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.