The (Wine) Road Not Taken

CellarTracker Main Site

The (Wine) Road Not Taken

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Cellar Talk] >> General Discussion >> The (Wine) Road Not Taken

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/17/2024 4:07:48 PM

ChrisinCowiche

Posts: 7845
Joined: 12/16/2009
From: Cowiche, WA
Status: offline

Barbilocks and I visited Patricia Green Winery in Newberg, Oregon last Friday. It was an absolutely gorgeous day in the Willamette Valley, and the vineyards were all bright green grass and gnarly vines with their spring haircuts high and tight, awaiting what this vintage will bring. We sat for a tasting of 2-3 white wines, and 6 or so Pinot Noir. The menu does not even tell you the red wine is Pinot Noir, but rather the vineyard and clone of the grape. It is assumed I guess that you know there is only one red grape option. They were all 2021, and all were distinctly different, and all were very good. We even bought some Chardonnay, and that is NOT our grape at all.

After the wine, we sampled the Brandy that PG made from the 2020 vintage, then 4 whiskeys they had made blending the brandy with home grown barley whiskeys. Oh, my. These were delicious beverages that were a poor man's Scotch or a rich man's moonshine. Unique and wonderful.

After tasting and buying a bunch, we visited The One Horse Tavern in Gaston. Exactly our type of dive bar/burger joint. We had burgers, and I had a pFriem IPA. Both were excellent.

After a while, on the drive home back through Portland and up the Columbia River, I pondered the day, and asked Barb. "Would we have been primarily Chardonnay and Pinot Noir drinkers if we had moved to Portland/Willamette Valley instead of Yakima Valley 16 years ago?". Her answer was spot on... "You weren't offered a job in Portland; but we were in Yakima". That ended that.

But I really can see myself, and us, enjoying and exploring more of Willamette Pinot over next few years since I DO now work for a firm in Portland and have more opportunities to do these detour wine tasting while I "work".

I am glad we were weaned ON to Washington wines, because a) they are still delicious in many, many styles, and ways, and b) their price per quality ratio is better than Oregon Pinot. We can spend $30-35 and KNOW we have the highest quality Washington Cab, Syrah, Merlot, Cab Franc, Chenin Blanc. Yes there are plenty higher than that and we buy those too, but we got in on ground floor with several producers who have kept those price points, either because of clubs or just because. I put them in blind tasting line-ups all the time and they outperform their higher priced peers, in state or imports. I have NEVER seen that price point equate to top level in OR Chardonnay or Pinot; always at least $50+ to find top Oregon wines. Maybe they exist and I could/would ferret them out with 15 years on that wine trail.

Anyway, my question for discussion. Have you ever found a wine crossroads that made you think about whether your wine journey and current wine preferences would have been different if?

< Message edited by ChrisinCowiche -- 4/18/2024 8:02:18 AM >

_____________________________

http://www.cellartracker.com/new/user.asp?iUserOverride=102173

Post #: 1

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/17/2024 4:55:18 PM

Jenise

Posts: 1315
Joined: 3/20/2013
From: The Pacific Northest Westest
Status: offline

Oh sure, and more than once, and usually having to do with the company I kept. We moved to Alaska in 1991 and got into Australian because that's what our new friends were drinking. I got into pinot noir when a new friend opened a Williams Selyem. I got into Southern Rhones when I moved to Washington state (at that point, disliking syrah except for Northern Rhone) and started hanging out with a bunch of Rhone-fanatic Canadians. I also started appreciating Washington syrahs (now one of the biggest parts of my cellar) because living here I found out that they weren't all brown-sugar sweet as I'd believed based on the first one I tried. And so forth. I've never thought of these changes as crossroads so much as the meanderings of a curious mind and flexible palate. But location had a lot to do with them, too.

(in reply to ChrisinCowiche)

Post #: 2

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/17/2024 5:02:27 PM

Jenise

Posts: 1315
Joined: 3/20/2013
From: The Pacific Northest Westest
Status: offline

Meant to add that it's an absolute given I think for any of us that had we ended up in (name the wine region) the process of adaption would guarantee that constant exposure to those wines would shape our palates differently.

(in reply to Jenise)

Post #: 3

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/17/2024 11:56:16 PM

BenG

Posts: 841
Joined: 5/5/2009
From: Australian in Idaho
Status: offline

Moving to the US in 2007 opened up European wine to me. We were mainly buying at $10-20 price point, so European made more sense than US wine. This was after living in Australia where it's hard to find good European wine at $US10-20. I made up for lost time, mainly with Spanish and French wine.

Now we're able to splurge a little more and have found some lovely wine from Washington state and Finger Lakes when we were living near there. I am finding it hard to get some Australian wines here though - I particularly miss Semillon, Riesling, Coonawarra Cab Sav and mid-priced Shiraz.

(in reply to Jenise)

Post #: 4

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/18/2024 12:53:41 AM

penguinoid

Posts: 1054
Joined: 1/10/2013
From: Australia via the UK, now in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: ChrisinCowiche
Anyway, my question for discussion. Have you ever found a wine crossroads that made you think about whether your wine journey and current wine preferences would have been different if?

