b/t/w/

NAKED AND UNQUENCHABLE (GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE GUTTER, WE'RE REVIEWING BOOKS, SILLY)

2011-12-13T12:56:00.000-08:00

This may come as something of a shock, but we don't spend all of our time visiting wineries, collecting wines and swilling them in lonely, dark corners of our palatial McMinnville mansion.

We occasionally read about wine, too, and this season brought two new wine books -- Unquenchable, by Natalie MacLean, and Naked Wine, by Alice Feiring -- across our desk. Both are second books by women who carved out their own unique wine beats in their first, critically received efforts: MacLean as a kind of straight-talking wine everywoman who extols the virtues of bargain wines; and Feiring as a fierce proponent of unadulterated, unmanipulated, craftsman wines that don't ramp up the alcohol levels, flavors and "bigness" in search of Parker scores.

Let's start with Alice. In Naked Wine, she delivers a delicious premise in the opening pages that would plump up the figurative pillows of any Oregon wine lover. Jason Lett of the Eyrie Vineyards, she wrote, had invited her to come to Oregon to make a batch of her own wine, as "naturally" and with as little intervention as she could possibly use. Alas, that was the year that Jason's father, Oregon wine pioneer David Lett, passed away, and Alice's trip was put on hold. Instead, she describes an experiment of trying the same thing at a California winery (the belly of the beast that Alice has been trying to slay since she took on over-manipulated CA wines in her first book), and the whole thing ended in something akin to winemaking disaster. The people are dull and corporate, the techniques mechanized, and the wine turns out to be drinkable, but unexceptional and utterly without dogma.

Alice then goes off to connect with the "natural" winemakers whom she loves and admires, most of whom reside in France and Spain, and here Naked Wine gets a bit murky. Nobody can quite agree on what precisely constitutes a natural, "naked" wine, and too often the bottom line becomes a straightforward question of whether or not sulfur was added to preserve the wine. Tramping through vineyards and shivering in cold cellars, Alice tries hard to create and characterize a movement afoot by these under-the-radar winemakers, but when she looks up Jacques Néauport, described as a legend of natural winemaking, he assures her that the only reason his cronies didn't add sulfur was that they were all drunkards who imbibed way too much wine, and wouldn't get hangovers from unsulfured wine. Oops. Alice also doesn't meet a natural wine (or winemaker) whom she doesn't like -- everything she tastes is fresh and interesting and evocative of terroir and place, every winemaker a philosopher in disguise -- and one wonders how she can reconcile these tasting notes with the ones wine writer Patrick Comiskey offered at a dinner in Feiring's honor, when he described one natural wine as having "the off-grey color of a dirty t-shirt, cloudy and thick, with flavors just as vague." Maybe he failed to recognize its unique sense of place and elan.

When finally, Feiring sighs that there is just no standard in America for a person who both raises the grapes as naturally as possible and then makes the wine -- "the concept of a singular person who both farms and makes his or her own wine" -- we in Oregon practically leap to our feet and shout, "I know! I know!" The small, craft-and-quality-oriented winery is alive and well here -- but they still put sulfur in the wine to keep it palatable. Naked Wine is an interesting and passionate look at a sub-culture of wine that is growing in recognition -- but I think I'll still stick to a good Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

But good Pinot Noir can be expensive, and award-winning writer Natalie MacLean promises "a Tipsy Quest for the World's Best Bargain Wines" in the subtitle to Unquenchable. Well, that's easy, I thought: MacLean need only pop down to our local Grocery Outlet, tipple her way through the racks and racks of bargain wine, spitting out the ones that taste like they should cost $3.99, and give us a few buying hints after her headache wears off.

But no, instead she embarks on a world tour of her own, stopping in South Africa, Argentina, Australia and the Niagara region of Canada (but alas, not Oregon or Washington) to taste and chat with producers. MacLean is an amiable guide, and an honest one. "Hogwash!" she declares at one juncture, "I stopped being objective the day I was born." At another place she barks, "If you're looking for consistency, try the Oxford Companion to Wine. If you want adventure, let's go." She writes well about the wines she tries, and the foods laid out before her by adoring hosts (nearly all of which can be found on her website, www.nataliemaclean.com), but unlike me, she doesn't find a dud in the lot of wines she tries. Possibly because she doesn't want to offend hosts or sponsors, it's hard to know, but every sponsored sip evokes a kind of euphoria in this tipsy taster. And the bargain wines which she seeks out somehow include the likes of Penfolds Grange, the starting price of which is $500/bottle. When she tastes it at Penfolds' HQ, she begins to make quite unbecoming noises that sound like Ravel's Bolero.

I'd like to get my hands on some of that bargain wine, too. In the end, Unquenchable provides a nice overview of world wines, and travel descriptions from an amiable guide with whom you wouldn't mind knocking back a liter or two of the good stuff...if she's buying.

FALL DISCOUNT: SAVE $5 ON PURCHASES WITH THIS COUPON

2011-11-09T16:13:00.000-08:00

PARTICIPATING WINERIES FOR OUR FALL 2011 COUPON PROMOTION:

McMinnville

R. Stuart & Co., 528 NE 3rd St., 866.472.8614

Youngberg Hill Vineyards & Inn, 10660 SW Youngberg Hill Rd., 503.472.2727

Dundee Hills

Sokol Blosser, 5000 Sokol Blosser Lane, Dayton, 503.864.2282

Winderlea Vineyard & Winery, 8905 NE Worden Hill Rd., Dundee, 503.554.5900

Winter's Hill Vineyard, 6451 Hilltop Lane, Dayton, 503.864.4538

Newberg/Carlton

Anam Cara Cellars, 306 North Main St., Newberg, 503.537.9150

Troon Vineyard, 250 N. Kutch St., Carlton, 503.852.3084

WildAire Cellars, 128 W. Main St., Carlton, 503.851.3689

Forest Grove

Montinore Estate, 3663 SW Dilley Rd., 503.359.5012, ext. 3

Southern Oregon/Applegate Valley/Jacksonville

Quady North, 255 E. California St., Jacksonville, 541.702.2123

Troon Vineyard, 1475 Kubli Rd., Grants Pass, 541.846.9900

Coupon is for purchase of wine or merchandise only; tasting fees not included in promotion.

Please check each winery for hours and locations. Use our WINE NAVIGATOR to route your trip.

SUMMER DINNERS WITH HERB & RUDY

2011-08-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

Although I am ill-prepared for this sudden turn of events, summer must just about be over. For one thing, they've already begun harvesting grapes in Burgundy (how can this be? one wonders aloud here in Oregon where the grapes are a nice, bright green right now). And for another, my 11-year old son starts middle school next week and I am this close to not having to arrange any more play dates, sleepovers, pizza and movie confabs, etc. The sound that you hear is one man hanging on to sanity by the fingernails.

All of which is a wistful lead-up to some coverage of a couple of truly wonderful winery dinners that I attended this summer, at Rudy Marchesi's Montinore Estate in Forest Grove (Rudy pictured here, right around the dessert course), and Herb & Meloney Quady's Quady North in southern Oregon. Both dinners were catered, outdoor affairs (well, Rudy's wound up in the cellar) with wonderful menus and wines.

If you want to know how to pair their wines, or just get some nice tips for pairing Viognier, Pinot Noir, Gewurtz, Syrah, Cab Franc and Riesling, checking out these pros' menus is a good place to start.

Full menu and pairing descriptions on our Food/Recipes page.

But that was then, and this is now, and I could eat wonderful winemaker dinners just about every night at six o'clock if they let me. Next up in Oregon: Harvest season (which everyone sees as happening late in October this year; rain rain stay away) and even more food and wine pairing events in our favorite time of the year in wine country. Salud!

OUR ON-LINE WINE STORE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

2011-07-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

We're thrilled to report that our new, on-line Wine Store has been revamped and is now open for business. The secure system allows customers to place orders for as few as one, and as many as a case of Oregon wine to be shipped directly to you. A Wine Club feature lets you sign up to receive two bottles of hand-picked Oregon wine every month, a Pinot Noir 3-pack, or up to a case of wine when you want it.

The first Wine Specials include the lovely '07 1789 Pinot Noir from winemaker Isabelle Dutartre, which is one of our favorite under-the-radar wines, and a crisp, delicious '10 Auxerrois white from another boutique winemaker, our friend Remy Drabkin.

Also on the list are the smooth, balanced '08 Daffodil Hill Pinot Noir from R. Stuart & Co., and King Estate's delicious '09 Signature Pinot Gris.

For details, go to http://www.oregonwine.com/section.cfm?wSectionID=1100.

FILL 'ER UP, HARRY!

2011-06-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

There is something awfully pleasant about bringing your glass jug to a winery, knocking on the door, and having the owner of the winery -- in this case, Harry Peterson-Nedry of Chehalem -- greet you and fill your bottle with crisp, fresh wine, straight from the barrel.

This is the crux of the experience behind Harry/Chehalem's new refillable, wine-on-tap program. (Which we think just screams out for a catchy name; to that end, we recently ran a Facebook promotion where readers named the program. The winners were Re-Wined and ReBott, and we'll take our royalties in wine, thank you). The green benefits of refillable bottles are obvious: Less glass goes into the recycler, less glass gets purchased and transported by the winery, and the bottles are capped, not corked. And since Harry doesn't have to bottle, label and ship the wine, it's more affordable: In this case, $15 for a liter of good INOX Chardonnay (a $23 value), and $25 for a liter of '09 3 Vineyard Pinot Noir (a $36 value). Bottles are $5 each, and can be filled over and over.

But there is something deeper and more satisfying about this program than simply buying wine in a new package. As Harry said, and as we've experienced, a refillable bottle of wine makes drinking wine more routine..."more playful and part of your meal," as he put it. Stopping off to fill bottles at Chehalem to or from work makes the wine purchase (and consumption) as normal as picking up bread and eggs. He's hoping to capitalize on the winery's location on the busy 99W corridor to capture commuter traffic. (Two other Oregon wineries that we know of, Troon Vineyards in the Applegate Valley and Springhouse Cellar in Hood River, also have refillable bottle programs.)

The capped bottles should be opened within a week and drunk within a day or two after that. For some reason, we've found that they're just easier to pull out and put on the dinner table, with none of the usual "should we choose and open a new bottle of wine?" negotiations that we usually undertake. And having a whole liter of wine handy seems to make the juice go further.

On top of it all, the wines are delicious, and a good value. Harry is presently pouring the 2010 INOX Chardonnay, which won't be released in normal bottles at the winery until September, and has a crisp, clean, lively feeling on the palette; and his 3 Vineyard Pinot Noir, which opens up into a nice red table wine if we can just leave it alone long enough to warm to room temperature.

When we picked up our bottles at the winery, Harry said, "Enjoy them, and, why, bring 'em back and we'll fill 'em up again." Which honestly, we're prepared to do again and again.

EDITOR'S NOTE: As of this writing in June 2011, Harry's bottles can only be refilled at the winery, on Veritas Lane (just off 99W) outside of Newburg, and not at the Chehalem tasting room in the middle of town. They're awaiting clearance from the wine distribution powers before the tasting room can also be a filling station, and hope to have it by the middle of the summer.

CATCHING UP WITH COEUR DE TERRE

2011-04-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was invited to an open house at Coeur de Terre Vineyards, just outside of McMinnville, and on an absolutely lousy day when the rain was pounding and the skies slate-gray, I drove over the river and through the woods, and was glad I did. The wine and hospitality were worth the slog.

