Wedding weekend wine tasting!

What better way to cap off a wedding weekend in wine country than with a wine tasting? We split into three small groups and all wandered the Valley visiting different spots. Just excellent wines and so I found myself clicking the 'I like this wine' box on just about everything we tried. It was honest though and didn't want to penalize some wines that were good but not great just because of the company they happened to keep that day.

Also - I should note that both Soter and Domaine Serene served a Chardonnay, I just didn't happen to take notes on those.

What an absolutely perfect way to start the day. Beautiful setting, nice crisp rose through to the sparkling Brut. The wines here are lovely and austere in the good way. Very much enjoyed the visit.

• 2014 North Valley Vineyards Compass Cuvée Rosé

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Great way to start the day. Nice and fruity, some great mineral characteristics, very dry and bright.

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• 2013 Soter Pinot Noir Mineral Springs Ranch

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton

  This was the first of a number of 2013s that we tried and the reality is they are just tight right now. Better than some of the others because with just a bit of time in the glass I got a touch of cherry. More prevalent was the earth flavor - more in the form of dirt. I say dirt because wine was very drying (lots of tannins). Still very young. Soft even with the heavy tannins. Could be a great wine with a bit of time.

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• 2012 Soter Pinot Noir Mineral Springs (White Label)

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton

  The 2012's seem to be somewhat unique to the years around them. Super bright fruit that jumps right out at you. Lots of plum, very soft, but I taste the alcohol more here. This is the 'flagship' wine of a sort for Soter - 100% heirloom Pinot clone planted on 11 of the acres. I enjoyed it a lot, but suspect with some time the '13 might be better.

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• 2011 Soter Brut Rosé Mineral Springs Ranch

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton

  I've had this a few times now and have always liked it, but somehow it was better this time. Crisper? Fresher? Very bright fruits. Soft and delicious. Enjoyed it enough that this was the bottle that we purchased.

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This was probably the visit of the day and if we had just done it I would have felt like success. It was just spectacular. The wine was stunning (esp that '05 Grace and '02 Monogram) and nuanced and everyone was pretty much blown away.

• 2012 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Yamhill Cuvée

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  This wine was definitely overshadowed by others later in the tasting, but it is a great one in its own right and the QWR is excellent. I found it a bit less over the top than some other '12s which seem to play only to the fruit. Great spice characteristics here to balance.

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• 2011 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Evenstad Reserve

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Nice spice and earth here, there's a lot of potential in this wine. Felt it back in February when we tried it and still see it here. It's soft and interesting and very good, but also gets a bit overshadowed by the single vineyards which came later.

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• 2012 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Evenstad Reserve

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  I think I would have liked this wine if it hadn't been directly following the 2011. Came across as almost straight fruit at that point. Lots of prune and plum. Easy drinking wine though and something that is ready to go now.

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• 2012 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Gold Eagle Vineyard

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  There's this point in a Domaine Serene tasting where you move from the standard stuff that they sell more broadly to the single vineyards and suddenly the wine that you thought was pretty good is paling in comparison. This was a decided step up from the Evenstad Reserves. It's is denser but with great acidity, black pepper, smokey, wonderful. Some fruit, but not overpowering like the other '12s are. Usually with the 2012's I feel like what you see is what you get, but this seems like it could improve with a bit of age. Delicious.

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• 2008 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Evenstad Reserve

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  I'm surprised at how young this is still tasting. Very bright and fruit forward. It's really lovely, but completely overshadowed by the wine which came right after and was my WOTD.

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• 2005 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Grace Vineyard 96 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  This wine was a straight up 'wow' for me. It was just spectacular. My wine of the trip (although the '02 Monogram was really close). There's cranberry and spice and so many more flavors that I can't quite pick them all out. It's soft and smooth and tastes a bit young, but also like it's pulled together. I was just blown away by this. The drinking window in CT (which says drink by 2012) seems to be very off. This was still young tasting and just fabulous.

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• 2012 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Two Barns

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  Another great single vineyard Pinot - this one was more dark cherry and smoke and really fabulous. Not the Grace that came before it, but still delicious in its own right. The kindof wine that felt like it was made for a good Thanksgiving meal.

