Our first stop was a little impulsive. Denise was looking forward to a quick side trip for fresh lavender. But when she saw the Red Ridge Farms sign, and that they also had olive oil tasting — she (and thus we) had to stop.



And there, they also had wines (it's Dundee after all). These were Durant Vineyard wines, which we found out later also is a source for Wine Rose wines.



This selection included a Pinot Gris, a Chardonnay, and a Pinot Noir (of course). Their Pinot Gris was interesting in that it has a raspberry smell (good nose Cheryl!). It had a lime and pear taste and was quick and crisp. Their Chardonnay was more on the Burgundian style; Caleb found it to smell like 'mushroom funk', with some burnt sugar at the end. The Pinot had a strong nutmeg smell, along with dusty raisin and a hint of vanilla. The taste was dusty, earth, pepper and very little fruit. What fruit there was as dark. The finish was dark and earthy -- bark and almost a prune.




The second stop was Domaine Drouhin.



We've been there many times, and it's always a beautiful place to visit. It has just an incredible view of Mt Hood. The estate is just gorgeous. They have places to sit at tables, and a large grounds with perfect spots for a picnic.



They were pouring a Joeseph Drouhin Chablis, the Arthur (Chardonnay), the 2006 and 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs, and the 2005 Laurene (Pinot Noir). I won't re-blog all the wines here — some we have reviews of, and others we will review later. But I will mention that I really like this year's Arthur. It's mossy. It starts with a hint of a slight sweetness then goes perfectly dry. The taste is mainly pear and a little lemon. Caleb described the finish as biting into unripe apricot (in a very good way). This had just great balance.

We went out wine tasting during the Memorial Day weekend recently. In fact, we went both weekends — many wineries and vineyards are open Memorial Day proper and usually one day the weekend before. During those trips we visited Domaine Drouhin on the single day for their 'Louise' release party, and the second trip included Adelsheim, Bergstrom, Trisaetum, and Beaux Freres (Memorial Day Weekend on Ribbon Ridge). I mention this because it was notable how different this trip was from those.



The most conspicuous was how sparse the traffic was. The dreaded 99W isn't bad (or near as annoying) when it's not a parking lot. We breezed past King City, Sherwood, and even straight through Dundee. For those who haven't been stuck there, Dundee is still a very small town, and converts into virtual parking lot when it becomes congested. Apparently there's been talk of a bypass, but certainly there are pros and cons to such a thing. Either way, take away the crowds, and traveling 99W isn't so terrible.

And it wasn't just the roads. All the places we stopped were slow and sleepy. It was really nice not having to fight the traffic, the parking, and the crowds. We just moseyed on in and enjoyed ourselves. Just about everywhere we went, there were only a handful of people at each stop.

But of course there's a flip-side to this: non-special weekends leave you with a lot less wineries and vineyards to choose from — not nearly as many are open regularly as you'll find on the Memorial Day or Thanksgiving weekends. We went with some friends eager to visit Beaux Freres — nope. Brick House — nope. Stag Hallow — nope. So we scrapped our first thought of a return to the north valley (Ribbon Ridge the Chehalem mountains, and north Yamhill areas).



Instead we decided on a cluster of places that were open that included: Domaine Drouhin, De Ponte, Sokol Blosser, and White Rose. We knew we wouldn't hit them all, but having so many, so close together allowed us to keep our options open. It's worth noting that this cluster is just past Dundee — almost to Dayton (most of these vineyards have Dayton addresses in fact, though they're all in the Dundee AVA — technically speaking). So it's a bit of a gamble on a more popular weekend if you hate traffic. As it turns out, we visited Red Ridge Farms, Domaine Drouhin and White Rose (and totally lucked out on the traffic). And finally we finished up in Carlton with lunch at Cuvee and more tastings at the Carlton Tasting room.



There's too much here to put it all in a single post. So instead of a very long post, this will end Part 1, and several more parts I'll post over the next few days.

A bunch of Zinfandel producers will be in town on the 29th of July — 40 of them — for a tasting event that should be interesting — assuming you're near Portland. Zinfandel Advocates & Producers will be in Portland on Wednesday, July 29, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m., World Trade Center Plaza (121 SW Salmon Street). They've teamed up with the Oregon Culinary Institute and Portland Uncorked to bring an army of Zinfandels for you to taste, including:

• Accademia dei Racemi
• Alexander Valley Vineyards
• Artezin Wines
• Bonterra Vineyards
• Four Vines Winery
• Hendry
• J. Rickards Winery & Vineyards
• Mauritson Family Winery
• Opolo Vineyards
• Peachy Canyon Winery
• Pezzi King Vineyards
• Ravenswood
• Ridge Vineyards
• Robert Biale Vineyards
• Sanctuary
• Sebastiani Vineyards
• Starry Night Winery
• Steele Wines
• Storrs Winery & Vineyards
• Wine Guerrilla

