :)
The weather is perfect, 70s and sunny and dry. Get here asap LOL
So far, every Pinot Noir that I have tasted is good!
Kim, we had lunch around your hotel Riverplace today, it was very nice.
Portland is Very Nice ~ttfn

Glad you're enjoyingPortland! I hope the weather stays nice for you. We're headed over that way in November for several days! ***kim***

Kimamom: Now it's not a choice any more - we'll just HAVE to go by the North Coast of Oregon! :) Thanks a mil for your many suggestions! Guess we'll just have to plan another Oregon trip after this one - can't possible go to AlL those places in one trip!

montyw: Thanks for your further elucidation! I'll take your comments into consideration when picking and choosing for this trip. :) I find that individual opinions on Fodors are a lot of objective and accurate than even the guidebooks, so thanks so much for sharing!

Scarlett - welcome to the Left Coast! Seems like the sun came out just for your and the Yankee! Must be lovely in Oregon this week! Have fun!

Have I said this before? You all are AWESOME! Thanks again!

To all of you who gave me such wonderful suggestions: thanks a million! We had a fantastic trip!

Here's the trip/wine report. The sun was shining mightily - we could not have had better weather!

We drove from Seattle to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia where we serendipitously ran into their 2004 Fall Wine Festival. Did some wine tasting and I found their wines were a bit too acidic (bitter) for me. Apparently it's the amount of sunshine they get. Less sun, more acidic. However, they do make great ice wines, where the grapes have to picked when they are frozen. Very sweet dessert wines, the ice wines.

The views were absolutely fantastic. Of all the wine regions I've visited, these were among the most spectacular vineyard views I've ever seen. The vineyards on the east side of Lake Okanagan (Narramata) were some of the best. If you go, try to catch a glimpse of their Loch Ness monster, the Ogopogo. He's cute. :)

We then drove straight down to Portland but were not able to do much in Portland as we met up with an old friend and spent tons of precious time just catching up - yakkety yak!

Then we drove from Portland the next morning and spent some time on the "Yamhill Route". We stopped off at the Ponzi Tasting Room where I was able to pick up a couple of bottles of Broadley, although this was not on their wine tasting list. The Ponzi Tasting Room had some select wines from other vineyards, so if you can't find a good wine anywhere else, try their tasting room.

While at the new Roth Supermarket in McMinnville buying a few necessities, we ran into their wine steward, James Harp, who proved to be highly knowledgeable about Oregon wines. On his recommendations, I picked up a case of different wines (10% discount with case). I highly recommend James to anyone passing through McMinnville. He mentioned that they have wine tasting every Friday and Saturday.

We also stopped off at Sokol Blosser with their fantastic treehouse-like views. Met some men who had flown their own planes to Oregon from diverse points in the US and they were talking about Mt St Helens and its eruptions, thus, I can't remember a thing about Sokol Blosser wines! :)

Spent the night at the SeeVue at Yachats, where my friend could see the sunset from her bed - remember that request?! Also it could not be an ordinary place with lots of houses all around, it had to be "isolated" and "by itself". SeeVue satisfied all those requirements. Thank goodness! Not expensive at all and the views were terrific. Very weatherbeaten from the outside, but very clean on the inside and each room is themed "The Princess and the Pea", etc. We stayed in the Crow's Nest.

Then we drove along the coast all the way and hiked Redwood National Park and Point Reyes. Everything was breathtakingly beautiful! We have lots of pictures of redwoods and of sunsets! We also spent a lot of time trying to find the "best" All-American cheesecake, pumpkin pie, etc. Things that she can't get in France!

Last day was spent in Sonoma County wine country, but plenty of time spent shoppingshoppingshopping! She wanted "a digital camera". I thought it was going to be one of those small jobbies, turned out she opted for a BIG multifunction one costing over $1000. No point and shoot for her! Since I tend to drop my camera on each trip, I don't dare look at anything over $400 - LOL!

So much time was spent on camera shopping that we had to dash to Chateau Soverain, then to Ferrari-Carano, and lastly to Rodney Strong and J. At J, we had the paired tastings of food and wine. She liked the elegance of the simple letter "J" on the bottles. Being Parisian and once-upon-a-time in fashion, this comment must count for something! She also liked their Brut and their Viognier which were being tasted that day. Aha! A chink in the solid French armor? Could she possibly think those wines were "good"? :)

We then drove to San Francisco where I dropped her off at another friend's house. We were offered more wine - this time, Napa wines, along with a good dinner and great views of SF Bay. We said our good-bys in a haze of wine perfumes.

My thanks to all of you again for your excellent, excellent recommendations! We couldn't do it all, have to save something for the next trip!

Came back with three cases of wine - wine list to follow in next post!

Thanks again! :)

Thanks for reporting back. I'll be interested to hear of your friend's comparison of Oregon pinot to French burgundy.

List of wines acquired from this trip:

OREGON
1) At the Ponzi Tasting Room
Broadley Estate Pino Noir 2002

2) At Sokol Blosser vineyards
Sokol Blosser Pinot Noir 2001

3) At Roth's Supermarket (James Harp
's recommendations)

Willakenzie Pinot Noir 2002
Willakenzie Estate Pinot Gris 2003
Ch Benoit White Reisling 2002
Erath Pinot Noir Reserve 1999
Airlie Muller Thurgau 2001
Airlie Pinot Gris 2001


4) Picked up somewhere (maybe at the winery)
Bethel Heights Pinot Noir 2001

Could not find Big Fire by RStuart anywhere! :(

OKANAGAN VALLEY (Penticton) BRITSH COLUMBIA
All these wines were purchased at the vineyards:

Dry Creek Merlot 2003
Gehringer Auxerrois 2003
Lake Breeze Pinot Blanc 2003
Lake Breeze Pinot Noir 2002
Stag's Hollow Sauvignon Blanc 2003
Tinhorn Merlot 2001
Wild Goose Pinot Gris 2003

OKANAGAN ICE WINES
Lang's Ice Wine Reisling 2000
Tinhorn Kerner Icewine
Wild Goose Black Brant 2003

Best value: Tinhorn
Most colorful label: Wild Goose
Best views: (can't remember! They were all great!)
On the westside: Mission Hill, Sumac Ridge, Tinhorn Creek, Gehringer Brothers
On the eastside: Lang, Hillside, Lake Breeze
Interesting wines: Elephant Island -Narramata (wines made from other fruits and none from grape)

In Penticton, there is an official site, like a wine visitors' convention, that is very informative and carries a lot of the different wines of the region.

I only scratched the surface of the wineries in both Oregon and BC and look forward to more visits!

Cheers all! ((d))

Sounds like a great time! RStuart Big Fire can usually be found at the Wine Haus in Seaside, OR. They have a very nice selection of PNW wines at great prices.

Glad you were able to try the Broadley Pinot Noir, we just took a bottle to dinner at our favorite restauant where we live.

Chateau Benoit is also one of my favorites. They have a small deli and wine shop at the outlets in Woodburn where stop on our way over to Portland. ***kim*** (~~)

Erath Pinot Noir Reserve 1999.....Excellent choice! Love this wine, enjoy!!!

Your post makes me very excited for our annual thanksgiving weekend in north willamette!!! Just a month until new cases of wine are bought for our cellar. Yeah!!!!

stormygirl, we picked up a bottle of Erath Pinot Noir at the Safeway in Astoria and were underimpressed. Is their Reserve much, much better? Maybe I'll sample some at the Wine Haus or the Wine Cellar on 10th when we come over next month. ***kim*** (~~)