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"Wine Notes"
Wine Evaluation Software

Developed exclusively for me by the Groundspace Corporation to evaluate wines quickly, accurately and with more detail than using a mere pencil. Wine Notes allows a user to evaluate wines using the 100-point scale. Easy to use with touch & tap operation. You can always have it with you because it runs on a Pocket PC. Available now at www.pocketwinenotes.com

Willamette Valley, Oregon
Food & Accommodation

Food

Oregon abounds with wonderful foods revered by cooks around the world. Foods that pair beautifully with Pinot Noir. Those special foods include wild mushrooms, salmon, black and white truffles, hazelnuts, fruit and berries. Fruits and berries such as pears, peaches, blueberries, black currants, marionberries and raspberries. As far as the hazelnuts go, Oregon grows 99% of the US crop.

Wild Mushrooms. Jack Czarnecki and his wife Heidi were the third generation to operate Joe’s in Reading, PA. Joe’s specialized in wild mushrooms and was one of our favorite restaurants when we lived in Washington, DC. Several years ago Jack and Heidi closed Joe’s and moved to Oregon because of the wild mushrooms, truffles and Pinot Noir. They now own and operate the Joel Palmer House in Dayton where they pair Oregon mushrooms and truffles with Oregon wine. It’s now one of our most favorite restaurants.

Eugene Saturday Market. If you are lucky enough to visit Oregon be sure to make it to the Eugene Saturday Market. Every Saturday between April and Thanksgiving 150 vendors display their handmade and home-grown products. I really got carried away and bought a very unusual and beautiful necklace with a Russian Serafina stone. http://www.eugenesaturdaymarket.org/

Lane County Farmers Market. The Lane County Farmers’ Market across the street offers Oregon grown fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, plants and animal products. The market can trace its beginnings back to the first public market in this part of Oregon, the Eugene Producers Market, dating from 1915. Today nearly 160 growers and producers comprise the market. I was lucky enough to find some black currants that I hauled home and turned into an exquisite Oregon Black Currant Ice (Cassis Ice). The ice burst with black currant flavor. http://www.lanecountyfarmersmarket.com/

Truffles. Different from European truffles, the Oregon black or white truffles are soft truffles. Oregon truffles can be found between November and January. Most people collect Leucangium carthusiana, considered to be the best Oregon Black Truffle. They describe the flavor of Oregon truffles as musky, earthy, vanilla, violets, and sometimes sexy. French gastronome Brillat-Savarin called truffles "black diamonds." 

Oregon Fruit. I enjoyed two memorable fruit dishes prepared by Leif Benson, CEC, the executive chef of the Timberline Lodge’s Cascade Room since 1979. Winner of many world class culinary awards, he prides himself on using the Northwest's freshest ingredients. I first enjoyed a Douglas Fir and Marionberry Granita. Second I loved a Summer Stone Fruit Terrine paired with an Adelsheim Vineyard Deglace 2004, Yamhill County. Chef Benson made the terrine using Mascarpone Chantilly, French sponge cake, Sage Honeycomb and Pinot Noir syrup. Both the wine and the terrine tasted of peaches and honey.

Chef Leif Benson, Timberline Lodge's Cascade Room and his Summer Stone Fruit Terrine

Recipes

Oregon Black Currant Ice The Oregon Black Currants from the Lane County Farmers’ Market made an exquisite Oregon Black Currant Ice. It’s so rich one scoop is more than enough. Recipe

Pinot Noir Risotto with Truffles I first had Risotto with Oregon Truffles at The Peerless Restaurant in Ashland, OR. The next day I began a quest to find my own Oregon truffles in order to duplicate the wonderful taste. I did find them in a Portland grocery store. Of course, I added a little Pinot Noir. Recipe

Goat Cheese with Hazelnuts Hazelnuts and goat cheese are an amazing combination and easy to prepare. Recipe

Pears with Hazelnuts To the magic of goat cheese and hazelnuts, why not add a few pears. This recipe works just as well with peaches. Recipe

Restaurants

Good restaurants, featuring Northwest cuisine and great wine lists abound in Oregon Wine Country.

