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.