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• 2012 Domaine Serene Grand Cheval

  USA, Oregon

  Our first experience with this wine. It wasn't quite at the same level as the single vineyards, but it was definitely an interesting wine that paired really well with dark chocolate. Nice and deep flavors (I might have misunderstood, but I think this has a bit of a Syrah or at least I did get Syrah-like characteristics in it).

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• 2003 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Monogram 93 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  The wine which first taught us that Domaine Serene is making maybe some of the best wine in the Willamette. This was great - a bit fruit forward, very yummy, some balancing spice on the end of the mouthful. Beautiful wine. I liked it a bit less than the '02, but still delicious. Also - just a hint of alcohol which prob needed some time to blow off.

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• 2002 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Monogram 95 Points

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  This wine is pretty tough to describe but the right words are prob fabulous, special, stunning. Very bright red fruits even 13 years later but then so many other things. There's smoke and spice and umame maybe even. But delicious and wonderful. My second WOTD. Here again, the CT drinking window (which says by 2012) is just wrong - this wine is in a wonderful spot right now.

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We ended up going down to the wine making operations and tasting through some wines in tanks and bottles and then it felt like almost needing to rush the three wines that we did otherwise so didn't get to take detailed notes here. The Explorer's Club that they have though (where they send wines with different things - 80% whole cluster vs. 20%, different oak treatments, etc.) is super interesting and innovative though.

• 2013 White Rose Estate Pinot Noir Lia's Vineyard

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  This is much more burgundian in style than the Domaine Serene's that we had before it. Didn't take detailed notes at this spot, but I remember thinking there was a very strong acidity to this, it was actually drinking pretty ok now for a 2013 and wasn't going to do a lot with age, but was a nice food wine.

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• 2013 White Rose Estate Pinot Noir Guillen Vineyard

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  Much more fruit forward than the Lia's was. Here again I don't have detailed notes so just going off of my impressions. I liked this wine. Felt approachable, but you might get a bit of a benefit from giving it some time as well. While it was fruitier, still had that great acidity that I now associate with White Rose.

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• 2013 White Rose Estate Pinot Noir Winemaker's Cuvée

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Not great detailed notes here, but interesting wine. I'm not sure I didn't like the Guillen just a bit more, but maybe it's just this was young and needed a bit more time. The fruit was a bit more muted here as were the other flavors. Seems like a baby.

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Signed up for the vintage tasting and what an absolutely perfect way to end the day. The Archery Summit Estate outshone the Looney Vineyard a bit, but both were excellent wines and it was fun to sift through the verticals and get a better feel for how wine has progressed in Willamette.

• 2007 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Looney Vineyard

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge

  Cooler year, soft and fruity, right at the end there's a tannic backbone but it's not overly present. Perhaps of all the wines we drank this seemed to be most in it's element right now.

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• 2010 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Looney Vineyard

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge

  More stewed fruit on the nose than the '07, this was a just a bit more basic than I expected after the '07 (given this is a better year). I could taste the alcohol a touch more. It blew off with some time though and then this was more like velvet in a glass. The favorite of about half of the table with the Looney's, but I was in the '07 camp. Still - a good wine that I wouldn't throw out of my glass.

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• 2013 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Looney Vineyard

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge

  Wow - there's some serious tannin here and you have to kindof peek through the tightness and imagine what this could be with about 5 years because it's not drinking super well right now. I can sense the fruit more than taste it and there is a bit of earth there as well.

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• 2006 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Archery Summit Estate

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  Completely disagree with the previous note, but perhaps it was in a dumb phase a few months ago or maybe the fact that we drank from winery stored helped us. This wine was really lovely and possibly the best of the Archery Summit vintage tasting. Nice and complex and good fruit and light tannin and I thought came across almost on the younger side. Very good.

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• 2009 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Archery Summit Estate

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  So oddly here I get some dragonfruit mixed with berries and then some tannins take over right at the end. It's an interesting wine and one that I enjoyed.

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• 2012 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Archery Summit Estate

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills

  I really liked this. There's the bright red fruit of the 2012s, but then something else going on in the background that was tough to pinpoint, but just seemed to make it all a bit more interesting and complex. We ended up purchasing a bottle to see how it goes.

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So wow - just spectacular. The Domaine Serene visit was prob my favorite and that '05 Grace Vineyard was just something special. The wine that creates the 'wow' moment that I chase so often these days. It's our last planned trip to Oregon now that the wedding is over, but I know we will be back.