Coeur de Terre is the lovechild of Scott & Lisa Neal, who fell in love with Oregon and Pinot Noir (perhaps not in that order), scraped together savings and family donations and planted this property in 1998. "We spent every nickel we had to buy and build it," said Scott, who still splits his time between the winery and a medical care provider business that he runs. "And now we've been here for ten years and are making some money...it takes that long."

It was worth the wait (at least, for we consumers). CdT is one of those small, charming, utterly off the beaten path wineries that are a joy to find once you go down the back road, turn left at the fourth cow and go up the gravel path. It's set in the rugged, hilly, McMinnville AVA, well outside of the namesake town, with vineyards terraced on the hillsides and a warm, cheerful, wooden tasting room with a bar and fireplace. The Neals have had their two children since starting the business, and the family atmosphere that they foster permeates the place, right down to the chutney that Scott had made himself for the Open House spread.

The wines, I quickly found, live up to the landscape. They all were absolutely redolent of big, fragrant, earthy aromas, all emanating from the estate-grown fruit. An '06 Riesling had a big, petrol nose and elements of slate and mineral to go with a nice fruit finish and good balance. The '09 Oregon Pinot Noir, which was released in November and retails for just $20/bottle, was a stunner with huge, earthy aromatics and a soft finish. "That was the winemaking challenge," Scott said with a smile. "Getting the power without getting the beast." At higher price points were an '08 Estate Pinot Noir ($34) and the '07 Renelle's Block Reserve ($48), the former showing that same big release of aromas and a bit of a bite that suggests it will do well to lay down and age for several years; the latter bringing up big flavors of chocolate and spice and still very much able to age in the bottle for a few more years.

We wound up chatting about baseball and schools, and I went back for more samples of that '09 Pinot, which I would happily drink on any school night. If they keep this up, I'll have to make CdT a regular stop on my wine-seeking wanderings.

MEET THE ENTIRE OREGON WINE INDUSTRY? I SYMPOSE

2011-03-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

Along the lines of my previous post, I can now imagine walking into the annual Oregon Wine Industry Symposium one day, checkbook in hand, and walking out two days later with everything I need to start, own and operate a winery. The Wine Symposium, which is conducted by the Oregon Wine Board, was held again this year in Eugene on February 21-23, allowing winemakers the opportunity to mingle and attend seminars on topics like marketing and viticulture, and allowing exhibitors to hawk their winemaking wares.

To that end, I can easily imagine waltzing into the Symposium one day, my leopard cape jauntily draped over one shoulder and flunkies at the ready with iPads, and going right down the list. Buy a vineyard property and/or existing winery from one of the real estate companies set up in a booth? Check. Legal advice from law firms that specialize in wineries, and banks that finance? Check. Everything from barrels, labels, bottles and corks to make the wine, boxes to store and ship it in, and warehouses willing to store and deliver it? Check, check, check. And the OLCC on hand with its own booth to make sure I'm all doing it by the book. By the end of the day I'd be holding court with a large Riedel glass in hand making up stories about my terroir and passion for Pinot, and wondering how to get a 94 from Spectator.

This was my second Symposium, and once again I was taken by the easy, collegial camaraderie of this wine-making community. It was fun to casually run into many of its big players, from RoxyAnn's Michael Donovan hanging out at the press workshop to a lunch with Earl and Hilda Jones of Abacela and dinner with the pluperfect p.r. and marketing queen, Lisa Donoughe, who manages the Portland Indie Wine Festival. And the awards dinner catered by Lincoln Restaurant chef Jenn Louis was nothing short of sensational, with seven different wines being swilled -- I mean thoughtfully sipped -- at each table.

I didn't buy the winery, the bottles and the barrels this time, but just watch me next year. And I'm going to start interviewing soon for flunkies.

PSSST, BUDDY, WANNA BUY A WINERY?

2011-03-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

A gentleman named Linde Kester is apparently tapping into my dreams. In this case, it's the dream of owning a winery and enjoying a dotage devoted to fine food and wine. The barrels sitting fat and full in the cool, dark cellar. The flowing juices sluicing through plastic hoses at crush time. The sunsets on the patio with the ice-bucket of crisp whites chilling nearby as the children happily cavort on the expansive lawns. The young barefoot women lifting their skirts and stomping on the grapes in the stainless steel fermenters. And, well, I can't be responsible for what else goes on in dreams.

Mr. Kester, you see, called me up to talk about his winery being for sale. Chateau Lorane is the property, and it's outside of Eugene, next to King Estate's sprawling holdings. Our colleague Morris Walker had shot and edited a lovely video that serves as a kind of greeting card for the place, and we decided to run it. As you can see from the video that is posted on Oregonwine.com, CL is a gorgeous property that is as well-suited to holding a wedding or a retreat as it is to producing some really interesting wines. There's a lake on the property big enough to ski on, a lodge and a tasting room where they sell and pour unusual varietals like Baco Noir, the German Huxelrebe, and dark, rich Marechal Foch.

I can't say that Huxelrebe or Marechal Foch have ever been featured in my dreams, but I'm willing to make room for them.

Asking price for this particular dream is $6.6 million, but never mind the price tag. It's the dream that counts, and this one is a doozy. Owning an Oregon winery would be, in my waking dreams, like owning a little slice of heaven. Anybody want to go in on a winery together?

THE VERJUS CHRONICLES, PART 2

2011-01-23T11:34:00.000-08:00

As careful readers may recall, we got our hands on a couple of bottles of the verjus bottled by Rudy Marchesi at Montinore Vineyards during crush this year. And since we knew about as much about verjus as we do about particle physics (which is, admittedly, next to nothing), we put a bottle in the hands of somebody who does: Eric Bechard, the talented chef of Thistle Restaurant in McMinnville.

And Eric went crazy with ideas and uses for the tart, delicious juice. Here's what he did with it:

Verjus mignonette for Oysters on the half shell

12 oysters, preferably out of Netarts Bay, Oregon

Mignonette:
1/4 cup verjus
1/4 cup shallots brunoise (finely diced)
1 teaspoon white whine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon fresh grated horseradish root

Mix all ingredients together and allow to marry for at least 2 hours. Shuck oysters and top with a spoonful of mignonette.

The French Connection Cocktail

2 ounces Ransom Smalls gin
1 ounce verjus
1/2 teaspoon simple syrup (equal parts sugar/water)
Sparkling Wine

Pour all ingredients except sparkling wine into cocktail shaker, shake. Pour into champagne flute. Top with sparkling wine. Stir gently and garnish with orange twist.

The verjus is also great as a tonic served on the rocks with a splash of soda and a dash of orange bitters.

Enjoy!

SCOTT PAUL GOES LIBRARY

2011-01-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I sat down over quiche and ham sandwiches with Scott Wright, who owns and is the winemaker at Carlton's Scott Paul Wines. Scott is quite an interesting guy who left a successful career in the music business to pursue his passion for wine about a dozen years ago, and hasn't looked back. Besides making a lovely set of Oregon-grown Pinot Noirs, he also imports a large catalogue of wines that he seeks out from small Burgundian producers. It's kind of astounding to walk into his charming tasting room in an old brick building in Carlton and find the shelves lined with Grands Cru and Premier Cru bottles from the likes of Vosne-Romanee and Chambolle-Musigny.

Next Saturday, January 22nd, from noon to 5, Scott and his crew will be tasting and selling a selection of library wines that are also pretty astounding. Check out this lineup:

2000 Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir (from one of Scott's first vintages, and a wine that put him on the map); $50

2004 Audrey (his top-of-the-line brand, and just a gorgeous Oregon Pinot Noir); $75

Lamarche 2004 Vosne-Romanee les Suchots Premier Cru; $55

Huber-Verdereau 2004 Volnay, Robardelles; $32

Leclerc 2004 Gevrey-Chambertin, les Champeaux Premier Cru; $50

Tasting fee for all of these is $20, refundable on a 6-bottle purchase. Sounds like the first "don't miss" event of the season.

IPNC ANNOUNCES STELLAR LINEUP FOR SEMINAR

2011-01-09T20:31:00.001-08:00

As if we needed more excuses to attend the International Pinot Noir Celebration, the annual summertime orgy -- I mean weekend -- of exquisite wine and over-the-top food functions at idyllic Linfield College in McMinnville, check out the line-up they've assembled for this year's Grand Seminar.

Sharing the stage will be David Adelsheim, one of the pioneers of the Oregon wine industry; Veronique Drouhin-Boss (pictured at right), the winemaker of Domaine Drouhin Oregon and Burgundy's Maison Joseph Drouhin; Burgundian star winemaker Dominique Lafon, who also oversees Oregon's Evening Land Vineyards; Jim Clendenon of Au Bon Climat and Larry McKenna of Escarpment. And the moderator will be Eric Asimov, the wine writer from the New York Times.

They'll be leading a tasting of wines that are sure to be sensational, with a discussion about the evolution of Pinot Noir. But with that kind of star power, they could be discussing the Simpsons and I'd still want to go. Tickets for the weekend are still available, but with events like this, IPNC will sell out soon.

THE PROBLEM WITH PARSNIPS

2011-01-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

I'll admit that I don't spend a great deal of time thinking about parsnips. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I'll also admit that I wouldn't be able to point out a parsnip at the Farmer's Market if it bit me on the ass (which, to my knowledge, hasn't ever happened at the Farmer's Market, but I'm just saying). I have nothing against them, mind you, but they exist in a dim netherworld of root vegetables that include their Schrute-like neighbors, the turnip and the rutabaga (but yes, Dwight, I do like beets). I'll bet I haven't eaten a dozen of the above, combined, in my 54 years of stuffing my face like a pig.

All of this is a rambling way of saying that when Mark Cuneo sent out an appetizer plate of three thin, crispy slices of bruschetta, and one of the slices had chunks of roasted parsnip on it where the cheese and meat should have been...well, you could have knocked me over with a parsnip. This was at Mark's Stecchino Bistro restaurant in Forest Grove, Oregon on Friday night, a place that I've been meaning to visit for months since Mark, a recent friend and the son of my wine-making pal Gino Cuneo, opened nearly a year ago. The buzz has been good, so I snuck out of the house and made the 20-minute drive from McMinnville with high hopes.

Which were quickly confirmed. This bruschetta sampler was, in another word, delightful. The parsnips were tender, browned at the edges and subtly spiced with what might have been cinnamon or allspice. On the crunchy bread, drizzled with olive oil, they were just delicious. A second slice of toast was covered in roasted beet dice dressed in a light vinaigrette over a smear of house-made mascarpone cheese. If you're keeping score, that's two root vegetables in one appetizer, surely a record. And the third slice had the utterly comforting toppings of thin slices of hard-boiled egg and proscuitto. This is possibly the best winter appetizer ever, boasting rather than apologizing for the fare of the season.

What ensued was one of the best meals I've enjoyed out in ages. Mark's fare is pure bistro comfort, all with an Italian flair. The bruschetta was followed by a creamy, orange-colored puree of even more root vegetales, with a little bite of pepper. A simple green salad with sage vinaigrette. And then a gorgeous porcini-pork sausage, also made in-house, sitting fatly over a bed of braised cabbage and polenta, which themselves were swimming in olive oil, with a sprinkle of Grana Padano.

