Two day trip to Willamette Valley

A last-minute decision to take off the two weeks between quarters lead to a quick trip down to Oregon between Christmas and New Year’s, our first time visiting the area. Through chance alone we managed to avoid the worst of the travel conditions and were able to get down to the Willamette valley on the 27th and taste on the 28th and 29th. Seeing the valley covered in snow was a treat. I want to say a special thanks to Marcus (Goodfellow), Jim (PCG), and Dustin (Kelley Fox).

Our first day of tasting was Goodfellow and Patricia Green:

Goodfellow –
My wife and I met up with Marcus and tasted extensively through their 2019s. Marcus was a fantastic host, indulging me with the details of his 2019s and his extensive thoughts on the 2020 vintage while also keeping my wife’s non-nerdy attention. As I had not tasted any of his Chardonnay it was a treat to taste the single vineyards, my wife preferred the lemon/pear flavors in the Durant while I preferred the minerality of the Temperance hill, both were excellent.

We moved on to Pinot Noir, I do not remember all the specifics but do remember that all were excellent. Of note were the number 12 heritage (my wife’s favorite) and the number 15 heritage. The heritage 15 had my favorite nose of our trip, to the point where multiple times it distracted me from actually tasting it (it tasted great too!).

Patrica Green –
Jim graciously agreed to sit down and taste with us even though the tasting room was closed. As I am a neophyte to wine in general, Jim troubled himself to set up an educational tasting tour of Oregon Pinot, taking the time to provide examples so that my wife and I could understand the differences in profile between soil, vintage, and clone. We really appreciated him taking the time to educate us and speak with each of us on our level, the jazz was pretty good too!

I leaned towards the tension present in the marine sediment wines and specifically enjoyed the Wädenswil clones from the estate vineyard, my wife liked the volcanic with a preference for the Balcombe. As much as we enjoyed his planned tasting, the highlights were the barrel samples of his Sauvignon Blanc (my wife’s previous personal favorite variety prior to tasting non-oaked Oregon Chardonnay) and the blind tasting of two 2005 vintage wines. Thanks Jim!

Our second day of tasting included Cristom, Evesham, and Kelley Fox:

Cristom –
To be frank, this was me covering my ass with a ‘wine tasting experience’ for my wife! In case the prior day of tasting in unheated cellars between stacks of wine barrels 3 high did not go over well (It did!), I had a real tasting experience for her to look forward to. Aside from the 2020, the wine was non-descript, an adjective I wish applied to the 2020. We did get an excellent recommendation to eat at Xicha Brewing Co. in West Salem.

Evesham-
We tasted three Chardonnays and four Pinot’s with Chris, all of which were very nice. The tasting included two of the 19 Pinot and two of the 14 Pinot, a nice comparison showing the difference between early drinking window and just entering secondary flavors. Chris was engaging and provided a lot of information about the winery, the prior owners, and the philosophy behind the brands they offer (Evesham and Haden Fig). I tended towards the Evesham, with no stem inclusion, while my wife preferred the Haden Fig. Of all the wineries we visited, this one had the nicest dedicated tasting room/views if that is your thing, great views of the Willamette river and valley as well as Mount Hood, and on clear days two other mountain peaks. Chis also poured their 2020, however a quick nosing was enough to convince us both to avoid tasting it.

Kelley Fox
I would not recommend this order of winery visits, but Kelley Fox was a must visit for me and this was the order that worked, but the drive was about an hour. We are recent transplants to the Seattle area, we both grew up in the Washington DC suburbs, turns out Dustin is also from the DMV, we had a blast. Dustin has a true gift for gab which immediately put my wife at easy, a tribe called quest playing on the speakers contributed!

In terms of tasting, Kelley’s wines are gorgeous, we both preferred the Maresh, Hyland, and Weber vineyards as they seemed lighter and more elegant compared to the denser Carter vineyard. While not a great value wine, the Mirabai is my favorite non-single vineyard designated Oregon Pinot, just outpacing the Eyrie estate. A surprise of the tasting was Kelley’s Durant Chardonnay, fermented in a combination of stainless and concrete amphora. I have a tough time calling anything ‘best’ as so much of tasting is based on mood, pairings, preference, and other intangibles, but I think it’s safe to call this the most distinct Chardonnay we tasted, and a wine that should not be overlooked in her lineup.

Key takeaways:

Without hesitation, try to taste in the cellars with the wine makers. My wife also preferred this after our experience, although a priori I don’t think she expected it.

I can not thank Jim and Marcus enough for their hospitality, generosity, and authenticity. Seriously, between their willingness to talk shop, ability to meet people on their level, and generosity in sharing their passion, they are class acts. Oh yeah, their wine doesn’t suck!

