Category: Gap Year Adventure 2017

IPNC – The International Pinot Noir Celebration – is held each year over the last weekend in July. This is a time when wine makers, consumers and industry and media for the wine world of Pinot Noir gather together in McMinnville Oregon to drink, eat and hopefully learn something useful. The host site is Linfield collage in the middle of McMinnville. We have been coming for over 10 years (don’t really remember the first year we came) and have enjoyed it every time. The weekend starts with what is called pre-IPNC dinners. This year, as we have done for the last 4 years, we have gone to the Salud dinner.

 

Salud is an organization that was formed some 30 years ago to provide free healthcare for farmworkers. The dinner is both a chance to acknowledge the vital work they perform but also to offer some support financially to the organization. It is a great cause so we have gone for the last 5 years to this event.

Other pre-IPNC dinners are sponsored by various wineries in the Valley with celebrity chefs from various restaurants preparing great meals

 

The following day starts the actual IPNC experience. The entire group – usually about 800 people – are divided into two groups. One group stays on campus while the other goes out to a winery via a chartered bus. Included in the registration are all meals – again most prepared in temporary kitchens set up on the Campus grounds or at the Wineries.

Our first day was off campus. So, after the introduction of all the wine makers, we headed over to bus 4A. One of the things that happens is you don’t know where you are going until you are on the bus and in most cases not until you actually arrive at the winery.

Each bus has a host winemaker and ours was Lynn Penner-Ash.  Our bus headed into the Dundee Hills and stopped at Archery Summit, site of a pre-dinner the night before. After a brief presentation & Q & A with the vineyard manager, we divided up into five groups of 10 and sat down in the winery to try our skill at blending a

cuvee using wines from three different Archery Summit vineyard site wines. We were assisted by one or two wine makers from different wine regions (ours were from Russian River CA) and made at least three or four differently proportioned blends before deciding as a group on “Migration Oregon”. This kind of hands- on experience is what makes learning at IPNC such fun.

After making our blend we moved to the patio for lunch.

There were three different courses – really all main dishes – starting with Halibut followed by Salmon and finally Lamb Ribs.  There was WAY to much food and not enough wine!

There was a nice dessert but I failed to take a photo.  Must not have been very lovely.  After lunch, back on the bus and back to Campus for the afternoon walk around tasting before the Grand Dinner.

Recently I had a fellow wine taster mention a small winery located in Dundee called Ayoub Wines. As I had never heard of it before I did a little checking and it seems that Mo Ayoub spent time at Stags Leap in Napa working with Robert Brittan and after a few years decided to relocate to Oregon and craft Pinot Noir under his own label. When he arrived, and purchased several acres of vineyard land on a east facing slop above the small town of Dundee. Planting about 4 acres in 2001, on Jory soils, he planted various Pinot Noir Clones (for those who care, he put in 667, 777, 114, 115 and Pommard 4).

A small producer he is only making 2,000 cases a year. Working out of his home/winery above Dundee he feels that winemaking should reflect a combination of tradition and innovation. Ever evolving, like the wines, Mo’s winemaking approach includes experimentation with a commitment to bottling only the most successful, elegant lots from the barrels. As an appointment only property, I reached out hoping we might get a few minutes for a tasting.

So, on Thursday afternoon we drove up the hill and landed at his home/winery. Mo met us at the door and proceeded to take us out the back patio that overlooks his vines. It’s unusual to have an east facing vineyard in the area – most have a south or west facing planting style. Mo feels the warmth of the morning sun and the cool, shade, of the afternoon is best for his approach to winemaking.

On his kitchen counter were 9 bottles of wine. It seems that last evening he had a major reviewer at the house and wanted to make sure he (the reviewer) got the full treatment of his wines. While the wines had been opened for 24 hours the all showed extremely well. Starting with his Mosé (his approach to a Pinot Noir Rosé) we found our way through a lovely Chardonnay and several different years of his Pinot Noir. We particularly liked his 2015 Estate Pinot Noir, 2015 ??? Vineyard Pinot Noir (he is not allow to say what vineyards he has sourced the fruit from but they are all well known), his 2015 Memoirs Pinot Noir and the 2016 Chardonnay. We were so taken that we ordered wines for shipment later this year! And took 2 of his Mosé (Rosé) with us for later.

Nice wines presented well with great age potential. I was pleased to find this new producer even though I have repeatedly said I don’t want to “find” a new Pinot Noir I need to have in my cellar.

For dinner, we went to Thistle –

while it may be small in table numbers and Spartan in design, it is memorable , this is a great restaurant. We got a table for two near the menu, which is a the black board on the wall, and proceeded to order from the cocktail list while we decided on starter and entrees.

 

 

 

 

Emily, our server was friendly and prompt.

Janeen started off with the field greens salad with preserved lemon, filberts and goat cheese and I had the Summer Squash with carrots& creamy herb dressing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This we paired with some rosé bubbles from Portugal.