On the wine list were several bottles of local wines from the likes of Montinore and David Hill, as well as the Bonatello that Gino makes from Washington-grown Sangiovese grapes, all of them for under $30, with ten glass pours of European wines for under $6.

Now I can't wait to go back for more of that sausage, the lamb stew, the homemade tagliatelle...and more parsnip bruschetta of course. I do, I like it, Sam I Am. I like parsnips just fine, thanks.

INTRODUCING OUR TASTING PANELS

2011-01-03T21:21:00.001-08:00

The newest feature to hit our web magazine is the Tasting Panel, a concept that we've gratefully borrowed from Eric Asimov's wine column in the New York Times. In our case, we'll be talking about Oregon wines in different combinations with panels of friends, colleagues and readers.

For the first panel, entitled "Sleepers & Surprises," we were joined by our good friend, winemaker Gino Cuneo, and his son Mark, who is a terrific chef and recently opened Stecchino Bistro in Forest Grove. In fact, we held the panel at Gino's dining room table in McMinnville. Also on hand were my wife Kris, who is quickly becoming a connoisseur of Oregon wines and, if I may say so, has a nose like a beagle. She found all kinds of flavors and aromas in our samples -- such as dandelion, fresh air and "kind of a rain on asphalt" -- that were both refreshing and revealing.

The wines we tasted were seven Pinot Noirs from smaller producers, many of whom fly under the radar of larger-budget wineries (with actual ad and promotional budgets). Personally, I found the tasting to be a blast, and with Gino providing expert analysis of the wines, I learned a great deal more in my never-ending quest for developing my own palate.

The hit pick of the panel turned out to be Rebecca Shouldis's Ghost Hill Cellars 2008 Pinot Noir; if you want to try it yourself, pick up a bottle directly from Northwest Wines to You, an on-line distributor of several small, fine labels.

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH HAS BEEN PUBLISHED!

2010-12-14T12:41:00.000-08:00

This is kind of a long story. I wrote my first novel a few years ago and called it FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. It's a comic, sad, kind of crazy story about a guy in a small, lakeside town in New York State who A) is grieving the early death of his father; B) wondering if he's in for the same fate as he approaches his Dad's death age; and C) thinks he may have discovered a chemical that will keep you alive forever, created by the crazy chemistry professor from the local college.

And then, since this is a rather ambitious first novel, I have the whole thing being told by a highly suspect narrator who has locked himself into the cabin of a luxurious cruise ship, gained 300 pounds, and is assisted by four imaginary co-narrators. And the ghost of his dead father.

Well, that's saying alot. FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH was embraced by a big NYC literary agency when I finished the first draft, and they sent it out to a bunch of publishing houses. Nobody bought it; they thought it was too wild and experimental in the telling of the story.

So I rewrote it over the course of a long, difficult summer three years ago or so, and took out all of the crazy parts. Agency sent it back out again; nobody published it again.

It sat around since then on my shelf, but I dusted it off this year and damned if I didn't like the first version, and really wanted those characters and that story to have a life. So after several rounds of re-writing and re-editing my work, I've self-published it, and it's now available for purchase on Amazon.

Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Fountain-Youth-Novel-Jim-Gullo/dp/1456316753/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292359663&sr=8-2

Pick up a copy and let me know what you think.

VERJUS, TAKE ONE

2010-12-13T21:04:00.000-08:00

The very nice people of Montinore Estates sent me a bottle of their homemade Verjus this week. After admiring the bottle, which is an old-style glass jug stopped with a cork and sealed in wax, and after I figured out what Verjus is -- pressed juice from unripened grapes, like the stuff they prune from the vines before the best grapes mature -- I started thinking about what to do with it. A sip revealed an interesting, bittersweet taste -- sweeter than vinegar, sharper than juice -- with no alcohol. Some helpful notes on the label suggested using it to finish sauces, replace vinegar in salads, or use as a mixer in cocktails.

So I had to try it out on dinner. We were in a pasta mood, and the other day I had done a simple sauce for spaghetti of shallots, mushrooms, olive oil and butter, so I thought I'd recreate it. This time, though, after the shallots and mushrooms were crisping up in their oily bath, I added a big slug of verjus to the pan, got it boiling and let it reduce by about 3/4. The result was terrific: A nice, tart tang to the sauce that brought out even more flavor in the shallots and mushrooms.

I'm now going to impress all of my friends by casually dropping the word Verjus in practically every conversation...and finding more things to do with it. Stay tuned for more Verjus Chronicles. Shit My Verjus Does. Everybody Loves Verjus. Mork & Verjus.

MONDAY NIGHT PASTA

1/2 pound spaghetti
2 medium sized shallots, peeled and diced
1C mushroom slices, cut in half but not smaller
3T olive oil
1T butter
Generous pinch salt
1/2C Verjus

1. Bring pot of salted water to boil, add pasta and when it's all stirred into the pot and the water is boiling again, set the timer for 7.5 minutes and boil briskly. Stir once or twice.

2. In saute pan, heat olive oil. Add shallots and mushrooms and shake or stir to coat. Let simmer for about a minute and then add the butter and let it melt into the pan. Add salt. Shake and stir again. Simmer for about three more minutes until shallots crisp up and mushrooms turn gray all over and brown at the edges. Add Verjus, turn up heat until it boils and then let it boil briskly and reduce by about 3/4. Turn to low to keep pan warm.

3. Drain pasta. Pour into serving bowl, add sauce, and with tongs, grab a handful of pasta and wipe out the saute pan with it. Use tongs to toss pasta in the bowl until it's shiny with the simple sauce.

4. My mother would add grated Parmesan, but then, so what else is new? I wouldn't and didn't, and our Verjus-sauced pasta was terrific with a green salad and crisp white wine.

CHECK OUT THIS MENU

2010-12-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

We're entering the season of winemaker dinners and special events that may well produce some of the finest dinners of the year. In McMinnville, for example, Thistle restaurant has a monthly series going where a guest chef comes in to man the kitchen, and a guest winery pairs their juice with a multi-course menu, all to raise money for YCAP, the local charitable umbrella organization.

And then there's the winemaker series hosted by Timberline Lodge, way up on Mt. Hood, where chef Jason Stoller Smith puts together six-course menus and invites a stellar Oregon winery to pair. It began in September with Steve Doerner of Cristom providing the wine, and this week is another sensational menu with pairings by Rob Stuart of R. Stuart & Co.

Never one to shy away from a full-out sprint when the dinner gong is rung, I started drooling when I saw this menu, and lost count of how many single-vineyard Pinot Noirs Rob will be bringing:

Amuse Bouche: Kusshi Oyster on Oregon White Truffle Custard; Sturgeon Caviar, Chives, Gold Leaf (paired with NV Brute, Rose d'Or)

Second Course: Saucisson l'Ail w/ 8-year Cured Carlton Farm's Prosciutto; Hood River Pear Gelee, Fingerling Puree, Dijon Vinaigrette (paired with 2008 Riesling, Ana Vineyard)

Pasta Course: Oxtail Agnollotti w/ Duck Heart Sauce and Neuske's Applewood Bacon; Vella Dry Jack, Duck Egg Yolk (paired with '07 Pinot Noir, Daffodil Hill Vineyard, and '07 Pinot Noir, Ana Vineyard)

Main Course: Sous Vide of Silvie Valley Ranch Beef Tenderloin; Sonoma Foie Gras Terrine & Sea Scallop; Butternut Squash Puree, Oregon Black Truffles (paired with '07 Pinot Noir, Winderlea Vineyard and '07 Pinot Noir, Weber Vineyard)

Cheese Course: Briar Rose Chevre w/ Wildcat Mountain Honey; Radicchio, Mint (paired with '07 and '08 Autograph Pinot Noir)

Dessert Course: Hazelnut Butter Mousse w/ Satsuma Orange Gelato; Mission Fig Coulis, Hazelnut Crunch (paired with NV Tawny Dessert Wine, Klipsun Vineyard)

To which I add: Give me a freakin' break. All this served in the snowy, cozy Silcox Hut ABOVE Timberline Lodge. Should be quite a night, and they'd have to roll me down the mountain when it was over.

Details at http://www.timberlinelodge.com/winemakers-dinner-series/

COOKBOOKS, WINE BOOKS, COFFEE TABLE BOOKS AND THE DAY JOHN LENNON DIED

2010-12-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

My writerly friends have been very busy lately, publishing a number of terrific books on everything from cooking for game nights to finding the best and most picturesque towns in the Northwest (including several in Oregon wine country) to a gripping account of the day that John Lennon was killed in New York City, when we were all considerably younger and more optimistic.

In short, there's lots of good reading out there.

Go to my Books tab, above, for details. And happy reading.

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND IN WINE COUNTRY

2010-11-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick list of wineries that are open in Oregon wine country over Thanksgiving weekend, with regrets to the 350-some wineries that we don't mention here:

COELHO WINERY, AMITY -- Open 11-5, Fri. - Sun. Releasing the 2008 Amoroso Grenache Dessert Wine, with a lovely label photo depicting Dave Coelho's Portuguese grandparents. Always a treat to visit this big, festive tasting room in downtown Amity.

CALAMITY HILL VINEYARD, EOLA HILLS -- Open 11-5, Fri. - Sat. Rare opening for this tiny, new vineyard way up in the hills outside of Amity. They made a funny, text-to-video YouTube to celebrate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWxcjurvu0

BIGGIO HAMINA CELLARS, MCMINNVILLE -- Open 11-6, Fri. - Sun. New tasting room and space for this small producer of excellent Pinot Noirs. Big food presentations, too, and a fun atmostphere.

YOUNGBERG HILL, MCMINNVILLE -- Check for hours. Come for the wines, but you'll want to stay at this gorgeous b&b perched high up on a hill, with bucolic rural views in every direction. Estate grown pinot noirs for sale in the inn's tasting room.

REMY WINES, MCMINNVILLE -- Open noon-5, Fri.-Sun. This warehouse winery on 10th Ave. in Mac, just down the street from Eyrie, only opens a few times a year. Great deals on her luscious Italian varietals and Three Wives red blend.

R. STUART & CO., MCMINNVILLE -- Open noon-8, Fri. & Sat.; noon-5 Sun. Wine bar on Third Street offers great prices on R. Stuart and Big Fire bottles; great ambiance, too.

ROXYANN WINERY, MEDFORD -- Open 11-6, Fri-Sun. Big, festive atmosphere in this bustling winery at Hillcrest Farm on a hillside in Medford. We love the smooth claret and syrah, but there is something for everyone.

SCOTT PAUL, CARLTON -- Open noon-5, Fri.-Sun. Amazing selection of imported French Burgundies and Champagnes, and they're offering 2009 Audrey Pinot Futures this weekend.

PART 2: THE WINE WEEK THAT WAS

2010-11-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

Still at Horseradish in Carlton. I once spent a weekend in this town and had a great time hitting wineries and retreating to my room in the Winemaker's Lofts on Main Street; it's like Disneyland for lovers of small wineries. Here's a shot of the long pool table here, but I'm afraid that I scarfed a first-rate pumpkin crisp before I could photograph it. And no, I don't receive any promotional considerations -- as they say on Jeopardy -- for these plugs; I just really like good pool tables and homemade desserts.

