Wine tasting in Oregon

Traditionally the vineyards in Oregon open their doors to the public during the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year was no exception so I invited some friends and co-workers over for an afternoon of wine tasting and a nice dinner afterwards.

The first vineyard we visited was Chehalem in Newberg. We tasted three whites and three reds. First off was a 2004 Pinot Blanc that smelled (or rather 'had a nose') wonderfully light and sweet but lacked a lot in the taste department. The 2004 Pinot Gris Reserve smelled a lot stronger (like a Pinot Gris should) and had a good, solid taste. Last of the whites was the 2002 Willamette Valley Chardonnay that just didn't do it for me. Ok smell and something weird in the after taste. Regardless of whether they had already sold all their stock of this wine...

Next we moved over to their other tasting room where they served the reds. I started with their 2003 Willamette Valley Cerise, a 80% gamay and 20% pinot blend. The smell reminded me of something but I had to dig hard and deep before it came to me that this wine smelled like a soft drink I drank as a kid. I quickly moved on to their 2003 Ridgecrest Vineyards Pinot Noir. This was again a solid wine with no exceptional characteristics. Just a good Pinot Noir. I finished the visit with the 2003 3 Vineyards Pinot Noir. This one was not nearly as good as the Ridgecrest and was best described by my friend Robert as 'earthy'.

So we hopped back into the car and moved on to Alloro Vineyard. This one I drive by every day on my way to work. The first time I saw the place I thought I had turned onto an Italian country road as the whole winery is styled in Tuscan fashion. Here we started with the 'cheap' house wine, or Fattoria (farm wine), a slightly cloudy 2004 Pinot Noir that was very smooth and would serve well as an every day table dinner wine. Very tasty. Next up was its big sibling the 2004 Estate Pinot Noir. For all five of us this was the winner of the day. Nice color, smooth, great taste. Go out and buy a bottle, or case for yourself and enjoy. A little spendy, but well worth it.

We rounded off this visit with a sip of their 2004 Riesling/Muscat blend dessert wine. A very sweet smell and oh so smooth taste. A must to close off a formal dinner.

Without giving away the plot of what's next we all felt that our visit to Alloro kinda spoiled the rest of the trip as this wine stood out above all others we drank today.

Next up was Beran Vineyards. I first visited this winery two years ago on my first Oregon wine tasting trip and thought they had the best wines of that trip and also served the best meatballs in cranberry sauce. Their meatballs were still outstanding but after our stop at Alloro the wines were slightly disappointing. Don't get me wrong, they are still excellent Pinot Noirs, but no competition to what Alloro offered.

First we tried the 2001 Estate Pinot Noir. Nice smell though a little rough on the edges with a similar taste. The 2001 Estate Reserve Pinot Noir was better, but the wines at our previous stop sorta spoiled the fun. Still an excellent Pinot Noir and for me the best of the bunch at Beran. Finally we tried the 2002 Estate Pinot Noir but this one was so uneventful that I can't even recall what to write about it now.

Some of us had other engagements so we hurried over to what turned out to be the last stop of the day. The Tualatin Estate Vineyards. This one has been on my list every time I've been out wine tasting as they are (or were, I haven't checked lately) the only one that makes a Muscat wine in the area. Most of us skipped the whites and dove straight into the Pinot Noir. They served their 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 edition of this wine. Of the bunch I liked the 2000 and 2002 the best. I can't recall which one was better. Their 2004 Semi Sparkling Muscat was good though very young and fruity. A lot lighter than the 2004 Riesling/Muscat blend we tried at Alloro. Another winner in our little group was the 200x? Late Harvest Gewürztraminer. A bold and sweet dessert wine. Some of us bought some but I restrained myself. A very good wine.

We drove home for a nice dinner (Indonesian/Chinese) and some good conversation and drinks to round of a wonderful day.

We've moved!

I guess I'm not really cut out for doing day to day posts. Maybe because I think my life is too mundane for the whole world to pay attention to. but aren't blogs supposed to be about the mundane? Oh well, whatever...

Six months ago our second child was born and we were discussing if we should move or stay put for a couple more years. After all, small children can easily share a room together and having a small house payment each month is worth something, n'est pas?

Things were moving along fine while dealing with the problems most young parents can relate to but we managed. One day my wife was talking to the neighbor who told her that they we're trying to buy a new house. She told my wife what they were asking and our reaction was: "They asking how much?!?". We both had the exact same floorplan but the neighbors had put in laminate flooring a couple of years ago. Other than that the houses were the same. In fact, our house had a 'better' backyard as we had no neighbors behind us.

So, we started thinking. With the interest rates being at the low point they were at last summer maybe we should do the same thing and sell the place. So we contacted a relative who's in the real estate business and had a chat with him. According to him we were in a high demand area and could easily get $100K+ more for it than we owed on it.

So, we started looking. First a little closer to home, then a little farther out and finally way out in the countryside. As our house was worth a lot more than we thought it did, so did the houses we were trying to buy. Luckily we both have good credit so getting a loan wasn't really a problem, but the monthly payment was more than we were willing to fork out.

To our surprise we received an offer on our house within three days of it being on the market. Our realtor even got the buyer to add a couple thousand to the asking price because the market was so hot.

After about a week of looking at existing houses we went out into the country to look at some new construction. We found a place we really liked and put down money on a contract. Unfortunately, another family did the same thing that weekend and we lucked out because that family had already sold their house and we were still waiting for the inspection.

Anyways, our inspection process took quite some time before the buyer was satisfied and we found another place a couple of blocks away from the first place we put an offer out on. This time there was no competition and we just had to wait for all the paperwork on both places to work its way through the mills.

Finally the day came when we rented the U-Haul and a couple of strong movers. With the help of friends and relatives we moved into our new place. We've been in it for about six weeks now and although most of the boxes we're unpacked in a week or two we still need to finish a couple of areas. The den/office/library is still one big pile of boxes. The garage is still full of stuff that needs to be organized. And the family/bonus/play room still needs more shelves/cabinets for the games. Painting is a work in progress and we bought some more furniture to fill up the place. The back yard is still one muddy mess that we'll be working on for the next year or so before it's all said and done.

For Thanksgiving we had two families over and it went just fine. The house and kitchen is large enough to entertain.

Although my commute is now about three to four times longer it only takes me twice as long as the country back roads do not have the traffic nor the traffic lights that I used to have. I'm loving it!(TM)

Doei!