NewbE

This August we made our third visit to Portland and the Willamette Valley, this time taking a few days away from wine tourism to spend time in the city. We've always gone in late October, so it was nice to see gorgeous weather instead of chilly rain (although we always enjoyed that, too, as a change from Florida); we were lucky to miss most of the terrible heatwave they had!

In Portland, we stayed at the Hotel Lucia, which was very nice indeed. Staff were friendly and helpful, beds were comfy, it's well located, has a bar/restaurant, and offers a daily craft beer happy hour in the lobby.

We visited several gardens and enjoyed them all thoroughly: the Chinese Garden, which is small and exquisite and in the city center; and the Rose Test Garden and the Japanese Gardens, which are walkable from the city center (we walked), up on a big hill, and really impressively large and beautiful. The Rose Test Garden is free and really lovely, even for non-gardeners such as ourselves. It was established in 1917 to preserve rose species threatened by WWI, and it is truly amazing, the variety of colors, shapes, sizes and scents...I don't know when it's at its peak, but in mid August it was stunning.

We also just walked around the city and along the river, which Portlanders are proud to tell you is now clean and useable after decades of pollution from paper mills and other industry. And of course we stopped at Powell's City of Books, where I could spend days and where I feel a small piece of me lives, always.

And perhaps my favorite thing we did is go to the farmers market at Portland State University. Now, we are starved for farmers markets in my part of Florida, but I can't imagine anyone not being wowed. The fruit! The veg! The mushshrooms! The cheeses, breads, fishes, meats... We bought berries to eat as we walked, and Pine State biscuits with shitake mushroom gravy for brunch, and mushrooms and Rainier cherries and salmon jerky to take to our rental house in the valley.

And of course, being us, we drank a lot of lovely things At Breakside Brewery in Slabtown we liked all the beers we sampled, and had an excellent lunch as well, as they have a full service restaurant. At The Commons, the variety of saisons on tap pleased me in particular. And at Cascade, we spent at least a couple of hours tasting through a truly impressive array of sours, which we love. (Uber was our friend.)

We also visited Clear Creek Distillery, which is a couple of blocks from the Breakside in Slabtown. They have a nice single malt "Scotch" and grappa, but the highlights are always the liqueurs and eaux de vie made with all that gorgeous Oregon fruit. The Douglas fir digestif is a conversation starter!

And, last but not least, we finally made it to Stone Barn Brandyworks, which makes seriously good stuff. We came away with the nocino (walnut liqueur) and a 100% rye, but loved it all. I'd say their spirits are overall cleaner and more elegant than Clear Creek's, but ymmv.

What about food, you ask? A long and somewhat noisy dinner of small plates at a packed Andina was the highlight, but we also noshed at Marukin Ramen at the Pine Street market (terrific cold vegan summer ramen), which is a little food hall in the city; and had snacks and libations at the Teardrop Lounge (a favorite) and Clyde Common. Did you know that in Portland, many bars serve punch in a bowl, for 4-6 drinkers? They do, and it's delightful.

In the mornings, we favored Pearl Bakery for their lovely gibassier; any place serving Stumptown coffee; and Public Domain, mainly because it was near the hotel.

OK, moving on to the Willamette Valley...being wine greeters is where we really shine

NewbE

Oh, almost forgot, had Salt & Straw concretes at the Pine Street Market, too, a chocolate one with toffee and a vanilla with berries and pie crust. Good--maybe not great? I'm an ice cream aficionado, so perhaps hard to impress--and enormous, so do not do as we did, but rather share one.

gardendiva

Thank you so much for your wonderful report. We were suppose to be in Portland this week but had to postpone until the last week of September. I am so glad that we will miss the heat.

I am getting so excited that it is not even funny.

NewbE

How can you not have a good time there, right?? Enjoy!

When we were there, the first evening was rather too warm, and it sprinkled one late evening and one morning, but the rest of our stay was pretty close to perfect, warm, sunny and dry, never too hot. Really lucky!

One odd thing, to us: in the city, the day's high was reached around 6 or 7pm. We are used to 3 or 4pm being the hottest part of the day, but in August in Portland, it was not so. I am no scientist, so would welcome an explanation!

FaceInTheCrowd

Chuckling.... because I remember saying here that I never understood the fuss about Andina. Still don't but I'm glad you do. Otherwise, you visited a lot of our favorite places: Imperial (Hotel Lucia's restaurant), International Rose Test and Japanese Gardens, Portland Farmer's Market, Breakside (best IPAs on the planet), Stumptown.... Glad you enjoyed them all! Wonder if we have similar tastes in wine...

BTW, the Rose Garden is best mid June to mid August, but we've been as late as early October and still enjoyed it. I'm guessing your hottest part of the day question has something to do the relative angle of incidence and the longer daylight hours (due to our latitude), but I'm not a scientist either.