I like cake, okay? So shoot me. Maybe you like cake, too; you just hate to admit it in public. After last weekend I told my wife Kris that I'd ease off on the cake after an orgy of big apple and pumpkin pies and our favorite breakfast New England Spider Cake (tastes better than it sounds), but my promises are never iron-clad where cake is concerned. I saw this recipe for a French apple cake laced through with rum on David Lebovitz's website, and so the middle of the week was spent scarfing cake. And even Kris didn't complain very much.

With crumbs dripping from my maw, I stopped by Stoller Vineyards for a visit with marketing consultant Dixie Huey, who gave me a virtual tour around the former turkey farm. I didn't know that Stoller had cottages (they call them guest houses) to rent on the property, and makes a special emphasis on hospitality. As if to back this up, winemaker Melissa Burr was in the Tasting Room and was pouring samples of the '08 Stoller SV Estate Pinot Noir, which I think has to be in my top-ten favorite wines right now with its rich aroma and flavors.

On Friday I went back to the NW Wine Bar. I wanted to learn more about Sarah Powell, whose wine I had tried the week before. I found out that she was a partner and founding winemaker at RoxyAnn, one of my favorite Southern Oregon wineries, but cancer took her early in 2004. Her parents have continued her label, Sarah Powell Wines, with Laurent Montalieu of NW Wines overseeing the production of the line. I'm going to write more about her in the weeks to come.

Also, a selfish reason: NW Wine Bar was pouring DDO's 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir by the glass, and that's a fine reason to go out on any night. Veronique Drouhin-Boss's wines are something of a standard for what I'm looking for in Pinot Noir, with their aromas, finesse and lingering elegance.

Down the street, R. Stuart & Co. was holding its semi-annual open house in the winery, with Maria & Rob Stuart presiding over a fun, crowded room of friends and wine club members who were tasting and snapping up cases of their Pinot Noirs, dessert wines and Pinot Gris. I'm very partial to their Daffodil Hill Pinot Noir from the Eola-Amity Hills, colored in large part by a sensational harvest luncheon that I attended there when I first discovered the wine. It's bright and fruity and delicious.

Later, during the weekend, I made an important decision: I went wine-tasting at quite a well-known Chehalem Mountains winery that gets a lot of press, and I found, after tasting through their entire line, that I just didn't much like what I was trying. Little or no nose in the glass, not much in the way of fruit or big flavors on the tongue, or a nice texture. The wines were balanced and, of course, professionally crafted; I think they just got short-handed on fruit. But that's just my opinion (and what do I know); other people love their wines and judging from the crowds in the tasting room, they do pretty well. So instead of writing about wines I don't like, I'm going to stick to wines that I do like on the website, and let people draw their own conclusions.

On the way back to Carlton I passed a sign on the road that made me slam on the brakes, pull a U-y and look again: Gino Cuneo of Tre Nova Wines had set up a sign outside of Laurel Ridge announcing a tasting. Gino is an old friend about whom I've written several times, and for the last few years he's operated out of custom-crush facilities in Dundee; this year, I found out, he set up shop at Laurel Ridge and was pouring his lovely Bonatello Reserve, made from Sangiovese, and Nebbiolo, all sourced from Washington vineyards. True to his Italian heritage, Gino continues to make wonderful Italian varietals in the Northwest, and is one of those small, Oregon producers whom I adore. Stumbling upon him and his wines on a chill Fall afternoon on an Oregon backroad is one of those moments that makes a trip to Oregon wine country -- and it happens to me about every week.

Today, as the grey skies turned to rain, I came back to Carlton for the singular pleasure of tasting the offerings at Scott Paul Wines. Can you name one other place in the country -- forget about in a tiny Oregon town -- that is pouring Grand Crus French champagnes and Burgundies that they exclusively import? With Martha Wright pouring, I tasted four Champagnes -- one crisper and more distinctive than the next -- two incredible Chambolle-Musigny's (loved the J.J. Confuron) and two of Scott's wines, including a barrel sample of the '09 Audrey. And admired the shelves loaded with rare Burgundy wines from Vosnes-Romanees, Meursault, Nuits St. Georges, etc.

And then followed it up with tastings of Matthew Driscoll's Wildaire Cellars Pinot Noir down the street, including a barrel sample of an '09 Shea Vineyard pinot that he'll release next year. Another guy who is making fewer than 1,000 cases of wine, and making them well.

And so, patient reader, I sit here very well fed and wined. Dark outside now; the Colts lost after Payton the Machine sputtered and blew a fuse. Can't imagine how I'll top this week in Oregon wine country, but I'll try.

Follow us on Facebook at Oregonwine.com. Twitter at btwowine. Cheers and don't drink bad wine.

THIS WAS THE WINE WEEK THAT WAS

2010-11-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm sitting at the Horseradish wine bar and restaurant in Carlton, Oregon, the Patriots-Colts game on a bright, large TV screen. I'm absolutely decimating a plate of bread, soppresata, Humboldt Fog and Rogue Creamery cheeses, with a glass of a Columbia Valley red blend, reflecting on a week in wine country. Outside it's drizzling, chilly, everyone excited about the first snow of the year possibly arriving tonight; the wine people who live in Portland all worrying about getting home on clean roads, and what Thanksgiving week will bring. Harvest is over now, fermentations almost complete on the 2010 vintages, and there is a tangible feeling in wine country of people settling down after a tough, frantic crush, buttoning up their homes and businesses and hunkering down for what is forecast to be a cold, snowy winter.

Wine and good food essential to getting through it, of course.

Let me try to reconstruct this week of wine in Oregon; it has been quite a ride. (Dwight Freeney just inhaled Tom Brady in the same fashion that I'm inhaling cheese and bread and fig jam. Tom Brady wishes he were in my toasty and well-fed shoes right now.)

Last Friday, a fortnight ago, I attended the Grand Tasting of the Salud Auction barrel samples at Domaine Drouhin Oregon. My pal David Millman of DDO greeted me when I walked in, glass in hand, to the barrel room of the winery where some two dozen of the best Pinot Noir producers in Oregon (and thus, on the planet) had set up tables. He introduced me to the guys who run Evening Land, an extraordinary producer of boutique Pinot Noir, and it just got better from there. In no particular order I sampled wines and chatted with Scott Wright of Scott Paul wines; Rob Stuart of R. Stuart & Co.; Anna Matzinger of Archery Summit; DDO, of course; Steve Doerner at Cristom; Donna Morris of Winderlea; Ken Wright Cellars (although Ken himself wasn't there) and a dozen others who had made special cuvees to sell at the Salud auction the following night at the Governor's Hotel in Portland. The wines were just terrific -- all previews of what looks to be an excellent '09 vintage -- and the food held its own with a nice cheesy polenta, lamb ragout, a beet salad and lots of passed hors d'oeuvres. It very well may have been the tasting event of the year.

(A lady at the next table just said, "I got bit in the butt by a St. Bernard." Youch.)

What makes a terrific Pinot Noir? I'm learning more about this, almost by the day. In my experience a terrific Pinot Noir has a big, bold aroma of fruit and a kind of forest-floor mustiness, like mushrooms and damp leaves, and then a big, bold mouthful of bright fruit, spice, softness on the palate and a lingering taste of fruit balanced with acid and tannins. Nothing else like it. Just one of the finest things to put in your mouth, and as someone who has put all kinds of things in his mouth (including fried worms in Thailand and battalions of crustaceans during my travel-writing days) I don't say that lightly. I think it's an absolute crime to drink inferior wine, because there are so many good ones here that make you get it instantly, after two sips, of why people rave about Pinot Noir.

When I was a kid, my father used to sigh and chide me, "Don't you ever have enough?" And this week would have drawn his stern disapproval, because three hours after the DDO event, I was co-hosting a Gourmet Game Night party at R. Stuart's lively, fun wine bar on Third Street in downtown McMinnville. My friends Cynthia Nims and Scott Wellsandt had come down from Seattle to cook dishes from Cynthia's book of the same title, and I played Pictionary with Edwinna and Jacqueline, and then a memorable game of cribbage with Remy Drabkin, the winemaker of Remy Wines. I creamed her; poor Remy had lousy cards. I hope she won't hold it against me because her wines are so good. When it was my turn to hand out a door prize, I said, "Name me an Italian varietal that rhymes with wine...shut up, Remy." Because the answer was Lagrein, one of the wines that she makes awfully well. We drank Rob Stuart's excellent Autograph Pinot Noir by the glass, and at the end, a taste of the first-rate Cabernet Sauvignon port wine that he makes every year.

Afterwards, Scott and Cynthia and I wound up in the back bar of Nick's Italian Cafe, also in McMinnville, for thin-crust pizza and cocktails made from Ransom's Old Town gin -- made down the road in Sheridan, Oregon. While they were here we also hit Thistle for pre-prohibition cocktails, and the NW Wine Bar, where new manager Jeff poured samples of the Sarah Powell Syrah, which haunted me with the late-Sarah Powell's story (more on that coming soon). And then a game of billiards upstairs on the loft that brought us all back ten years to when we used to meet up in a Ballard bar to play pool and drink beer.

We also found time to attend the trade opening of the new Biggio Hamina Cellars tasting room in McMinnville, where Todd Hamina poured his terrific single-vineyard Pinots, his wife Caroline oversaw a catering crew that sent out lots of great apps. and I wound up playing backgammon with County Commissioner Mary Stern (who killed me).

The week saw several samples of area Pinots delivered to my door; we'll be doing Tasting Panel stories on Oregonwine.com beginning in December, reviewing and talking about wines. It's a very pleasant thing, I assure you, to have the UPS man arrive at the door bearing several bottles of fine wine to sample and talk about.

On the website, I totally re-designed and added the News, Muse, Reviews and Table of Contents buttons to this blog, and updated the website with new Tasting Notes, and ads from our newest advertisers: Anam Cara Cellars, Biggio Hamina and Colene Clemens, all of whom just opened new tasting rooms. Which we also wrote about and posted this week.

End Part One. This was such a week that was that I have to separate it into two (my Dad, again, sighing through the years: No, Dad, I never do have enough). Read on, with my thanks for following my blog.

One of the other customers just said, as I finished the last of my cheese and bread plate, "You can't ask for a better day than this." And damned if I don't agree with him.

A NEW LOOK FOR B/T/W/

2010-11-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the brand-new, re-designed b/t/w/, which is where I get to spout off about so many things near and dear to me:

OREGON WINE -- As the main editor's blog for http://www.oregonwine.com/, I'll use this space to deliver last-minute news, info, opinions and tips on finding, tasting and visiting Oregon wines and wineries.

BABIES -- That's the "B" part of b/t/w/. I have three of them, but one of them is 21 now and finishing college, the second one is ten and finishing grade school, and the last one is 1 1/2 and walked in the door today, pointed to his feet and said, "Shoes" for the first time.

NEWS -- Breaking news on what's happening in the Oregon wine industry, especially as it relates to visitors and wine-lovers.

MUSE -- Things that are on my mind that may or may not bear any relation to reality.

REVIEWS -- A quick guide to the wines that we review on Oregonwine.com, with quick links to those pages.

FOOD/RECIPES -- I love to cook! Especially to bake. You may have seen a recent article that I did in Horizon Airlines Magazine about my mid-life passion for baking (sadly, they don't link stories; I'll see if I can get a pdf up one of these days). Here are notes and recipes on things that I'm making these days.

TABLE OF CONTENTS -- A quick and handy link-up to the stories on Oregonwine.com, from profiles of winemakers like Forrest Klaffke and Isabelle Dutartre to travel tips and features like our Wine Bar Crawl of McMinnville.