For our main Janeen had the Albacore with artichoke, olive and remoluade while I had

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rabbit shank with potato, salsa verde and fava greens. This was paired with a lovely Vouvray Everything was delicious – and while I haven’t had rabbit more then a couple dozen times, this ranked right up there as the best. Janeen’s comment about the Albacore was she wished she know how to make it as great as she was tasting.

We passed on dessert and talk a walk around the block before heading back to our cottage.

It’s been WAY to long for Janeen to have been away from a garden.  So, today we headed east to Oregon Gardens.   This is an 80-acre botanical garden in Silverton Oregon. It opened in 199 and is home to over 20 different gardens included the Rose Garden, Children’s Garden and many others. The City of Silverton created a series of ponds to cycle the reclaimed wastewater prior to it being allow into the river. This series of terraced wetlands located in the garden allows it to have access to a free water supply to support the operation.

 

Of course, Janeen’s must see garden was the Medicinal Garden displays.  This has the closet varieties of medicinal plant species that are most like the herb garden where she has spent so much time.

 

 

After spending a couple hours touring around we went to the town of Silverton and had a really nice lunch at the 3 Ten Water restaurant.  

The dining room has a large fireplace along one wall and a great looking bar at the end.  We had a simple lunch of Halibut Fish & Chip and a Caprese salad.  of course we had a glass of wine and a beer to go with our meal.

 

Tonight we go into McMinnville for dinner at a new place (for us) called Thistle Restaurant.  More about that later.

The last couple of days have been restful – without much stress and nothing really planned.  It’s been nice to take a deep breath and relax.  On Tuesday we drove out to Melissa’s home and had a great evening at their outdoor patio and lovely dinner which Simon had cooked on the BBQ.  I had been here before, staying in the ‘chateau’ (a 5th wheel trailer you can see by the ‘barn’) but Janeen has not.   It was a nice evening with lovely people and nice wines.

 

 

Saturday was focused on Domaine Drouhin Oregon.

This French producer arrived in the Valley in 1987 and this weekend was the 30^th anniversary celebration.   We have the honor of being Wine club members #1 here – and wear name badges accordingly.  During the day was an open house where we were able to meet the wine maker, Véronique (again)  .

and her brothers Laurent, Philippe and Fredric (also for the 2^nd or third time). With the exception of Laurent, they all live in Beaune France where the family is from and where they operate the Joseph Drouhin Wine company. Also present were two of Véronique’s three children – Laurene and Arthur.

Unfortunately, Louise was unable to be present for the weekend. Each of her children has wines with their names – Pinot Noir for Laurene and Louise and Chardonnay for Arthur. All of the current release wines were being poured, with the exception of the Louise ,which is limited in production to only 100 cases or so and thus not generally opened for these events.

 

Open House included a photo booth set up and were we able to get a couple of pictures with most of the family.

 

 

That evening was another celebration, but limited in who might attend. Fortunately, we were invited and with about 70 others were led through the vineyards where they had set up a ‘dining room’ and ‘kitchen’ for the celebration.

The menu was paired with older Domaine Drouhin wines along with several wines from France. We started with Aromatic Salt Roasted Spot Prawns paired with a

2009 DDO LE Chardonnay and a

2010 Clos des Mouches Blanc from France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duck Sausage, Duck Confit, and cornbread salad with roasted new potatoes and foraged mushrooms followed this. This was paired with a 1998 DDO Pinot Noir – Lauréne

and a 2008 Clos des Mouches Rouge from Burgundy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cheese course included several lovely local cheeses paired with a 1987 Joseph Drouhin Musigny, Grand Cru – a 30 year old Burgundy that was still vibrant and full of fruit.  A real treat to have this lovely wine as part of our meal.

 

Chef Vitaly Paley and his team did a wonderful job both in preparing and presenting the lovely meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our table included a group of 5 folks – who are law partners in a firm in the Portland Area. After the initial greetings we got into the evening with wine stories and tales of various experiences. It was a very pleasant evening and if they happen to read this blog I hope they will leave a comment!

 

The view from the vineyard of Mt Hood was beautiful.

It was a fantastic evening with wonderful wines, great foods and interesting people.

For some reason, the check engine light has been on in the Prius for a few days. While I was convinced it was related to the loose gas gap, even after driving 100 miles or so, it hadn’t gone off so I headed out to the local Toyota shop in McMinnville to have it checked. There is something to be said about small towns – in addition to the lovely waiting room, there was fresh coffee, fresh fruit, pastries and they started to make popcorn before I left. After waiting for an hour, I finally had it confirmed the trouble light was related to the gas cap and they didn’t charge me for the service! Where else could I have gone and gotten this done for free! Not Los Angeles that’s for sure or even Portland I’m guessing.

After getting back to the cottage, I took Janeen to the Curves gym in Newberg and while she was getting all hot and sweaty I had the car washed and picked up a DUTCH Bros. coffee. After returning to our ‘home’ we had a salad lunch and relaxed for a while.

When we first starting visiting in the area there were not a lot of ‘good’ restaurants. That’s changed over the years of course, but one of the ones we went to early on in our travels was the Joel Palmer House.