Willamette Valley Restaurants

Dinner at the Joel Palmer House, Dayton, OR

Joel Palmer House, Dayton, OR. The Joel Palmer House ranks as one of Oregon's finest historic homes, and is on both the Oregon and the National Historic Registers. Try Jack’s Mushroom Madness Menu where you choose the entrée and Jack does the rest emphasizing wild mushrooms. www.joelpalmerhouse.com

Tina’s, Dundee, OR. Menu based on the foods that local farmers and neighbors grow - both seasonal, and regional. Many of the featured wines come from just down the road.
www.tinasdundee.com

The Dundee Bistro, Dundee, OR. Founded by the Ponzi Family in 1999, they feature Northwest cuisine and wines. www.dundeebistro.com

Bistro Maison, McMinnville, OR. Recommended by all the locals we talked with. Located in historic downtown McMinnville. www.bistromaison.com

The Painted Lady, Newberg, OR. Local favorite in a Victorian home. www.thepaintedladyrestaurant.com

Portland, OR Restaurants

Genoa, Portland, OR. Beautifully prepared, seasonal three-, four- and seven-course dinners nightly. www.genoarestaurant.com

Caprials, Westmoreland, southeast Portland, OR. Caprial and John Pence offer Northwest cuisine with passion and soul. www.caprialandjohnskitchen.com/bistro

Higgins Restaurant & Bar, Portland, OR Featuring Northwest cuisine and a great wine list. http://higgins.citysearch.com/

Douglas Fir and Marionberry Granita prepared by Chef Leif Benson, Timberline Lodge's Cascade Room

Cascade Room, Timberline Lodge, Timberline, OR. Don’t miss the cooking of Chef Leif Benson. www.timberlinelodge.com

The London Grill, The Benson, Portland, OR www.bensonhotel.com

Southern Oregon Restaurants

New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro, Talent, OR. Vernon and Charlene Rollins met in the 1970s while she was a cook at Chez Panisse. They now run Sammy’s which some say is the best food in Oregon — could be, I won’t argue! 541-535-2779

The Peerless Restaurant, Ashland, OR. Best Truffle Risotto. Great Northwest cuisine and wine list. www.peerlessrestaurant.com

Tasting Rooms

Dundee Pinot Station, Dundee, OR. This tasting room and retail store features Oregon's finest handcrafted boutique wines. They especially feature Joe Dobbs' great Pinot Noirs. http://pinotstation.com/

Ponzi Wine Bar, Dundee, OR. Featuring over 70 Oregon vintners and a selection of appetizers. www.ponziwines.com/visit-us/ponzi-wine-bar.asp

Accommodations

Portland, OR

Truffles in a Portland Grocery

The Governor Hotel, Portland, OR. Downtown and a newly renovated historic landmark. www.governorhotel.com

The Benson, Portland, OR. A beautiful old world hotel with a great restaurant, The London Grill. www.bensonhotel.com

Wilamette Valley, OR

Avellan Inn, Newberg, OR. www.avellaninn.com

Lobenhaus, Carlton, OR www.lobenhaus.com

Springbrook Hazelnut Farm, Newbert, OR. www.nutfarm.com

Willamette Gables, Aurora, OR. www.willamettegables.com

Youngberh Hill Vineyards & Inn, McMinnville, OR. Located on 50 acres with lovely views from every room. www.youngberghill.com

Black Walnut Inn, Dundee, OR. www.blackwalnut-inn.com

The Dream Giver’s Inn, Newberg, OR. www.dreamgiversinn.com

You can order a free "Where to Stay, Go, Taste And Eat" Guide at www.traveloregon.com

Things To Do In Oregon

Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Museum for those of you in Southern California, did you ever wonder what happened to the Spruce Goose? Well, its alive and well in a beautiful new home in McMinnveille, OR. www.sprucegoose.org

Caprial & John’s Kitchen Classes and Tools for the Home Chef. All classes taught by Caprial and John Pence. www.caprialandjohnskitchen.com

Things To Do Elsewhere

Movies — I highly recommend “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe. It’s funny, heartwarming, and downright entertaining.

COPIA — The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, Napa, CA

I love going to COPIA for wine tastings, seminars, wine & food classes, shopping at Cornucopia, and roaming around their demonstration gardens. They also have a wonderful restaurant in Julia’s Kitchen (named after Julia Child). Or if you are heading out to taste wine in Napa Valley stop at the American Market Cafe for a picnic lunch to take along. Future events taking place at COPIA in Napa are:

Wine Programs at COPIA for December
www.copia.org

Artisan Wine, Food & Art Festival
Saturday, 20 January 2007 12—4 pm
Taste boutique wines from over 60 wineries while enjoying tastes from artisan food vendors. Shop for hundreds of original artworks from Bay Area artists. From hand-crafted wines to hand-blown glass, it’s an event not to be missed! www.copia.org

