My breakfast is a quick few slices of toast with peanut butter and some local preserves...washed down with an orange juice and a small bottle of milk.
I'm only visiting three or four wineries today, but they are all in widely different locations...so there's going to be a lot of travel time. De Ponte is close by and was recommended because they are one of the few wineries making Muscadet...popular with oysters in the Loire Valley area of France. The nice lady at the tasting room is very knowledgeable about wine, and we have a very interesting and detailed discussion. Like all of the other wineries that I've visited here, the wines at De Ponte are very good (especially the Muscadet). The husband of the lady at De Ponte is working the tasting room at Colene Clemons Winery, so she suggests a stop there.
On the way, I travel through the town of Newburg and up and over Chehalem Mountain to Raptor Ridge Winery...excellent whites and big reds. I end up buying a bottle of Pinot Gris and a rare bottle of Pinot Noir from the great 2008 vintage. And..."microclimate" isn't everything out here....because when I ask them why they located the winery in this particular spot, the answer is that it was because the land was cheap.
The route to Colen Clemens Winery is "interesting"...the Garmin is directing me over the very smallest of gravel roads barely wide enough for one vehicle let alone two. After my week-long visit in 2008 and, now, five days here, the roads are somewhat familiar to me. So...sometimes I don't have to rely on either the Garmin or a map. And, on more than one occasion, the Garmin has led me into a dead-end.
Colene Clemons is in a beautiful location...perched high up on a hill overlooking the valley to the south. Lots of people visiting today...tasting...some planning a wedding there for later in the year. The wines are very good, and the husband of the lady from De Ponte takes good care of me. I want to visit Soter Winery, but it's tasting by appointment only. So, they call over there to see if they can get me in on short notice. But...no dice...Soter doesn't take "same-day appointments. This is fine by me because I'm sure that the grapes at Soter are sour.
My last visit of the day is to the Winemakers Studio over in the town of Carlton. This is a facility at which a number of vintners can use the equipment to crush, ferment, age and bottle their wines...perfect for smaller wineries just starting out. They even have a few growers from Washington, so I'm able to get away from Pinot Noir and drink a few Cabs and Syrahs...a nice change of pace. But the nice surprise of this visit is the 2009 Pinot Noir from Brittan Vineyards. It's the big, bold, dark fruit style that I've been searching for ever since I arrived. I buy two bottles, and take with me a form to order more. They can ship this wine to Michigan without any sales tax.
Back at camp, I throw some beers in the cooler for later and spend an hour or so with my netbook...checking emails, posting on Facebook. By now, I'm hungry, so I set off for the restaurant, Jory, at the Allison Spa and Resort in nearby Newberg. It's a very "high-end" place...lots of very expensive exotic vehicles in the parking lot. The restaurant has plenty of tables plus about twenty seats around the open kitchen, and all are empty. But, tonight, I'm getting "the look" for the first time on this trip. It's the look that says you really don't belong here. The hostess is pleasant enough but, for you in the camping clothes with the stubbly beard and baseball cap...well...we're completely booked tonight. I am, instead, directed over to a tiny bar well out of sight of the "beautiful people"...I can have my dinner there...hidden from view.
I have a glass of that nice sparkling wine from Argyle while I look over the menu. I order the gnocchi with rabbit sugo, foraged mushrooms and green olives...it's an excellent dish paired with yet another Pinot Noir. For dessert, I have some chocolate ice cream infused with hot chiles (odd, but very tasty) sitting in a pool of caramel sauce and surrounded by chewy little bits of chocolate cake. They even have my favorite dessert wine, a port-like Banyuls from France (perfectly paired with chocolate). The staff at the bar is "distant" at first, but the story of my camping trip is a good "ice-breaker". And so, after awhile, the staff opens up a little bit and the atmosphere is much more friendly. Now, as I leave about two hours after my arrival, I can't help but notice that the "fully booked" restaurant is half empty.
Back at camp, my beers are nice and cold. I get out the Vizio and watch four back-to-back episodes of the TV show, "House". I knock back a few cold beers and a glass or two of CatDaddy before bed.
I'm really looking forward to my drive tomorrow. I'll be taking the route from here to Bend that I took back in 2008. It's a beautiful drive along a river, through the mountains, and then out into "high desert" through the Deschutes National Forest....three hours and forty minutes according to the Garmin.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment