Wine Weekend

Friday night after work I got home, changed, and hit the road for a weekend in Oregon. I got to Portland and after missing the proper turnoff I found Greg’s house. It was great to see my brother Greg for the first time in a couple of years and I met his partner Brenna for the first time. We visited for a while and then went out to a Thai restaurant in the neighborhood. We had a nice dinner and then headed over to Barn’s and Olga’s house, where we caught up with each other and had a few glasses of wine. Although it was dark, Barn showed me the amazing winery he has in his back yard. This is in a very urban part of Portland! Unfortunately, it was too dark for a picture. We headed back to Greg’s where he showed me his new HDTV and Playstation 3, and I went to bed on the couch.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Hotcake House. It was about like I remembered it. I have been going there for 25 years now and it’s still pretty much the same, just more expensive. I even recognized the cook as one who was there when I first went in 1984. We had way too much food, of course, and then were back to Greg’s. I played a few PS3 games and then went downtown to do some book shopping at Powell’s. Unfortunately, there was a ton of traffic around the store, people everywhere, and I couldn’t find a carpark so I just got out of town. I headed for Laurel Ridge winery where Barn works. The trip out to Carlton was not like I remembered, with lots of traffic, lights, development, ticky tack houses, etc. I was thoroughly depressed before I got to Newburg and into wine country. There it was beautiful. I found the winery and Barn. He introduced me to the winemaker Chris Berg (who has his own Roots label), and then showed me around. I watched as they completed a pressing, then we tasted some wines from the many barrels around the facility. Eventually, their work was done so we went out to do some tasting at the local wineries. We found Aramenta, which had some great wines. Then we went to Adelsheim, which unfortunately was closed. Then we went back to Laurel Ridge to try some of their wines. Greg and Brenna showed up and we drank a few glasses. We finally went over to Dundee to have dinner at the Dundee Bistro with Chris. After a fantastic dinner we came back to the winery where Barn and I slept in the upstairs bedroom while Greg and Brenna slept in the tasting room.

Sunday morning we were up at about 7:30 and made some coffee. Greg and Brenna got up and got the hidabed put away before anyone came in. We packed up the truck and Brenna’s car and were headed out to Barn’s vineyard at Alsea. About an hour down the road we stopped for breakfast at J’s 99 Grill in Monmouth. An hour later Barn and I were at the vineyard, quickly followed by Greg and Brenna. Olga soon joined us with her friends Christy and Scott. We unloaded the truck and began picking grapes. We started with the Pinot Blanc, and picked the 3 rows pretty quickly. We all stopped and took turns de-stemming and crushing into buckets with the hand-crank de-stemming machine. Thereafter we went through the Pinot Meunier, which gave us quite a bit more for its 3 rows. We started the 40 rows of Pinot Noir. These went pretty quickly and we each had several buckets done before Barn called us in for lunch. Olga heated up a great meal of Choucroute (sauerkraut and sausage), which we all hungrily devoured. By this time it was looking like there was no way we’d get the 2 acres done before dark, but as we went up the rows they got less and less dense so it went pretty smoothly and soon we were done. We finished de-stemming and crushing the grapes and placed them into large bins on the trailer. Barn did some tests on the sugar, acid, PH, etc. and we cleaned all the gear. Barn and I eventually followed everyone out after about 6 hours of work. We made our way back through Corvallis and up to Laurel Ridge. By this time it was 8:30PM so I said my farewells and drove back to Olympia, finally arriving at 11:00PM. I was exhausted but exhilarated after a great weekend.

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