Gardendiva, count your lucky stars that you're not here this week. Yesterday weather gurus pronounced Portland's air as unfit to breathe (due to smoke from wildfires), so they encouraged us all to try not to. And temps are rising into the weekend, when it's supposed to be 95° - 100°.

gardendiva

FaceinTheCrowd - I have been watching the weather. I cannot believe the change in temperature in just a few hours. The change in plans worked out for us for many reasons. Hopefully, the weather will return to normal by the end of next month. However, my packing list has changed several times already.

I hope that you are able to breathe again, safely, soon.

NewbE

FaceintheCrowd, because so many of our friends have been to Andina and raved about it, including the ones we were traveling with, not going there was never an option. So I was relieved that, at least to us, it was really very good. The ceviche in particular--wahoo, I think, that night--was memorably excellent. My caipirinha compared well to ones I had in Brazil. All the dishes were unusual and tasty.

It was insanely crowded on a Saturday night. I wish we had ordered entrees and not all small plates, but that was a group decision. I would go back.

Best ever? Best in Portland? Can't say that!

Wanted to add that the smoke from the fires in BC was really thick and noticeable our first day in Portland, mostly dissipated the second day and not noticeable after that--we were really lucky.

NewbE

Sorry, meant to add, I hope air quality improves soon, FaceinTheCrowd. And that you get fair weather for your trip, gardendiva!

FaceInTheCrowd

Thanks gardendiva and NewbE. Like the temps, air quality can change quickly here, too. Today it's fine, and yesterday's was vastly improved over Tuesday's. But in over 50 years here, I'd never seen it like it was for days on end with the smoky haze from those BC fires.

"It was insanely crowded on a Saturday night."

Andina's been that way every time I've gone too, but I wonder why. Most local reputable sources don't even list it in the top 50 of Portland's restaurants.
http://www.wweek.com/portlands-50-best-restaurants/
http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/ind...staurants.html
https://pdx.eater.com/maps/best-portland-restaurants-38

Looking forward to your Willamette Valley wine report, NewbE.

NewbE

Et voilà!

For the Willamette Valley portion of our trip, we were 5 oenophilic adults. We rented a big SUV in downtown Portland on Sunday morning and drove directly to our HomeAway (used to be VRBO) rental in Dundee. Well, almost directly: we stopped at the Historic Ponzi Estate in Beaverton, which is now home to Hamacher wines (Eric Hamacher is married to Luisa Ponzi, who is the Ponzi family's winemaker); and the new and very large and modern Ponzi Winery in Sherwood; and Four Graces in Dundee.

(I told you we were dedicated wine greeters.)

The house we rented is managed by Lifestyle Properties, and they were really excellent from beginning to end. The house was perfect for our needs, perfectly located, and really well stocked, but the best part was that the deck gave us views of Mt. Hood AND Mt. Jefferson--neither of which we'd ever seen in our misty, rainy travels before. To see them every day was a real treat!
https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p818344vb

That first night we got takeout pizza from Abby's Legendary in Newberg (note to self: append "legendary" to everything from now on). I have to say, it was very slow and quite expensive, and...really delicious. Especially with Four Graces pinot.

I don't think I'll go day-by-day, as it's really same same but different: winery, winery, lunch, winery, winery, dinner, repeat.

In short:

We booked long, seated tastings at Archery Summit, Penner-Ash, Brick House, Beaux Freres, Patricia Green and Cristom. I have to say, I think this is the best way to really appreciate the wines on offer, to take one’s time with them. At Beaux Freres, we were also walked around the vineyard; and at Cristom we did a barrel tasting. At Archery, we were seated in their cave, which was beautiful.

In no particular order, because my geography is horrific and my memory imperfect, we also visited:

St. Innocent
Bethel Heights (wow, the chardonnay!)
Torii Mor
Bryn Mawr
Sokol Blosser
Colene Clemons
Trisaetum (great Rieslings)
Bergstrom
Angela Estate
Winderlea
Evening Land
Domaine Drouhin
Panther Creek

Domaine Drouhin served up possibly the worst tasting room experience any of us have ever had, which is too bad because the wines are excellent. But the staff were indifferent, even rude.

Panther Creek was at the end of our street, so we had to stop, and everything about it was corporate and forgettable. They were recently acquired by a hedge fund, and it shows.

Evening Land was a peculiar thing. Its founder is a celebrity somm (Raj Parr), and it has a ton of buzz, but the wine is really not good, in our opinions, of course. The $100 chardonnay is downright odd, which a somm might find refreshing but I found off-putting. As always, ymmv.

Chardonnay is the up-and-coming thing in the Valley, and a lot of it is excellent. Prices are already climbing, but there are still (relative) bargains to be found.

My personal favorites of the whole trip:
Archery Summit
Brick House
Beaux Freres
Cristom

NewbE

Last, but not least: FOOD.

Our favorite restaurant on our last visit was Recipe, so we were really sad to learn that it suffered a catastrophic fire. They are rebuilding it and hope to open this fall, but to keep their staff employed they opened Recipe Part Deux on the main drag in Newberg—and it’s excellent. Simple, farm-to-fork, great service, great wine list.