This place was started a while back with the emphasize on mushrooms – meaning most, if not all, of the dishes served had some form of mushroom included in the presentation, sauce or as part of the actual entrée being served. Since we were last here, son Christopher has taken over from his father (who started the place) and is doing a great job of changing up and moving forward. As it was a lovely evening ,we chose to sit outside on the patio – a good choice for the evening.

We brought our own bottle, a 2009 brut L’Ermitage from Roederer Estate in the Anderson Valley of CA. We stopped there on our way north and picked this up to see how it compared with other sparkling wines we have had.   Turns out it held up very well! The restaurant has a 3 and a 5-course pris fixe option and we selected the 3 course with an extra appetizer course.

To start our meal we were presented with a Carrot Tartare – basically raw carrots with some spices. It was interesting, but not something that jumped up and said “great” to either of us.

 

 

As an appetizer we had the Foie gras – presentation and taste were both quite good. From there I had the Wild Mushroom Risotto and Janeen had the Escargot – with lemon-lime emulsion and truffle.  They provided this interesting taste between courses.  

 

For our main, Janeen had the Duck Breast –Chinese 5 spice scented with blueberry and foie gras and I had the

 

 

 

 

 

Elk Rib eye with lentils, chili and onion demi-glace. For dessert, Janeen chose Lemon Cake and berries with orange lavender glaze and I enjoyed a selection of Artisan Cheeses.

 

A Lovely time for sure.

We started the day at Walter Scott Winery.

This small producer in the Eola-Amity Hills area of the Willamette Valley. We were there to taste through their current releases with Andy Steinman. Andy and his wife Sue became major investors in the Winery in 2012. We have know Andy and Sue for some 15 or more years having met them at World of Pinot Noir which is held around Janeen’s birthday (March) on the Central Coast of California and then again at various Pinot Noir events in Oregon. Ken Pahlow and wife Erica Landon started Walter Scott wines in 2009 sharing faculties with others until they could have the size and stability to have their own facility. In 2011 they moved to a leased facility in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Production has grown from a beginning of 650 cases to over 5,000 now. With the help of Andy (now the CFO) and Sue (legal council to the team), Ken who’s background included working with Mark Viossak at St. Innocent Winery working various harvests at Patricia Green Cellars and a position at Evening Lands Vineyard gives him the background to work the wine making magic to produce some wonderful Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays.

A small production area, barrel storage and work space limits their production at this time but there are plans to expand the exterior portion of the facility to allow equipment storage outside – thus increasing both barrel and case storage inside.

 

We tasted two of the Pinot Noirs – 2015 Sojourner vineyards and 2015 Freedom Hill plus two chardonnay’s Freedom Hill vineyard and X Novo Vineyard.

We found the wines pleasant but the Chardonnays more drinkable now while the Pinot Noirs need a few more years to mature.

 

 

 

 

 

After tasting the wines we had a delightful lunch in McMinnville and then decided to visit the Willamette Valley Cheese plant close to Amity. This small producer is making artisanal cheeses from local dairy cows.

While a delightful visit there wasn’t any cheese that really said ‘take me home’ but we enjoyed the exposure to alternative cheese taste just the same.

It’s been several days since we updated our blog. During that time we left the Oregon Coast and travelled inland to my sisters place in Portland. This was a scheduled stop for laundry duty, pick up stuff we had shipped to her place and get organized for our stay in the Willamette Valley. During our stay with Marilynn, we visited Cindy and Jon where our son Ryan and his husband Chris joined up for a visit. They (Ryan and Chris) are on a 2-week trip, which included a stop in the SF Bay area before joining us at the Cousins Reunion on the Oregon Coast. They are now in Yellowstone prior to heading to Wyoming to visit a relative of Chris before they head to Salt Lake City and home. We won’t see them for several months and not even sure where we will see them again.

This morning, after repacking the car, we drove to the Willamette Valley and more specifically Stoller Winery. We had arranged, through Melissa Burr, Director of Winemaking, to stay on property at Stoller in one of their cottages. This lovely 1 bedroom place is just right for our needs. It comes with a full kitchen, nice living room and bedroom.

Couldn’t ask for a better place to stay.    Prior to hooking up with Madison (who took us to the cottage) we had a lovely sandwich from Red Hills Market and a Stoller Rosé on the lawn outside the tasting room. A nice spot, lovely view and delicious sandwich.

Now it is off to McMinnville and do some shopping for our meals in the Cottage.

 

 

For dinner, we hooked up with Emily Bachand and went to her husband Paul’s restaurant Recipe, part deux.   This small place in Newburg doesn’t have a real kitchen and all the ‘hot’ stuff comes out of a food truck they have parked behind the place.

Paul’s first restaurant, Recipe, had a fire and this place lets him keep going until the old place is rebuilt. When we arrived, I had brought a lovely bottle of burgundy from 2005 – Savigny Les Beaune from Josephn Drouhin but we started off with a lovely Chablis. This parried well with our Oysters   on the half shell, Lemon Wagyu steak tartare and the Torchon of foie gras. We followed this with other stuff which I didn’t write down and a couple of great desserts.

Here’s a picture taken of our family while visiting Domaine Drouhin yesterday.