Death by Chocolate Weekend
Saturday, 17-18 February 2007
Unleash your inner Willy Wonka with a weekend dedicated to all things chocolate. Indulge in wine and chocolate pairings, sample a fantastic array of chocolate varieties and confections from some of American’s greatest chocolatiers during our Death by Chocolate Walk-around tasting. Take a hands-on truffle workshop or watch a master pastry chef at work. How sweet it is! www.copia.org

Pinot Noir Wine Events

Click Here for a complete list of Pinot Wine Festivals. If you have a Pinot festival you would like to add send a note to jud@pinotnoirs.com

Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs

The Oregon winegrowing region started with pioneers David “Papa Pinot” Lett of Eyrie, Dick Erath and the Sokol Blossers more than 40 years ago. Despite much skepticism they planted cool grape growing varietals on the south facing slopes of the Dundee Hills. These early pioneers worked together and pooled resources to produce their early wines. 5 wineries existed in Oregon in 1970 and today there are more than 250 wineries. Oregon ranks second in the number of wineries per state and third in production.

Kathy & Bill Stoller of Stoller Vineyards at the IPNC

In 1979 David Lett’s 1975 Pinot Noir twice placed among the top three in Gault-Millau French Wine Olympiades blind tasting of international Burgundies. This caught the attention of Joseph Drouhin and in 1987 he purchased 225 acres in the Dundee Hills to start Domaine Drouhin Oregon.

I recommend Susan Sokol Blosser’s wonderful memoir of how these pioneers (she being one of them) started this amazing wine growing area. The title of the book is “At Home in the Vineyard, Cultivating a Winery, An Industry, and a Life” by Susan Sokol Blosser. The book is available on the Sokol Blosser website—http://www.sokolblosser.com/ and also from COPIA www.copia.org and Amazon.com www.amazon.com

Today the Willamette Valley contains seven American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) with Chehalem Mountains just approved. Some of the newer standouts are Stoller Vineyards, Gypsey Dancer Estates, and Soléna Cellars.

Stoller Vineyards
Bill and Kathy Stoller purchased the family turkey farm in 1983 and began planting their world-class vineyard on their south facing slopes of the Dundee Hills. They already co-owned part of Chehalem with Harry Peterson-Nedry. Today they have planted nearly 125 acres in Pinot Noir on their hill called “Corton Hill” by local winegrowers. Their beautiful new gravity-flow winery contains state-of-the-art mechanized punchdown equipment, a cooling tunnel, and a custom designed crusher/destemmer — just to name a few of their new tools. They have been awarded the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification at the Gold Level. www.stollervineyards.com

Gary & Christine Andrus of Gypsy Dancer

Gypsy Dancer
Gary and Christine Andrus started this exciting project in 2002 after Gary retired from the two wineries he started — Pine Ridge in Napa Valley, CA and Archery Summit in the Dundee Hills. Named for their daughter, Gypsy Gail, Gypsy Dancer exists in two places — the Chehalem Mountains region of the Willamette Valley, Oregon and Central Otago, New Zealand. The new vineyards are all planted with Pommard and Dijon clones at 10,000 vines per hectare (1 meter x 1 meter). Central Otago, the coolest growing region in New Zealand also produces wonderful Pinot Noirs. www.gypsydancerestates.com

Soléna Cellars
Laurent Montalieu and Danielle Andrus Montalieu (Gary Andrus’ daughter) started their property in 2000 and gave it the name, Domaine Danielle Laurent. They named their daughter Soléna, signifying the sun and the moon. Danielle learned the wine business at her father’s knee, first at Pine Ridge and then at Archery Summit where she managed the day to day operations. Laurent, a graduate of the Institute of Oenology of Bordeaux, came to Oregon as a partner in WillaKenzie Estate. Laurent is winemaker and co-founder of the Northwest Wine Company in McMinnville, OR, a state-of-the-art facility that produces 50,000 cases of wine a year for 35 clients. www.solenacellars.com

Privé Vineyard
I’d like to mention one last winery that’s a favorite of mine. It’s owned by Mark and Tina Hammond and called Privé Vineyard. Located in the Chehalem Mountain region, they produce only 250 cases of beautiful hand-crafted Pinot Noir. They call those two Pinot Noirs “le nord” and “le sud”. You must be on their mailing list to get any! And you should get some! www.privevineyard.com

Willamette Valley Appellations (AVAs)

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (better known as the TTB) is part of the US Department of the Treasury. They establish all of the American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in the US. In the Willamette Valley they have approved seven AVAs. They designate viticultural areas to allow producers to better describe the origin of wines and allow consumers to better identify the wines they may purchase.