BOOKS -- Another "B." This tab coming, with recommendations on books that I'm reading and love, and plugs for my own works.

Feel free to comment; thanks for visiting. See ya in the blogosphere.

Jim Gullo

McMinnville, Oregon

2010-10-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

We suddenly looked up to see that our web magazine has grown to some 30 pages of content. Here's a handy way to sort through it:

OREGONWINE.COM
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

WINEMAKER PROFILES:
Forrest Klaffke, Willamette Valley Vineyards
Isabelle DuTartre, 1789 Wines & DePonte Cellars
Gino Cuneo, Tre Nova Wines
Herb Quady, Quady North
Kiley Evans, Agate Ridge Vineyards
Bill Steele, Cowhorn Cellars

WINE FEATURES & NEWS:
Is Riesling the Next Pinot Noir?
The Ten Steps to Making Fine Pinot Noir
News Home Page
5 Superb Southern Oregon Whites
Wine Store & Wine of the Month
Winemakers’ Notes
Ken Wright on Claret
Rob Folin on Tempranillo
Todd Hamina on Pinot Noir
Tasting Notes

New Tasting Rooms Opening in Wine Country

WINE REGIONS & WINE COUNTRY TRAVEL:
Southern Oregon Home Page
Southern Oregon Travel Tips
5 Best Winery Travel Tips
3 Perfect Days in Carlton
A McMinnville Wine Bar Crawl
Tasting Room Etiquette
More Wine Country Resources
Oregon’s Grapes
Oregon’s 16 AVAs
Recommended Wine Events

ATTRACTIONS/EVENTS/FESTIVALS:
People Who Need Pinot
On Tour With the Wine Wizard

FOOD/LODGING/RESTAURANTS/CHEFS:
Eric Bechard Swings Back
Wine & Cheese Pairing
Wine Country Restaurants
Wine Country Lodgings
Third Street Flats in McMinnville

MY DINNER AT CANLIS

2010-10-15T12:59:00.001-07:00

I was recently invited to have dinner with some friends at Canlis, Seattle's longest-lived fine-dining restaurant, now celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this year. And even though Canlis is some four-and-a-half hours from my home in Oregon, I jumped at the chance to dine there; you just don't pass up an invitation like that. If any place I've ever visited qualifies as event dining, it's this place, now run by the third-generation of the Canlis family. So on a Friday morning, we packed up the family and drove north, knowing that we were in for a real treat at dinnertime.

To make a very long story very short, we wound up spending five hours there and had one of the finest (and longest) meals I can remember. But how to convey this experience? I could go over a blow-by-blow description of every plate sent out by outstanding young chef Jason Franey, or describe the classic, elegant atmosphere of the place with its stone and glass and fireplace and long views over Lake Union.

But somehow Canlis adds up to so much more than practically any restaurant I know that I have to break down my experience into little bites, as it were, to try to convey why the place is so unique.

Like a bound wine list that almost casually scrolls out an astounding, 2,600-bottle selection from a wine cellar that reportedly contains 20,000 bottles. It is fun, and eye-popping, to read prices of extremely rare vintages that top $3,000/bottle, but it was also informative to me to find the same bottle of '08 Argyle Pinot Noir that I had had for lunch the day before on the Canlis list for a very reasonable $50. This is not a wine list put together by sommeliers trying to sell us wine or impress us with its trophy wines; it is a list of a collection acquired by a family for three generations, and shared with us, their guests.

Like Mark Canlis, who now runs the place, showing us the private table where his grandfather Peter used to hold court, with a telephone at tableside from which he could give orders to the staff. And the fabulous "Cachet" room upstairs with one very private, intimate table set in a little corner nook that is all glass and views of Lake Union, far below.

Like an insanely delicious dish of in-house smoked salmon that came out on a little puddle of red sauce, and the puddle was revealed to be another finely sliced and carved piece of salmon.

And a coffee menu that the server explained uses some kind of private, Canlis-only process, offers selections from four different regions (I had the Sulawasi) and is recommended to be drunk "without milk or cream, although we'd be happy to bring you some." And was an exquisite cup of coffee.

Like an amazing plate of perfectly poached pears alongside red beets.

And Mark Canlis stopping at the table for a few words. "You should be as comfortable here as in your own home," he said, and I believed him, because I was, although the food and wine selection in my own home aren't nearly as good.

I need to get back there soon; I've got a lot of work ahead of me if I'm going to get through that wine list in this lifetime.

THEY DON'T PICK BEFORE IT'S TIME

2010-10-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

And now it is crunch time – oops, I mean crush time – for the Oregon wine industry. It is mid-October, the sun is shining, and as everyone has been hoping since our long, wet spring and extremely short-lived summer, we’re getting a few, dry fall weeks that are allowing our grapes to ripen in time for harvest. Yes, Dorothy, there will be a 2010 vintage, although all signs point to it being a small one.

But what does it mean, exactly, for the vineyards to be ready? When are grapes “ripe,” and what does that mean in terms of wine-making? For the answers to those questions, we turn to a very nice, informative newsletter post that we received from McMinnville’s Panther Creek cellars, from which we quote here.

“At home in our gardens, we pick strawberries and tomatoes when they are red. We pick cucumbers and zucchini when they are big enough. So what exactly do we look for in grapes?

“The most common measure of…grape ripeness is degrees Brix. Brix represents the percentage of sugar in the fruit by weight. The unit is named after Adolf Brix, the scientist who invented the hydrometer.”

(The hydrometer, by the way, is the little, pocket-sized tool that winemakers and vineyard managers carry around in the fields; they break open a grape, rub the juice on the tool and read the Brix measurement. These days, they frown and shake their heads after they read it.)

“Generally, between 19 and 25 degrees Brix is considered a targeted range for mature grapes. A more precise target number varies by region, varietal and preference of style. Once the Brix start reaching around 18 degrees, we have a good indicator that the grapes will soon be ready to pick.

“Wine of good quality, however, has more than just proper sugar levels. Several other grape attributes must simultaneously mature with increased Brix levels, even though they are not necessarily related to each other. Unique and proper growing conditions are required to achieve such a convergence, especially with Pinot Noir grapes. Some of these additional attributes include levels of acidity (TA or titratable acidity which is also levels of tartaric acid), pH, tannin, and last but not least, flavor and phenological ripeness. Flavor and phenolic compounds are the principle source of wine aroma, flavor, color and taste that make Pinot Noir so attractive. Without these, grapes would just taste like sugar, and wine would just taste like alcohol.

“So with that, when all these attributes fall within a targeted range, we make the decision to pick. But levels don’t always fall in that targeted range at the same time, and that’s what makes deciding when to pick so difficult. In warmer years, high sugar levels may precede flavor compounds whereas in cooler years it may be the other way around. To make the situation more difficult, the desired ripeness must occur before the first cold frost, all while battling rain, fog and humidity, which make great conditions for disease such as botrytis. And we won’t even get started with the war on birds.”

It’s not an easy business, but fortunately for we wine lovers, there are lots of winemakers out there who are willing to wait it out and bring in the grapes at precisely the right time. Stay tuned: We’ll know how this year’s harvest all shook out in about two years time.

BIG MAC ATTACK

2010-09-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

The news almost (but not quite) made me put down the delightful raspberry and hazelnut tart that I was scarfing down at the Red Fox Bakery last week, and stand up and cheer. Bon Appetit magazine, in its annual feature on Best Foodie Towns in America, had rated McMinnville Number Two, behind only Boulder, Colorado.

We’re Number Two! We’re Number Two!

The magazine singled out our International Pinot Noir Celebration (now going into its 25th year) and Thistle restaurant as great reasons why we’re a hub for gastronomic bliss. Both of those institutions are more than deserving of praise, but the news made me think of just how varied is our local food culture. And how lucky we are to have all of it.

We have terrific restaurants, to be sure. There are 17 of them listed on our directory of restaurants, and I could go on at some nauseating length about the gustatory pleasures I’ve received in our downtown area, starting with the platter-sized pancakes at the Wildwood Café at one end and ending with a mug of house-brewed beer, a burger and the sensational fennel salad at the Golden Valley Brewery & Restaurant.

Thistle is all that it's cracked up to be, but for that matter, so are Bistro Maison, Nick's Italian Cafe and La Rambla. Add to this the small-plates gnoshing that is served at wine bars like R. Stuart & Co., the Willamette Valley Vineyards Wine Center and the NW Wine Bar, and you get a pretty good idea that McMinnville is a fine place to bring your fork and knife.

It’s nice to see that the rest of the culinary world is taking notice.

CATCHING UP WITH TONY RYNDERS

2010-08-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

"Wine is cooking, essentially, with one ingredient," said Tony Rynders at a seminar that I attended earlier this summer at the Suncadia resort in the mountains outside of Seattle. It was nice to see Tony (pictured here with Swiftwater owner Don Watts), tanned and fit and happily landed as Consulting Winemaker of the new Swiftwater Cellars winery at Suncadia, which opens on September 11th as the resort's destination winery.

Tony, of course, is the former winemaker of Oregon's Domaine Serene, and left there last year in a flurry of litigation and badmouthing that is more commonly witnessed in, say, divorce court or the World Wrestling Foundation than in the convivial wine world. All that is behind him, he was happy to report. He's now consulting for several winery clients, including Swiftwater, which looks to make a big splash with Bordeaux varietals and an extremely tasty Syrah (to use a technical, oenophile term) that I tasted early and often throughout the weekend.

I was there for Suncadia's annual "Wine in the Pines" event, which brought some two dozen Washington wineries into the mountains for a weekend of festivities. It started with a crab feed thrown by the inestimable Andrew Wilson, the resort's executive chef, where tables lined with craft paper were piled high with king crab and Dungeness crab parts, bricks wrapped in plastic served as crab smashers, and the butter and tartar sauce flowed like, well, butter and tartar sauce. It was a fabulous event made better by the pours of Mike Hogue's new Mercer Estates brand, as well as DeLille Cellars' Chaleur Estates, among many others.

Chef Andrew outdid himself the next night with a winemakers dinner that featured dishes like troll caught wild king salmon with gnocchi, and a tenderloin of beef with huckleberry glaze that was, as they say in the Army, all it could be. Winemakers posted at each table were charged with pairing their vintages with each dish, and I was lucky enough to be seated next to Robert Takahashi, the assistant winemaker of Woodinville-based Brian Carter Cellars. Winemakers from other tables came by often to pour their bottles, too.

Including Tony and the Swiftwater gang. I thought his Proprietary Red blend, with lots of Cab franc to add spice to the Cab Sauv and Merlot, was one of the best quaffs of the weekend. I missed my Oregon pinot noir, to be sure, but it's fun to cross the border and see what our neigbors to the north are swilling these days.

Uh Oh

2010-07-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

We had a very late -- some would say non-existent -- spring in Oregon this year. An inconvenience to most of us, but for people who rely on one crop of grapes a year to make their living, there are ominous signs that '10 can shape up to be the vintage that never was. Check out this excerpt of a blog post from Scott Paul Wines:

"… to say the least. I’m certainly not trying to put a happy spin on it, nor am I gloom-n-dooming it - just trying to tell it like it is. We’re looking at what could possibly be one of our latest harvests ever this year, due to the non-stop cold and rain that dominated May & June. Spring, what spring? The cold and rain also contributed to a very uneven fruit-set around the valley, and so we have virtually no crop at some sites and an abundance of too-large clusters at others. Other than that, everything is normal!