From the press release:

"Tasters will taste a rainbow of Zinfandels, from growing regions  
all over California," explains ZAP's Executive Director, Rebecca  
Robinson. "A friendly touch we specialize in at these tastings is  
that the attendees will meet the winemakers and winery owners, thus  
insuring that their questions will be answered from the 'horse's  
mouth,'" she adds. "In both of these cities it will be an  
opportunity to learn why Zinfandel attracts such a great following---
people will be able to taste award-winning Zinfandels, mingle with  
winemakers and winery owners, learn about the richness & versatility  
of Zinfandel, discover why Zinfandel is called America's Heritage  
Wine and sample incredible BBQ from culinary students," she explains.

Tickets cost $35 for ZAP members and $44 for non-members; some  
tickets will be available at the door. Tickets are available in  
advance at:

https://members.zinfandel.org/cgi-shl/TWServer.exe?EREG:OrderEvent:2009TOURORNON

For for members of the wine trade:

https://members.zinfandel.org/cgi-shl/TWServer.exe?EREG:OrderEvent:2009TOURORTRADE

Decanterberrytales has been given some extra tickets to this event. If you're interested in going (assuming you'll be in Portland then), email me. I'll put all the names in a hat and pick out the winners.

I'm trying to learn my Rieslings, so this review will walk you through what I've learned so far. But the best place to start is why I bought this bottle (above) in the first place. Awhile back I drank the bottle below, and really liked it:



Read that review, here: Jos. Christoffel Jr., Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Riesling Auslese, 1990.

So, I really liked the 1990 bottle, and didn't like the 2000 bottle so much -- at least not at first. And yet, the labels look almost the same. Both are Rieslings from the same producer, Jos. Christoffel Jr. Now you could wonder about the vintage and all that, the fact is, there's a lot that's different on the two labels -- despite the fact that it's the same vintner -- than just the vintage. And that's what I wanted to figure out.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. You can read the earlier review, but first, I better let you know what this current bottle was like.

The nose was honeysuckle! That is, a cross between something floral and actual honey. The taste is most definitely sweet, and it is slightly effervescent (sort of like a sweeter Vinho Verde). The main flavor is a sweet lemon. Yet there was a slight sweet vegetable taste -- like a sweet pea pod. The most base way I can put this is that it's light and flat champagne mixed with Countrytime lemonade. Okay, that sounds terrible. And it's worth pointing out that while this isn't my taste, the quality of the wine was very good. And others that drank it with me very much liked it. And it's not like I don't care for some sweet wines, but this was just not my style. it reminded me too much of a wine cooler.

So why did I like the Ausleses and not this Kabinett?

Apparently there are two main dimensions to this story: quality and style. The style classifications are as follows:

• Trocken — bone-dry and high in alcohol.
• Halb-trocken — medium-dry and medium-high in alcohol.
• Edelsuss — traditional and lower in alcohol; they can be slightly-sweet to very sweet depending on the classification.

But if you're paying attention, none of these words appear either label. So that's less useful. The quality scale runs like this (from lowest to highest):

1. Kabinett — light wines made of fully ripe grapes.
2. Spätlese — grapes harvested after the normal harvest ("late harvest").
3. Auslese — selected and very ripe bunches; typically noble wines intense in bouquet and taste.
4. Beerenauslese (BA) — individually selected and overripe berries; rich, sweet dessert wines.
5. Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) — individually selected berries that are overripe and shrivelled on the vine almost to raisins; rich, sweet, luscious, honey-like wines.

Ah ha! Now those was words on both labels. So part of the story is that the 1990 bottle was not just older, it was also a higher-quality wine — the grapes were actually selected for their quality — an "Auslese" — unlike my second, "Kabinett" bottle. But, of course, there is a price to be paid. The Auslese was about $50, and this Kabinett was about $20. So, yet another example of you getting what you paid for.

Also notable is the "Ürziger Würzgarten" and "Wehlener Sonnenuhr" designations. This refers to the specific vineyards where the grapes were grow. Both of these are from the Mosel valley in western Germany. The grapes are grown on these incredibly steep slopes:



However, unless you're a connoisseur of Rieslings, the vineyard where the grapes were grown will likely play a less important role in judging a Riesling by its label than the quality designation.

Anyway if you're like me, you don't usually drink Rieslings, at least not on purpose, but are interested in learning more, I found this article in the NY Times helpful: Ausleses Put Sweetness on the Table.

P.S. I held off on posted this for a few days. And in the interim, I had a small glass of this wine each day. And by the third day, I was starting to like this wine. It lost some of that effervescence, but I'm not sure that was what I didn't like at first. Maybe it's just starting to grow on me.

Cost:   

Rating:    7.0