Oregon Wine: Part 3

On Friday the 21st of April, we started the day with a long trek down I-5 to the Salem area to visit Willamette (Dammit) Valley Vineyards. WVV is, perhaps, the state's largest producer of wine, and probably most recognizable name and label. We were the first to arrive at the tasting room just after 11:00. The tasting room was by far, the most commercialized location we had found in Oregon Wine Country. It reminded me of the rooms in Napa, where selling Polos, T-shirts, and gift takes up more space then the actual tasting bar itself. We actually had to wait around for ten minutes before anyone even came in. Then the employee took another five minutes before he offered us a look at the tasting menu. He must have thought we were there for the t-shirts. The wines were really what we expected. They tasted good, but far from spectacular and unique. The only wine that really stood out to us was their Signature Cuvee Pinot Noir. It had a bold taste to it and seemed to be the most Burgundian styled wine they had. We have also been big fans of their Whole Cluster Pinot Noir. It is fermented in a Beaujolais style. The grapes are left sitting after they have been picked to allow the juice to actually ferment inside the grape skins before being crushed and bottled. If you find this on a wine list at dinner sometime, give it a shot. You'll find it to be very affordable and the best bang for your buck in its price range. One of WVV's best assets is its great hilltop location and beautiful architecture. That alone made the drive seem worth it.

We then drove back North towards Newburg and Dundee for an appointment at Domaine Drouhin. After being stuck in the daily traffic jam on 99W, we were so thankful the tour at Drouhin had waited the extra 10 minutes for us to arrive. Domaine Drouhin's tour and tasting, at twenty dollars a head, turned out to be well worth it. We begin outside looking over their hillside vineyards in the Red Hills of Dundee. The views were spectacular! The brief history of Drouhin is that Robert Drouhin of Maison Joseph Drouhin in Burgundy, lost a wine tasting competition to a wine from Oregon. Robert quickly scouted out locations in the Red Hills and purchased over 200 acres (today 90 acres are planted) of prime hillside land to cultivate. In Burgundy, elevation determine your social status in the wine industry. If your vineyards are low on the hills or the valley floor, your wine is for lack of a better word, crap. If you are to high on the hillside, ditto. You want to be right in the middle, like the grand crus of Burgundy. Domaine Drouhin is located on a such a location, just the right elevation. We then toured Drouhin's gravity flow winery. The wine enters the crush pad on the highest level and only gravity is used to move the wine from the top down through the fermentation tanks, barrel and aging room, and into the bottling room. The belief is that by not using mechanized pumps, you don't stir up and disrupt the natural fermentation and aging of the wine with unnecessary aeration or movement. They also use French Oak Barrels that have been carefully selected from the best forests in France and aged at Maison Joseph Drouhin for up to three years. After the tour we tasted Domaine Drouhin's Oregon offerings against their Maison Joseph Drouhin equivalents from Burgundy. However, equivalent would not be the right word choice, because the Oregon wines simply out-classed the Burgundy wines. First up was the Burgundy Chardonnay against Arthur, the Oregon Chardonnay named after the winemaker's son. Arthur seemed more fresh and lively then its counterpart from France. Next was a good quality Burgundy against the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. Once again the Oregon was superior, and seemed to be approachable and enjoyable. Last was a high quality Burgundy and Laurene, a reserve Pinot Noir named for the winemaker's first daughter. Laurene was amazing! The earthiness, spiciness, and berry flavors all danced on your tongue in unison. It made the French wine seem boring and flat. We left Domaine Drouhin extremely impressed, and with a lighter wallet.

Look for the next post to focus on a blind-tasting I did with my friend Mike up in Providence. After that will be the dining in Willamette Valley. Till next time..."Oh its flavors, they're just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and...ancient on the planet." Miles discussing Pinot Noir, Sideways