The Wine Seller
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A Glimpse into Pinot Camp

For those of you who know her, you know she's in heaven.

For those of you who don't know her, feel free to be as jealous as we are.

Heather is currently traipsing about Oregon's famed Pinot Noir regions drinking lots of fabulous wine, and generally having a great time.  She's keeping us up to date on her trip, so we thought we'd share that with you as well.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

   Jim Bernau is the coolest camp counselor ever! Can I mention how lucky I was to end up on Bus # 2? He’s the founder of Willamette Valley vineyards and has been involved with Pinot Camp since it started. You know it’s going to be a good day when your counselors starting pouring you mimosas. At 8:00 in the morning. And then announce that there’s an entire cooler full of beer on the bus for later on. Wow. His assistant was the lovely Karen from Elk Grove, who came prepared with everything from band-aids to handy wipes.  
   First stop was the aviation museum, which happens to be where the Spruce Goose is housed. Damn, that’s a big plane! So we got to enjoy a lovely catered breakfast of local sausages, cheeses and fruit underneath the Goose, since it takes up most of the museum. Then it was onto the intro lecture, which included a short video (which I have a copy of if anyone’s interested) and introductions and the basic history of Oregon wine. Which was all well and good, but most of us were still kinda sleepy, so we were glad when we climbed back into good ol’ bus #2. And onto our lovely selection of different Oregon beers. Seems like Jim is almost as passionate about his beer as he is about wine, since we got a lowdown on all of the different producers that we were “sampling”. 
   Our second stop of the day was to the Dobbes Family Estate winemaking facility. Which was blissfully cool inside, since by 10:00 it had already gotten up to about 90. Apparently I brought the hot weather with me here to Oregon! We got to sit down with a panel of judges and sample three different flights of Pinot Noir, in an attempt to try and identify an “Oregon Style” for pinot noir. It was absolutely fascinating and very informative, since five of the winemakers happened to be there. Then we were provided with another excellent catered lunch again featuring fresh produce and local meats, along with quite a few of Joe Dobbes’ wines to sample. He has an excellent Viognier! 
   Then it was back on the now very toasty un-air-conditioned bus (a wonderful local school bus I might add) at which point Jim decided that we’d run out of beer and needed more. So, he swore us all to secrecy and made the bus driver take us to the nearest convenience store to buy another $100 worth of local beers (all of which he paid for- you rock, Jim!) From there it was up into the Dundee Hills to Sokol Blosser to learn all about the wonderful world of sustainable agriculture. Here’s an interesting fact: both Sokol Blosser and Lemelson practice 100% organic farming on their vineyards, yet neither one is certified organic. We got to travel around to different parts of the property (including the fabulous underground cellar) and talk to various winemakers about different levels of sustainability and how they are practiced. I think that Susan Sokol Blosser is my new hero. Or heroine, as the case may be. Then it was back onto the bus to head to the hotel (did I mention there was still beer on the bus?) for an hour’s rest before we trucked back up into the Dundee Hills to Domaine Serene for more samplings and dinner.  
   More tastings with almost all of the participating wineries- Elk Cove and Lange Estate Wineries both had some outstanding wines, red and white. All of this took place on the lush and rather extravagant lawns of Domaine Serene, which has a beautiful tasting room (that is in the process of being expanded).  Another fabulous dinner, with a fun and innovative salad course consisting of a nice bed of greens to which you could then add a pasta salad, or a mix of string beans and legumes, or a blend of corn and root veggies. Followed by a wonderful roast duck leg with savory couscous- accompanied by about a dozen different Pinots that were continuously passed around by various and sundry winery reps. Dessert consisted of a raspberry/strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream. With it I had the rather interesting Elk Grove 1996 Pinot Noir Icewine, and the 1994 Foris Cabernet Franc (from down south, in the Rogue Valley). To top off the evening, we were treated to a lovely sunset overlooking the valley.  