I hate to say it but beware of the 2020 wines. I am appalled that Cristom is trying to sell their 2020 Pinot at retail for $30, it was not just bad it was holy-f*cking-shit-get-this-taste-out-of-my-mouth gross. Not only does this have the potential to tarnish their brand, but I worry it may hurt the region in general. To sell this to unsuspecting buyers at the premium price of $30 strikes me as borderline fraud.

Oregon Pinot noir is under-priced.

Oregon Chardonnay is under-rated.

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Thanks for the notes, really sad about the Evesham. Was the nose flat or smoke? EW claimed they did coal filtering on the 20 to try to clean up the smoke.

We were down at Evesham Wood over the summer, and while we did not taste the 2020, Chris said that on some days the smoke was so thick he could not see the vines out the window twenty yards away.

Thanks for putting together these notes. My wife and I were in Willamette Valley last month and had the exact same itinerary (shuffled around a little, plus a visit to Morgen Long at the Lingua Franca facility). Sorry I never got around to putting all my notes together, though a bulk of the chardonnay ones are in the Oregon chardonnay charity thread. https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3393096#p3393096

I agree re: Cristom. We went so my wife could have the typical tasting room experience since I had been geeking out with winemakers elsewhere, but the wines were a letdown.

That doesn’t really do anything, IME.

Thanks for the notes Brian. Reading this reminds me how much I want to return! Was last there in 2018 and visited almost all of these same places. Such a shame about the 2020 vintage, and I’m surprised Cristom and EW are putting one out and pouring it in their tastings if it is noticeably compromised. Doesn’t seem like a great strategy…

Yeah I know, but hoping is hoping. :slight_smile: I atypically buy about a case of Evesham [ and a case of your stuff :slight_smile: ] every year. The 2020 of EW showed up in my local shop a little bit ago and I’ve been trying to find an excuse to buy but… ugh.

We both got smoke on the nose at Evesham. To Chris’s credit, I do not believe the 2020 was part of the official tasting and he did warn us prior to serving it and provided a second pour of the 14s to have after.

Great notes and write-up, Brian - thanks! I do want to understand more about your characterization of Mirabai as “not a great value wine”, when you clearly enjoyed it. At 30-something bucks, I’ve always considered it a very good value. Am I misreading that?

I just meant that it’s expense compared to a lot of other producers non-single vineyard wines, which may not be a fair comparison. However it is still somewhat natural in the sense that I think a lot of producers try to differentiate their lines as vineyard + something special (Goodfellow micro lots or PGC Balcombe block 1b), single vineyard, non-single vineyard. I don’t have any issue with the pricing on the Mirabai, I think a lot of the really good WV Pinot is underpriced/reasonably priced given pricing from other regions. I am new to wine in general so take with a grain of salt, but I find pricing in most hobbies is somewhat exponential and the WV wines feel like they are on the slow increase side of that curve, well before things start to increase dramatically. I would not be surprised if people look back at these times and think it was the golden age.

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I visited back in August when the fires obscured the mountain views. Definitely need to visit again.

Better than the previous August, when smoke obscured our view of the mailbox.

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Glad you had a good time. Sounds like you visited some of our favorite stops. Try Belle Pete next time. Brian is a great host as well.

Yeah, they are on the list based on what I see from this board. Also want to taste at Eyrie (one of my wife’s favorites), Arterberry, Crowley, and Brickhouse. I’ll have to plan another trip down when I have more time.

Good question on the 2020 Oregon Pinot’s and smoke damage. Is there a thread about that subject?

I recently visited in October and hit a number of wineries. We stayed in an awesome VRBO I have to post as it was in the middle of Ribbon Ridge down the street from Brick House. If anyone is interested I can start a thread as it right in Ribbon Ridge overlooking some vineyards in Chehalem Mountain area. In the mornings there was no one around and we just walked along the roads and enjoyed the views of the wineries trying to work off the tastings from the day before.

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Thanks for the notes Brian. If you enjoy tasting with winemakers, I would suggest visiting Violin Wines on your next visit to the Willamette Valley. The winemaker, Will Hamilton, is a fantastic, informative host, and he makes beautiful pinot noir and chardonnay. My wife and I tasted his '19s a few weeks ago, and were incredibly impressed with all the wines. The Willamette Valley pinot and chardonnay which both punch way above their weight class, are real bargains. We’ve enjoyed Will’s pinots for years and the '19s were no exception, but we were also blown away by his '19 chardonnays, especially the Black Walnut and Sojeau. Both the Sojeau pinot and chardonnay were stellar and they are right up there with the best 2019s in Willamette Valley that I have tasted.

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Solid notes, thanks. I’ll be in there in August and hope to visit many of the same folks you did. My first trip back to the valley since Thanksgiving weekend a few years ago, have a lot of ground to cover and excited about it!

The fires and smoke of recent years are sad on many levels. I’m also curious on the full accounting of who is releasing 2020s and who is not.