Chehalem Mountains AVA. Located in Yamhill, Washington, and Clackamas Counties, this proposed viticultural area lies entirely within the approved Willamette Valley viticultural area. As of 2002 at least 80 vineyards, totaling over 1,100 acres, plus 12 commercial wineries exist within the proposed boundaries of the Chehalem Mountains viticultural area, with more added each year. The proposed Chehalem Mountains viticultural area constitutes a single, continuous landmass (measuring over 20 miles in length and 5 miles in width) uplifted above the floor of the Willamette Valley. Three of the wineries within Chehalem Mountains are: Gypsy Dancer Estates, Anam Cara Cellars, and Privé Vineyard.

Dundee Hills AVA. The Dundee Hills AVA in Yamhill County lies near the city of Newberg and contains more than 1,200 acres of wine grapes, primarily Pinot Noir. They wanted to call this appellation the "Red Hills" until it was discovered that two other applications had been submitted with similar names. The Dundee Hills became an official AVA on January 31, 2005. These hills rise more than 700 feet. In the Dundee Hills look for: DePonte Cellars, Dobbes Family Estate, Domaine Drouhin Oregon, Erath Vineyards, Lange Estate Winery, Sokol-Blosser and Stoller Vineyards. www.dundeehills.org

Eola-Amity Hills AVA. The Eola-Amity Hills viticultural area lies entirely within the existing Willamette Valley viticultural area and encompasses roughly 37,900 acres within Polk and Yamhill Counties. The soils and geology of the Eola Hills, compared to those of the surrounding areas, are distinctive in two regards. The prevailing basalt-derived soils of the Eola Hills are shallower than the soils of other hills in the north Willamette Valley, and that these well-drained basalt soils are very different from the alluvial soils of the surrounding valley floor.

McMinnville AVA. The TTB approved the McMinnville AVA in January 18, 2005. It lies entirely in Yamhill County, Oregon. The area contains primarily uplifted marine sedimentary loams and silts, with alluvial overlays and a base of uplifting basalt. This AVA contains 40,500 acres.

Ribbon Ridge AVA. On July 1, 2005 the TTB established Ribbon Ridge as an American Viticultural Area (AVA). The AVA, wholly within the Willamette Valley AVA, consists of a natural geological formation; a distinct ridge approximately three and one-half miles long and one and three-quarters miles across, covering approximately 5.25 square miles and 3,350 acres. They estimate that between 1,000 and 1,400 acres in the Ribbon Ridge viticultural area are suited to premium winegrape planting. As of 2005, Ribbon Ridge contained fourteen vineyards and five wineries with around 400 acres currently planted.

Yamhill-Carlton District AVA. On February 7, 2005 the TTB established Yamhill-Carlton District AVA in Yamhill and Washington Counties, Oregon. The new Yamhill-Carlton District viticultural area lies entirely within the existing Willamette Valley viticultural area. Yamhill-Carlton District consists of ancient marine sedimentary soils, once the ocean floor. In the Yamhill-Carlton District look for Soléna Cellars. www.yamhillcarltondistrict.com

About my scores: I believe that no one gains by embarrassing someone or something, be it my husband, my children, someone’s wine, a co-worker, a subordinate, an enemy or a friend. I therefore, try to never criticize a person or a thing. I believe in keeping my life and surroundings positive. So, I rate all the wines I taste and then draw a cut-off line at 85 points. Who knows, maybe that wine that got an 84 was just having a bad day — why make it worse!

About Scoring: As I go around to Wine Events I hear a lot about Wine Scoring. A few weeks ago at the “Women in Wine Seminar” many of the speakers (not all) seemed to feel that numerical scoring for wine was wrong — not the womanly way! They seemed to feel that some kind of “Wishy-Washy” system like good, bad, or ugly would be better. Having been formally educated as a mathematician I first like to see a numerical score. Second, I like to see a description where I can look for key words important to me such as Black Cherry, Dense, Earthy, etc. Third, I recommend to wine enthusiasts that they look for wine critics who like what they like and stick with them — it’s a three step formula for finding wines you’ll enjoy.

With that, here are my scores and descriptions for Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs.

Wines

Patty's Pinot Closet lists all the wines reviewed in current and past newsletters. We've included a price taken from the winery website or other retail sources if possible. They are included for relative comparison only, your price may be different. All prices in this newsletter are in US dollars.

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