"And of course the vineyard that always yields our best fruit and makes our best wine is the one with hardly any fruit this year. The gods are cruel, at times. (Of course I’ll be singing their praises if they give us a great, sunny & dry September and October in the fall - which it appears we will need every single day of). Our old vines in the Dundee Hills up at Maresh Vineyard tried their best, but about half of the potential clusters aborted and bore no fruit (caused by the extended cool streak prior to flowering). Every vine is so different there this year that it’s impossible to estimate what we’ve got - we just need to hope that whatever it is we do have is damned good!"

Makes me remember the words of Todd Hamina in "10 Steps to Making Pinot Noir" on our website: Learn to farm. Bringing the grapes to proper maturity is everything in this business, and if it starts to rain in September, or even early-October, this is going to be a very, very tough year for winemakers. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

IT'S ADELSHEIM TIME

2010-07-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

It's funny how, with all of the wineries there are to visit in the Willamette Valley, and all of the fine tasting rooms and wines to sample, certain places evoke a feeling that practically amounts to a sense-memory.

In this case, I'm thinking about a handsome courtyard framed by a striking wood building; a concrete bar; a barn; and, most of all, a woman's haunting and lovely face. These images come back to me, and I practically smack myself on the side of the head and say, "Oh, I've got to get back to Adelsheim soon."

David and Ginny Adelsheim's winery in the Chehalem Mountains has undergone some big changes in the last year. The winery and tasting room were expanded and re-opened about a year ago, in April of 2009, and have an elegance and bearing to match the wines and the long legacy of the Adelsheims, who were among the first winemakers to stake their claim in this area in the 1970s. The tasting room is long and cool, with a cherrywood floor and 60-foot, curving bar made from concrete stained with the lees from pinot noir. Oriental carpets and pine trim add to the overall decor. (It's one of our "5 Amazing & Palatial Estate Wineries," on our Travel Page).

The hauntingly lovely woman is courtesy of the label on the '07 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir; it's a portrait of Diana Lett painted by Ginny Adelsheim, and in this case, the wine is as elegant as the label. The tasting room is also the only place to snag a bottle of Adelsheim's three single-vineyard pinot noirs, and a good place to grab a bottle of their sensational Auxerrois white, a crisp, mineral wine that is wonderful with oysters.

The views and the barn are outside and are courtesy of the Calkins Lane location, on backroads between Newberg and Carlton. When I think of pastoral, bucolic places, this is what springs to mind.

It's a sense-memory as vivid as a glass of terrific wine. Makes me want to return to Adelsheim right now and drink it all in again.

A CHEF HAS HIS SAY

2010-06-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

I posted an unusual story to the home page of OregonWine.com this week. It was a reply from Eric Bechard, the talented chef of Thistle restaurant in McMinnville, to "the silliness," as he calls it, that took place in Portland last month, when he made national headlines for brawling on the streets.

It's funny how this story came about. I didn't know Bechard, and had never eaten at Thistle. Met him and his girlfriend/partner Emily Howard briefly before the restaurant opened, but I either never had the cash to dine there, or when I did have some scratch, they were full. Word spread fast that the food was exquisite, portions were on the small side, and Bechard had an unwavering commitment to sourcing only local food products.

So when the story broke that he had been fighting over the use of an out-of-state pig in a PDX cooking festival, I was appalled. I thought (from what I read on-line and in The Oregonian) that he was way out-of-line. Also heard in the same week that Bechard called a friend of mine "elitist" in the restaurant and hurt her feelings, and I was convinced that he was way too political for me, and for a small-town restaurant.

But then a couple of weeks ago my wife and I ran into him and Emily at a wine tasting. We chatted. He was gracious, laughed about the fight ("Come on, it was a random thing that happened outside of a bar at 2 a.m.," he said), but then went on to make some very good points about how farmers around here are struggling to get by; and how we should all learn how to eat locally and not waste food. "There are only two loins on a rabbit," he said, "and two rib-eyes on a cow." When you use those up, you don't call the meat store for more steaks and loins; you use the rest of the animal and ask your patrons to adjust to what you have on hand to cook.

I wanted to hear more; I admired his passion and commitment, and he's a very articulate guy. I sat down with him one afternoon and heard his side of the story, including the fight, and later on I had dinner at Thistle and found it every bit as good as described. I don't care where you source the food from...if it isn't tasty and imaginatively prepared and presented, it's not going to keep people coming back. And when I was there, at least four regulars were also dining.

Read Bechard's story and then see if it doesn't change your own opinions just a little...of both the chef and his cause. I have to say that he won me over...at least in this round. And as for running this story about a chef in our online wine magazine, well, I feel that this was an interesting story that affected our community of foodies and wine-guzzlers, and that Bechard's response deserved to be printed. Hope you agree.

More Memorial Day Weekend Wine Events

2010-05-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

Besides the top events that we listed on the OregonWine.com Events page -- http://www.oregonwine.com/section.cfm?wSectionID=1017 -- these happenings are all recommended and well worth a visit:

BIGGIO-HAMINA CELLARS, Gaston (at the ADEA tasting room): 11-4, Sat. through Mon., honoring vets and pouring first-rate Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir

AMITY VINEYARDS, Amity: 11 - 5, Sat. through Mon., $7 tasting fee

J.K. CARRIERE, Newburg: 10-5 Sat.; 11-5 Sun.; closed Mon. $10 tasting fee, first samples of '08 Provocateur Pinot Noir; artisan cheeses

SCOTT PAUL, Carlton: 11-5 Sat. & Sun; closed Mon. $10 tasting fee; tastes of French imports and 3 Scott Paul Pinots, with jewelry from artist Siri Healy

WILLAMETTE VALLEY VINEYARDS, Turner: Sat. - Mon.; $5 tasting fee ($10 for reserve and library wines); 2008 Pinot Noirs released, and chance to win overnight stay and VIP tour

Note From My Congressman on HR 5034

2010-05-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

This is the message that I just received from my Congressman regarding H.R. 5034, the bill that would ban direct sales and shipping of wine from wineries to consumers.

Dear James:

Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 5034 the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness (CARE) Act of 2010. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

The CARE Act was sponsored by Representative Bill Delahunt (MA) on April 15, 2010. Supporters of this legislation claim that this legislation clarifies state based alcohol regulation and provides additional consumer safety. However, I have concerns that this legislation has the potential to limit winery to consumer sales, which would be harmful to Oregon's wine industry.

In a 2005 court decision, Granholm v Heald, the Supreme Court held that states could not pass anticompetitive alcohol laws that discriminate against sellers in other states. I felt strongly at the time that the court had made the correct decision and I signed a friend of the court (amicus) brief that was filed in this case.

Like you, I have concerns that the CARE Act could overturn legal winery to consumer shipping, and is an attempt to undermine the Commerce clause of the Constitution. We have worked hard together, both legislatively and in the courts, to expand the reach of Oregon's fine wines. I remain committed to supporting the success of the wine industry in Oregon and look forward to our continued work together.

Once again, thank you for writing to me about this important issue. If you would like to receive regular email updates from me, please go to my website at www.house.gov/wu to sign up. If I can be of additional assistance, please call my Oregon office at 503-326-2901 or 800-422-4003.

With warm regards,
David Wu
Member of Congress

BURGUNDY IN CARLTON? MAIS OUI

2010-05-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

"There's not much more on Earth that I'd rather do than talk about Burgundy," said Scott Wright, the owner of Scott Paul Wines in Carlton, last Saturday night. Twenty people (including me) had signed up for his seminar on the wines of Pommard, Beaune and Volnay, part of a series of talks and tastings that he does at the winery.

A self-described Burgundy geek and fanatic, Scott is also the only winemaker in Oregon who imports French wines, and has a long list of bottles from small, Burgundian producers that he exclusively distributes in the U.S. It is a wonderful thing to walk into his little, charming tasting room in a former dairy plant and see, alongside his own tasty Pinot Noirs, bottles of Cremant and Chablis and Premier and Grand Cru Burgs.

And of course, after you see them, you buy them and take them home and drink them. One of my favorite Friday night wines is a Huber-Verdereau Cremant sparkler that sells for just over $20, and the same producer's crisp, mineral 2008 Bourgogne Chardonnay is a steal at an even $20.

On this night, we were comparing the wines of three villages that are less than three miles apart, but have marked terroir differences in the wine. The little town of Volnay, just 350 people, produces pretty, elegant Pinot Noir with huge aromatics. Nearby Beaune is known for the baking spice hints of cinnamon and nutmeg that come on the finish, as we learned from a delightful 2007 Hospices de Beaune sample. And Pommard is known for its big, deep, steely structure and richness.

The hit picks for me were a 2006 Beaune Clos des Mouches Premier Cru from Violot-Guillemard, and a 2006 Pommard Rugiens-Bas Premier Cru from Aleth Girardin. I'd love to lay down a case of each and see how they turn out in about five years.

JUDGING THE NORTHWEST WINE SUMMIT

2010-05-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of being on the panel of 24 judges who waded through some 1,100 wines entered into competition at the Northwest Wine Summit, which I’m told is one of the oldest and biggest judged competitions in these parts. Wineries from Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as well as Montana, British Columbia and Alberta, entered their wines in hopes of winning medals. Each entry came with three bottles to taste, and the photo at right gives you a glimpse at the mammoth undertaking of wading through all of those samples.

As a judge, the tastings were all done completely blind; we weren’t allowed to actually see these bottles until the competition was over and we had chosen awards for Best Varietals, and then Best in Show. This was accomplished over two-and-a-half days of non-stop tasting at the Columbia Gorge Hotel at Hood River, where we sat in panels of six, were given flights of four to seven glasses at a time, and were charged with scoring them and awarding medals.

I had never done a tasting like this, and wondered going into it if I could handle such a long and intensive ordeal; indeed, by the time it was over I personally had sipped some 250 wines. Swirled them, smelled them, swirled and sniffed them again, took a mouthful, chewed it, thought about it and spat it out. Marked my impressions down, and moved on to the next. To answer an obvious and frequent question, no, I never got drunk, because I didn’t dare swallow with so many wines to taste. I bet I didn’t actually consume more than a half-glass of wine over the three days.

Along the way we got some delightful wines and some real stinkers. One pinot blanc came our way that was so skunky and awful that one wonders why anyone would pay forty bucks to enter it into a competition. The overwhelming majority of the wines were…fair. Not much in the nose, one note on the palate, little or no finish. But then every now and then a wine would just jump up and grab you: A Riesling that started out dry and then revealed bright honey and melon flavors and a long finish. A crisp, delicious pinot noir Rose. A whole flight of Syrahs with great fruit that you’d be happy to drink any day of the week.

The best part for me was hanging out with the winemakers who came to judge, like Herb Quady of Quady North in southern Oregon, and Thom Houseman of Anne Amie in Lafayette. Their knowledge and experience were superb, and shed a lot of insight on what the wines were trying to achieve, and how they wound up tasting the way they did. And the surprise of the week was that Dry Riesling, which I voted as the best white in the show. It turned out to come from Chateau St. Michelle in Washington, retails for less than ten bucks, and two days later I found it (and bought it) at my local Safeway.

Congrats to all of the medalists, and thanks for sending us your wines to sample.

WINNER ANNOUNCED

2010-04-30T09:50:00.001-07:00

We have a winner in our sweepstakes for two tickets to the Portland Indie Wine Fest (and I'll say I'm sorry in advance if the winner isn't you).