Monday, June 26, 2006

    Off to the Eola Hills. We had a little bit more of a bus ride this morning- the Eola hills (one of the new AVA’s in Oregon) is about 35 minutes away from Newberg and McMinville. No mimosas this morning, but we did get donuts…It’s very pretty (not to mention a bit cooler) and almost has a more Mediterranean feel due to being closer to the coast. First stop was Bethel Heights, which has a beautiful tasting room/winery that makes full use of the view. We got to try interesting flights of wine from Dundee, then Eola, and the three of the other new AVA’s- Yamhill-Carlton, Chehalem Mountain, and McMinville. Tasting them all side by side, there is a noticeable difference depending on where the fruit is grown, despite them all being within the broader umbrella of the Willamette Valley. Once back on the bus, one of our councilors had brought some beer along that apparently we weren’t supposed to have till later, but that we dove into anyway…woops! She correctly guessed that we had been with Jim’s group yesterday… 

    Firesteed Vineyards and the lovely whites. Don’t get me wrong- I love Pinot Noir as much as the next gal, but after two days of focusing on them, tasting them, and discussing them, getting to taste a group of whites sounds like a nice change of pace. We tasted three flights- Pinot Blancs, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnays.  The Chards and Blancs are definitely coming along, but what this one particular workshop showed is that Pinot Gris is where Oregon really shines. Then we were provided with more yummy food (not to mention a whole bunch of wine, but we’ll get into Howard the Wine Pimp a little later). 

   We continued to roll along the Eola hills to Cristom, where it was more lessons about winemaking in the field. They were nice enough to put up little tents at each station, considering it was about 103 degrees when we got there. That is not an exaggeration- that was the actual temperature. But it was still quite fun- many people were still armed with water guns from some of our escapades yesterday, and we got to learn all about trellising and cover crops- all mostly in the shade. After being bused back to the Shiloh Inn, there were some people complaining about only having 45 minutes to shower and get ready for dinner, but hey, I was just happy for that nice cold shower! Then it was off to Stoller for (more!) wine tasting, and then an outdoor salmon bake! 

   What happens at Pinot Camp, Stays at Pinot Camp... I now know the meaning of this phrase after Monday night’s dinner and post-dinner festivities. Sunday night everyone was fairly well-mannered- we were still in the Getting to Know You phase. Also, being at a sit down dinner on the swanky lawns of Domaine Serene didn’t hurt either. But throw a whole lot of people together on the second night, add a salmon bake and a truly obscene amount of wine, and you get the dinner at Stoller. It was a blast- there were water gun wars in amongst the various tables, and I got to sit with the owners of Carabella and the wine maker from Anne Amie- who just happened to bring a few bottle of their ’01 Laurel Vineyards Pinot Noir- my now official Most Favorite Pinot of the trip so far. We even got to roast marshmallows and make s’mores over the big fire pit after dinner! 

    I was good on Sunday night and didn’t join my fellow campers at the local watering hole after dinner. But myself and several others decided what the hell- we’d check it out this evening. So it was off to Lumpy’s Landing. I kid you not- Lumpy’s is a doublewide, with three pool tables. It’s truly a fascinating place- once a year when Pinot Camp rolls around, they see their biggest sales of the year. At least I can say I’ve now finally had Fat Tire. Quite tasty, but I’m not sure if it’s worth all of the hooplah I’ve heard about it. We finally headed back to the hotel around 1-ish to find Howard the Wine Pimp still camped outside. Howard works for Firesteed, and has decided that the best way to get the word out to the campers about his wines is to set up shop out in the parking lot of various hotels, open up his trunk (which is full of Riedel glasses and lots and lots of wine) and proceed to have tailgate parties outside the hotel. He was apparently there on Sunday night, and on Monday he had set up shop before we headed out to Lumpy’s at around 11:00. At 1:00, he was still there! Now THAT’S how you sell wine.