We also loved Thistle, in McMinnville. It has a nice list of classic cocktails, the requisite great wine list, and some really creative takes on farm-to-fork in a funky, cozy setting.

Joel Palmer House, in Dayton, is an old favorite, and it was just as excellent as ever. This time, we were seated in the garden, at sunset, and it was a little slice of heaven. Such elegant, delicious food! Yes, it’s mushroom-centric, but miles away from that vegan cafe we’ve all been to.

Dundee Bistro is that place that is big enough for a larger party and has a menu with something for everyone, but is still cozy and serves excellent local fare. The attached wine bar is handy for checking out those wines you couldn’t fit in otherwise, and serves flights. A flight of bubbles before dinner—why not?

Red Hills Market was our go-to for breakfast sandwiches, car sandwiches, and also dinner one night, and it never disappoints. Be prepared for sloooow prep times, though. This is easy to do: order a beer, have a seat, people watch. All will be well. It’s busy all day long.

Coffee Cottage (Newberg) was the other morning must-stop, full of books and friendly locals and really good (marionberry!) scones. I highly recommend the breakfast burrito.

One night, we stopped at Jac’s in Newberg for vanilla custard, which we took home and scarfed with a sauce we made from the leftover berries from the PSU farmers market. Divine.

NewbE

Fin:

Escaped the valley a couple of days ahead of the eclipse. We were relieved to hear that hosting the hordes that descended on rural Oregon went off without a hitch, because every single local we talked to in advance of it was dreading it.

Drove to the airport, dropped off our luggage and wine shippers and checked them curbside, then drove downtown to return the rental car. (Doing it this way saved us a lot of schlepping of shippers and suitcases.) Thanks to Southwest's generous free checked luggage policy (2 pp), sent shippers home for no $

Dropped off our car downtown, wandered around a bit, got some Stumptown coffee, then took the MAX light rail to the airport.

Toasted another wonderful visit with some Deschutes, vowed a return soon.

FaceInTheCrowd

Thanks for the report! It would appear that our tastes in pinot noir are indeed similar too, including Evening Land. And nice to see you took one of the less traveled wine roads - Cristom, Bethel Heights, St. Innocent, and Bryn Mawr - which these days reminds me of the Newberg, Dundee, McMinnville, Carlton area(s) of 20 years ago.

Odd thing about Domaine Drouhin. We know their operations manager and director of sales; perhaps a little full of themselves, but otherwise the nicest people. So maybe your experience at the winery (which BTW is similar to ones we've had) is part of the "French soul" they promote.

A few wineries have been producing very nice chardonnay for decades (Chehelem and Adelsheim come to mind), but they've been styled more like Chablis than the more oaky, fruit forward releases we're seeing now. I'd attribute that to two factors: climate change, for sure, but to a greater extent, the gradual cloning of Napa and Sonoma.

Glad you enjoyed yourselves!

NewbE

The story that is often told in the WV is that for many years they were using the wrong clones--Draper and Wente clones out of UC-Davis--and that only when Dijon clones achieved prominence did they start making really great chardonnay. Like most stories, this one isn't entirely true, but it's true enough in the sense that it is easier, more natural, if you will, to make good chardonnay in that climate from Dijon clones. But people managed to make good chardonnay from the old clones, too, people who were excellent winemakers, that is.

If you haven't tried Bethel Heights chardonnay, you are in for a treat! Of course, everything they make is good.

Re: Drouhin, the tasting room staff were boisterously busy talking to each other, more indifferent than snooty. They poured like bartenders, which seems a real mismatch of style with those wines. Tant pis.

Re: Bryn Mawr, really good wine, and a charming family-run operation complete with family dog and cat, as they live above the tasting room. Highly recommended!

FaceInTheCrowd

"...they were using the wrong clones--Draper and Wente clones out of UC-Davis..."

Like I said, cloning Napa and Sonoma. {grin} Been over a year since we were last at Bethel Heights, but I agree that they make a nice chardonnay. The pinots there aren't particularly memorable to me though. Haven't been to Bryn Mawr, so thanks for the rec. (I heard in a local news report recently that there are two new winery openings every month in the WV, so it's helpful to have some focus.) Next time, you'll have to try Monk's Gate, another Bryn Mawr kind of operation. Up until recently Hamacher was their winemaker, but the reins have now been passed to the daughter. So, the jury's still out on her, but it's worth a visit just to chat with her mom. What a hoot!

NewbE

Thanks!

I forgot to mention that we also stopped at Carlton Winemakers' Studio, and it was as fun as ever.

For those who don;t know, it's a collective wine making facility and tasting room where you'll find small production wines, often by well-known winemakers bottling under their own label or some such.

This time we geeked out over Isabelle Meunier, who makes wine under her own label, Lavinia, but also for other labels, such as Megan Anne and Elevée. We surprised ourselves by buying a bottle of the Megan Anne Black Love--horrible name, I know, and not the style we usually like, but it's velvety, with abundant blue fruit, and an almost opaque color. Irresistible.