Jennifer Jacobs of Portland won the ducats in a blind drawing. The sweepstakes was for anyone who became a fan of OregonWine.com on Facebook, and/or my friend Amy LeClerc's Project Downpour blog (which stands for Drink Oregon Wine Now, a sentiment I deeply share).

Congratulations to Jennifer, and thanks to everyone who entered. The Portland Indie Wine Fest is an amazing collection of talented, artisanal winemakers who were juried into the show and are brought together for one afternoon to pour tastes, rub elbows and sell bottles of their hard-to-find wines. All this is paired with dishes from a number of top chefs in PDX; a great time all around and highly recommended.

WAYNE'S WORLD

2010-04-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

It was a Friday afternoon, and a perfect time to mooch some samples of good wine, so I drove south on Hill Road to where it dead-ends, made a right onto Peavine and drove into farmlands and the hills, bore left at the fork onto SW Youngberg Hill Road and soon found myself in the sumptuous sitting room of the Youngberg Hill Vineyards & Inn. I was just in time: The fireplace was lit, the leather furniture was comfortable, and owner Wayne Bailey was conducting a wine tasting with a couple who had arrived that day from Atlanta. Within minutes I was sipping luscious Pinot Noirs from Wayne’s Natasha and Jordan Block Vineyards and wondering which crowbar they might use to pry me out of that chair.

The wines, he explained to the couple, were named after his children, and the business has been a similar labor of love since he purchased the Inn and vineyards in 2003 with his wife, Nicolette, and began to improve and expand upon the property, which was originally built in 1989. This section of the valley, on hillsides facing south and east, is excellent for growing pinot noir and pinot gris grapes, and Youngberg’s original vineyards were planted by noted Carlton winemaker Ken Wright. The Baileys have doubled the vineyard by planting another nine acres in recent years; make the wines themselves; built an event site for weddings and meetings of up to 300 people on the back lawn; and run the 8-room Inn, which they re-sided and remodeled.

It is a lovely, New England-style place with gabled roofs and a wrap-around deck with one of the finest views around on a clear day, with vineyards spread out below, the valley behind that, and the towering peaks of the Cascades – still snowcapped this month – looming in the distance. Travel & Leisure Magazine called it, “the most stunning site in the valley,” and I wouldn’t argue. Rooms are tastefully done in antiques and Wayne, who had a background in Marketing & Supply Chain Management in Chicago before buying this piece of Oregon heaven, leads wine tastings for guests most nights. His business took him to the vineyards and wineries of Burgundy, where he learned to make the wine that he now produces on the property. “Because of my love for wine, I gravitated towards it,” he explained.

I could say much the same about how I gravitate towards Youngberg Hill on a sunny afternoon. If I didn’t already live here, I would live there.

DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO KING ESTATE?

2010-04-12T11:38:00.001-07:00

Pass through little Creswell, Oregon, and suddenly the drive to King Estate -- Oregon's largest winery and one of the grandest and most imposing buildings in the state -- takes on a decided "over the river and through the woods" aspect. I went to find it last week on a blustery April day when the sun came and went, followed by intense rain squalls.

After Creswell, the road gets real rural, real fast as it becomes Hamm Road and swoops up and down through a wooded hill, with farms and barns and livestock along the way. I kept checking my new iPod's GPS locator, wondering if it were working right as I got farther and farther away from Eugene and deeper into the country.

I finally made it to Territorial Road, turned left, and a mile or so later, there it was, high up on a hill and as grand as any French chateau in the Loire. Inside is an elegant, wood-paneled reception area and tasting room, and a small restaurant serving fine-dining fare. I was delighted to see my five favorite words -- "Add foie gras to this" -- alongside a steak entree, and treated myself to a perfectly delightful tarte tatin with homemade banana-walnut ice-cream. Outside, the patio showed long, sweeping views of hundreds of acres of vineyards stretching off in every direction, snow-capped mountains in the distance and pasture lands below in the valley.

Put this place on the list of trophy wineries to visit, and make a day of it.

CHOCOLATE SPICE BREAD

2010-04-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

Alert reader Cathryn Kasper of Corvallis, Oregon saw my article in the Horizon Airlines Magazine (April 2010 issue) about baking, and asked me to post this recipe for Chocolate Spice Bread. I got it from David Lebovitz's "The Sweet Life in Paris" book, and although he calls it a bread, modeled after a French pain d'epices, it seems cakey enough to me, albeit it a dense, loaflike cake that you cut into slabs instead of frosted wedges. The anise seeds provide an unexpected crunch and flavor; hard part is letting the cake rest for a whole day after it comes out of the oven (because not enough good things have been said about eating warm cake). Hope you enjoy it.

7 T unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for the pan
7 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 C flour
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t baking powder (Lebovitz recommends aluminium free)
3/4 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground cloves
1/4 t salt
1/2 t whole anise seeds
2 large eggs, at room temp
2 large egg yolks
1/4 C honey
2/3 C sugar

1. Oven to 350. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan, line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper, and butter the paper as well. Dust the insides of the pan with a bit of flour or cocoa powder, and tap out any excess.

2. In double boiler or a large, heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

3. In another bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt. Add the anise seeds.

4. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer or with a handheld mixer, whip the eggs, yolks, honey and sugar until thick and mousselike, about 5 min. on high speed.

5. Fold half of the whipped eggs into the chocolate and butter. Then fold in the remaining egg mixture.

6. Add the dry ingredients one-third at a time, using a spoon to sprinkle them over the batter and folding until the dry ingredients are just combined.

7. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cake feels barely set in the center, but still moist.

8. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Tap the cake out of the pan and cool completely on a rack. Wrap the cake in plastic and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours to let the flavors meld.

Well-wrapped, this cake will keep for about one week at room temp, or one month in the freezer.

WANT TO WIN TICKETS TO THE INDIE WINE FEST?

2010-04-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Check out our latest promotion. We have two juicy, wonderful tickets to the Portland Indie Wine Fest to give away for their May 8th Grand Tasting event in downtown Portland (a $150 value, I might add). To win, all you have to do is go to my pal Amy LeClerc's "Project Downpour" blog (http://projectdownpour.blogspot.com/), become a follower and leave a comment (something along the lines of "I want those freakin' tickets!" will suffice).

We'll pick a winner on April 30th. Good luck! This will be a terrific event, with lots of great food and wine from artisanal winemakers who were juried into the show.

LOUSY SOIL? PERFECT!

2010-04-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

I made my first visit to the French village of Chablis last year, which sits in the middle of a bowl of steep hills, north of Burgundy. Touring the vineyards of Maison Joseph Drouhin, which invested heavily in Chablis when everyone else thought the wine business there was dead, I was amazed to see how truly crappy the land was for cultivation. The hills were steep and pitched and the ground was a nightmare of loose rocks. You'd have to be nuts to pick that as a spot for an agricultural business.

I was reminded of that recently when I attended a tasting and seminar at the tiny Lenné winery near Yamhill, where owner/winemaker Steve Lutz was practically giddy over how crummy the soil was in his vineyard. "It's called peavine soil," he said, "and it's composed of compressed siltstone and sandstone." It was only eighteen inches deep, yellow and had very little organic matter. A nightmare if you're growing tomatoes, but dreamy if you're growing grapes. Why? Because, Steve explained, "better wine comes from poorer soil." You want grape plants that have to reach deep into the land and fight to survive, transfering all of their energy into the growing of fruit and barely succeeding. The resulting grapes reflect the complexity of flavors and terroir that winemakers love to bring out in their products. Steve now bottles some first-rate pinot noirs under the Lenné and Le Nez ("The Nose," in French, and a play on words) labels. But it wasn't easy; he reports that he lost 35% of his first plantings, or some 7,000 dead grape plants when he first planted his 11-acre vineyard, and it took five years for the plants that survived to produce decent fruit.

His winery and tasting room are in a tiny, stone building that reminded me of France. That, and the crappy soil, not to mention the good wine, brought me all the way back to Chablis.

STONEHENGE ROCKS!

2010-03-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

Absolutely gorgeous day driving home from Montana last week. I made a point this time of visiting Stonehenge (no, not THAT Stonehenge), which is a WWI War Memorial that was put up here many, many years ago by a guy named Sam Hill (as in, "What the Sam Hill do you think you're doing?").

Sam sent his architect/draftsman to England to collect data on the real Stonehenge, and recreated it here in an absolutely stunning location in the Columbia River Gorge, roughly straight across the river from The Dalles, Oregon. When I was there last week, families were picnicking on the stone slabs and enjoying a lovely spring day, with Mt. Hood towering over the whole gorge in the background. Pleasant place, but it had its intended effect when I sadly read the names of 20-year old boys whose lives ended in 1917 and 1918, blown up in the first great war.

I'd like to say that it was in their honor that I then proceeded to the Maryhill Winery, which was named the Washington Winery of the Year in 2009 and makes all kinds of great varietals besides having its own drop-dead gorgeous view (pun intended) of the gorge and the river. Actually, I stop by this place every time I'm within 50 miles. I just love their red blends and unusual things like Grenache and Cab Franc, at prices under $30, so I stocked up before heading home to Oregon.

Tonight when I drink the 2008 Winemaker's Red Blend, I'll think about how lucky we are to be alive and living in such a beautiful part of the world.

We Will Start a Winery. We Will Be Quite Rich.

2010-03-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Just saw the best improvised and voice-synthesized video ever of what happens when hipster, NYC sommeliers decide, on the subway, to chuck it all and move to Walla Walla to make wine. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcjVfXBxvdg

O CELLAR, CRAWL TO ME

2010-03-12T15:54:00.001-08:00

When my ship comes in (and that might be any day now), I intend to hustle out and buy the "Cellar Crawl" collection of Oregon wines (modeled here by JT of McMinnville's NW Wine Bar). This is a very unique bottling that was done last year by five top-notch Willamette Valley winemakers who shared their grapes and pulled off a neat experiment. Each of the five (I won't name them all, but they include Ken Wright, Lynn Penner-Ash and Laurent Montalieu) sent a barrel's worth of 2006 single-vineyard fruit to each other, and each made wines that bear the vineyard names.

The result, released in '09, is a collection of 25 wines, sourced from the same five vineyards, that demonstrate what each winemaker brings individually to the expression of the wines made from that fruit. It is also, not coincidentally, a terrific collection of top-drawer Oregon Pinot Noir that would make a fantastic base for any collection. The price is $1,250, and a portion of proceeds goes towards Parkinson's Disease research.

It's a collection that I would love to have in my own growing cellar, so come on, ship.

SCOTT PAUL TAKES THE HIGH ROAD

2010-03-04T16:28:00.000-08:00

I'm no tasting expert, but even my untrained palette knows a good thing when it washes across the ol' tastebuds (fouled all these years by coffee and cake and brief encounters with tall women). These days, we're getting glimpses of how very good 2008 Pinot Noirs are going to be. Case in point provided this week at Scott Paul wines, where Scott Wright pulled out a bottle of his new D122, sourced from prized Ribbon Ridge grapes.

"D122," he explained, "is the road that runs through Burgundy's Cote de Nuits." Scott, an expert on French wines who travels extensively in Burgundy every year, has traveled this road many times; a part of his business is exclusively importing small French producers and selling their wines in his Carlton winery, as well as through wholesale channels. Naming his newest product after the road is his homage to Burgundy and an Old World style of winemaking.

With D122, he has a winner of gorgeous fruit wrapped up in a soft, balanced mouth-feel. You taste it and think, "I want more of this," and then, "What will this be like in five or ten years?" I doubt I can wait that long; this stuff will unlikely see the light of morning once it reaches my house. It goes on sale officially next weekend, and he only has 132 cases of it. At $35, it's going to go quickly.

You Have to Crawl Before You Can Sleep

2010-03-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

Henry has been seal-walking for a couple of weeks now (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN2x83sORx0), but this weekend he added a new wrinkle by crawling on all fours for the first time when he really needs to get somewhere fast. He pulls himself up to a standing position now, and walking can't be far away, but we're taking bets on which will come first: Sleeping in his crib all night or charging across the room on two feet. Right now he screams to the baby Gods when we try to lay him down on his crib, even when he's dead asleep on our laps, and most nights he winds up in bed with us.

Lucky for him he's such a cute little feller.

VERTICAL TASTING = HORIZONTAL PLEASURE AT PENNER-ASH

2010-02-28T10:08:00.000-08:00

You’ve seen this movie on late-night TV: Special Ed. teacher and winemaker fall in love. They form a union (a winery) and begin having children, several a year for a dozen years (in this case, their children are vintages of Pinot Noir and other varietals, each with its own personality and back-story). The wine gets better and better and the couple moves to a larger winemaking facility, takes on investors, ramps up production. Then they plant their own vineyards and build their dream winery in the hills. Then they have a testy divorce with the investors, but not with each other.

And suddenly they look up and they’re making 9,000 cases of wine a year, own the winery, own the vineyard, and have a dozen years worth of wine and stories to tell. Camera pulls back to reveal their beautiful life and gray hair as music swells and latest vintage ferments.

Meet Ron and Lynn Penner-Ash and their 11 vintages, as I did last week at a vertical tasting at Penner-Ash Wine Cellars, high up on Ribbon Ridge Road between Newburg and Carlton. In this case, we were tasting their Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, sourced and blended from vineyards throughout the region, from 1998, when friends helped them bottle and label 120 cases of production when Lynn was working at Rex Hill Vineyards, through 2001, when Ron left school administration to run the winery business and Lynn set off to make wine exclusively under the Penner-Ash label, to the magical 2008 harvest that is about to be released this spring to the tune of 4,560 cases.

The wines show off Lynn’s expert craft well, with good fruit, still present even in the oldest vintages, nice balance and structure, even in tough winemaking years. Like 2003: “A tough vintage that turned out well,” she said. “We had to smack it with acid.” In 2005, when their gorgeous, gravity-fed winery was newly opened, they were dealt a hand of soft, mushy grapes that led to “a gooey crush, “in Lynn’s words, that needed extra time and attention. “But we don’t give up,” she added, and now the wine is soft and delicate, lower in alcohol and more Burgundian in style. When the 2007 harvest was conducted in rain, canopies had to be thinned and thinned again, and the grapes sorted extra-carefully to remove botrytis (while at the same time the winery was producing 5,100 cases of Pinot Noir and was under a great deal of financial pressure to end their relationship with investors), Lynn reached back all the way to 1997 to pull out techniques to make the wine the best it could be.

Can you tell that I’m a big fan of this winery and these winemakers? Can’t wait to see what they come up with over the next ten years as their vineyards mature.

Part 2: Darling, You're Turning Gris

2010-02-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

"That last pinot we drank was interesting," she said. "I got hints of cocoa, Goodbar and the terroir of Hershey."

"That wasn't wine, my darling; you just drank the Chocolate Pinot Noir Sauce at Amity Vineyards. And then when I wasn't looking you grabbed a jar of Riesling Caramel Sauce and began to shout, 'Nobody move!'"

Her lips curled in a satisfied smile. "It was so worth it," she purred. She turned to me and wrapped her sticky fingers around my cheeks and pulled me close. She was, and always has been a sort of Godiva to me. She kissed me and I neatly spat the tinfoil and little paper streamer into the pile that was accumulating on the carpet.

"This was the best Valentine's Day ever," she sighed. "Oh, Cadbury..."

Romance is an illusive thing, best shared judiciously between adults. Happy Valentine's Day to one and all.

V-DAY IN WINE COUNTRY, A CAUTIONARY TALE

2010-02-11T10:52:00.000-08:00

“Darling,” purred my enamorata, the Juliet to my Romeo, the Bonnie to my Clyde, “look at all of the winery events they’re planning for Valentine’s Day.” She flipped the brochure to me; I gasped a little squeak of despair. In the Willamette Valley alone, 60 wineries were planning events with music and wine and, most of all, chocolate. Chocolate truffles paired with Pinot Noir. Dark chocolate paired with Pinot and cool jazz music. Handmade Honest Chocolates crafted by artisans. Brix chocolate that was specially created to pair with wines. One place was offering aphrodisiacs, another leaned heavily on the term “sensuality.” Yet another said, “forget the chocolate, we have bacon.”
Me, I like bacon.
She’d have none of it. “If you love me…,” she began, and I knew where that road would lead: Straight to five dozen wineries and a chocolate hangover the size of Mt. Hood. What could I do? I got out the winery maps, filled the car with Wet-Naps, and went forth to face Valentine’s Day like a man.
A man in Oregon wine country, that is.

to be continued

A Little Piece of Croissant Heaven

2010-02-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

My never-ending quest for discovering new ways of adding butter to flour has led, inevitably, to making croissants. I have been putting this off for years, thinking that croissants represented a pinnacle of baking that I was not yet ready to scale.

Dumb idea, dude; these were actually pretty easy to do, outside of some seriously tough rolling. I got the recipe from my friends at the Red Fox Bakery and their McMinnvilleBakersDozen group, but nearly any baking book has a decent croissant recipe.

It starts with making a milky yeast dough, allowing it to rise in the fridge for several hours, rolling it into a rectangle and then slapping on a layer of butter, which is fun to smack into shape with a rolling pin between two layers of waxed paper or plastic wrap. You then fold the box up into three layers, like folding a letter. Roll it out again with your biggest, heaviest rolling pin, fold it up again and put it away for hours to rise. Repeat this twice. The whole thing takes three days (a nice schedule laid out in "French Women Don't Get Fat" for Sunday morning croissants), but maybe 1 1/2 hours of prep time.

You finally wind up with a dough that has been folded and rolled out about six times, each pressing smushing that butter into the flour a little more to create that wonderful flake. Cut it into triangles, let the dough rest again (hard for me to allow the time for this), roll them up, allow to rise one last time, and 15 minutes later you have the best breakfast in the world: Hot croissants.

I suspect they'll become a weekend staple in our house. Glad I tried it.

DRINKS ARE ON AMY

2010-01-31T19:40:00.000-08:00

I had the good fortune of meeting up recently with Amy LeClerc, who has started the Downpour blog (it stands for "Drink Oregon Wine Now") and likes nothing better than to hang out at tasting rooms sampling every good pinot noir in the state. Amy sent along a tip that the Dobbes Family Estate winery in Dundee would waive the $10 tasting fee if you casually mentioned the word "downpour" to the guy/gal behind the counter.

So you might say, "Quite a downpour we're having out there, eh?" (if you're Canadian and say "eh").

Or, "I was rich and up for a while but now I'm downpour."

Anyway, it worked, and I tasted several excellent Dobbes single-vineyard pinots for free today, as well as their mass-marketed Wine by Joe pinot gris and pinot noir. Not sure how long the promotion with Amy's blog will last, but you might give it a try next time you're in Dundee. Look for more of Amy when we launch the re-designed Oregonwine.com, where she'll be one of our not-so-expert, woman-on-the-street wine tasters.

GINO'S VERY LATE CRUSH

2010-01-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

Today I drove to Dundee, Oregon to watch Gino Cuneo crush and begin a cold soak on three tons of Nebbiolo, Barbera and Sangiovese grapes. "Isn't he a little late?" you wine lovers might ask, since these grapes were harvested three months ago.

The short answer is No...Gino is right on time with his appassimento-style Amarone wine, a style of dry red wine from Verona that is made from fruit that was picked ripe and has been drying on racks to concentrate flavors. He lost 30% of his volume to the drying, but the result will be Secopassa, a premium wine on Gino's Tre Nova label. Gino claims that he's the only winemaker in America who is commercially producing Amarone from Italian grape varietals, and judging from the sheer complexity and difficulty of getting these grapes from the vine to the crushing line, I believe him. Gino is chasing a unique dream: He wants to create a market for Italian-style wines made from American fruit. Besides Secopassa, he makes Bonatello, an affordable, Chianti-style Sangiovese that is fast becoming one of my favorite table wines.

Look for his story soon on Oregonwine.com, and more information about Gino at ginocuneocellars.com (when he gets around to updating his website).

BAKE ME A CAKE AS FAST AS YOU CAN

2010-01-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

"Every Frenchwoman I know loves chocolate so much she has a chocolate cake in her repertoire...," writes David Lebovitz in "The Sweet Life in Paris." So on the off-chance that I meet a Frenchwoman (or one washes up onto our doorstep in a wave of good wine), I tried this recipe for chocolate cake from the book, which uses very little flour, a stick of butter, and egg whites to lighten up the dense batter.

I used bittersweet Ghirardelli chips along with an incredibly dark, 85% cacao bar from Lindt that was lying around the cupboard. The result was an intense, rich, slightly bitter cake that practically screamed for whipped cream (but these screams, sadly, went unanswered).

Drop me a line if you want the recipe.

GLASS CLASS

2010-01-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

Things were getting pretty dicey in the Broadway conference room of Portland's posh Heathman Hotel last Thursday night. At one point an international incident was brewing when the pinot noirs were in the cabernet glasses, the cabs were in the chardonnay glasses, the chardonnay was in a horrible little plastic cup and Georg Riedel, the Austrian scion of the Riedel glass company, was shouting, "If you want to insult me, call my glasses pretty!"

What Herr Riedel was getting at -- and the point of the seminar, which was attended by about 50 enthusiastic wine-tasters -- was that the right wine glass very much matters when it comes to getting the most flavor and aromatics out of wine. This was very nicely demonstrated by the three exquisite, expensive Riedel (pronounced, once and for all, REED-le) glasses placed before each participant, alongside a standard restaurant wine glass and the horrid little plastic cup used at weddings and marketing events.

The Grand Cru glass made for pinot noirs, for example, was a huge bowl of a thing with a a fluted edge. By pouring samples of Willamette Valley Vineyards' fine 2006 Pinot Noir from this glass to the standard restaurant wine glass to the chardonnay glass, Riedel showed us how the aromatics and flavors changed dramatically with each vessel; the correct glass positioned the wine on the tip of the tongue. "This maximizes the fruit and minimizes the acidity," said Riedel, and damned if he wasn't right. The cab glass, which he is holding in the attached photo, funnels the aromas straight up and spreads the less-acidic wine around on your tongue.

Just don't call his glasses pretty. "They have stayed on the market for fifty years because of their functionality," he offered. Also, "you should spend as much on a glass as you do on a bottle of fine wine." The glasses, after all, should last longer...if you don't smash them.

And one last tip: If your bar doesn't have big-bowled pinot glasses, have them pour your Oregon wine into a brandy snifter. Just don't call it pretty. You can get in a lot of trouble for calling a man's glasses pretty.