I guess so, and for similar reasons -- a few years ago I narrowly missed out on a job teaching English in Burgundy. (Not sure how it would have worked out in practice since it was part time and I'd have needed to find a second employer locally

).

Still, if it had happened, I think I'd have got to try quite a bit more Burgundy than I actually managed, and probably less Australian wine.

_____________________________

Probably not a penguin

https://www.cellartracker.com/user.asp?iUserOverride=167981

https://www.instagram.com/penguinoid/
https://blog.wodewose.org/

(in reply to ChrisinCowiche)

Post #: 5

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/18/2024 2:34:50 AM

jmcmchi

Posts: 3208
Joined: 8/6/2013
Status: offline

If I look at it that way, I suppose my lack of interest in/knowledge of Italian wines can be traced back to my limited understanding of the language- it’s been much easier with the other major producing countries

(in reply to penguinoid)

Post #: 6

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/18/2024 4:56:59 AM

musedir

Posts: 23486
Joined: 2/25/2010
From: At 2534ft in Asheville near Royal Pines
Status: offline

In 2011 I was strictly an Italian and French wine devotee but a necessary cancellation of a Bordeaux tour led to an unexpected invite to learn about Washington State wines and I have not looked back with any regret ever since. Sometimes you just need a tour guide!!

_____________________________

"Fan the sinnking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine." Charles Dickens.

(in reply to jmcmchi)

Post #: 7

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/18/2024 10:47:12 AM

Echinosum

Posts: 598
Joined: 1/28/2021
From: Buckinghamshire, UK
Status: offline

About 30-odd years ago, a group of us in the office bought a 10 case consignment of Leeuwin Chardonnay from the liquidator of a bankrupt retailer, what would now be called Art Series. It went into the cupboard where the office wine was stored, as people got around to taking their share home. We got it for the most ridiculously cheap price, as I think the liquidator had no idea at what he was sitting on. As driving right into the centre of London is not something most people do, it took me a while to get my share home a few bottles at a time.

Now generally speaking i was the only person who ever went into the office wine store. Now there was a event requiring wine, for which I was not present, so I made provision for what they would serve. But the person delegated to retrieve it went into the cupboard, and went, I prefer the look of this. And so he served a whole case of my Leeuwin Chardonnay to some clients, and maybe one or two of them realised what a treat they had had. Of course I was compensated in money, the ridiculously cheap price I had paid. But as a sorry, he gave me a couple of bottles of South African chardonnay, which cost a little more than the ridiculously low price I had paid for the Leeuwin. He said, they make some great stuff in SA these days. Well, not that particular producer. And not even approaching what I had lost.

Which put me off SA wine for a very long time. I suddenly had the revelation of what great wine is made in SA just a few years ago, and today it is the second largest category in my cellar after France.

_____________________________

A discriminating palate can be a curse.

(in reply to musedir)

Post #: 8

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/18/2024 11:20:21 AM

fingers

Posts: 8242
Joined: 8/26/2006
From: Santa Ana, CA
Status: offline

Started getting serious about wine and building a cellar around 2004. It took me until around 2016 to discover Loire. I had no idea what I was missing.
It is now the second biggest region in my cellar behind California and ahead of Bordeaux and Champagne

(in reply to Echinosum)

Post #: 9

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/18/2024 3:39:55 PM

sastewart

Posts: 588
Joined: 8/16/2012
From: Greater Nashville
Status: offline

Chris, We visited at Patricia Green last Thursday - Great visit.

As to your question, our wine journey has definitely been influenced by the people we have met over the years who have shared many great wines from all over the world with us. We have also been influenced by the many wine destinations we have visited.

Some of those small dirt roads have been the best!

(in reply to fingers)

Post #: 10

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/18/2024 3:55:10 PM

recotte

Posts: 6867
Joined: 1/19/2011
Status: offline

When I first joined CT, my cellar, which was maybe a tenth the size it is now, was about 2/3 California, which was mostly Napa Cab, and 1/3 Italian. I knew very little about France, and nothing at all about Spain, Washington, or Oregon. Then I joined the CT forum, and through the enablement of those here, Washington is now about a third of what I have, and close to a dozen different regions or countries are well represented. It all started with a humble question about offsite storage, then down the slippery slope I went. If it hadn’t been for a home remodel that prompted my question, I’d likely still be happily trundling along as I was, all the poorer for not having met and shared glasses with many of the scofflaws and ne’er-do-wells that lurk about here.

_____________________________

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

(in reply to fingers)

Post #: 11

RE: The (Wine) Road Not Taken - 4/20/2024 9:21:04 AM

VinLancaster

Posts: 71
Joined: 4/6/2010
From: PDX
Status: offline

Hi Chris,

So sorry we couldn't join you & Barb, as it sounds like a fantastic day at PGC! My work got in the way. I should have sent Pete solo since he is 'so retired' and a man of leisure. Next time!!

Anyway, this is a fabulous post and makes me think about how lucky we are to live in the Willamette Valley with just 20+ minutes drive to some of the best OR (PN/Chard) wine to be had! We also feel so fortunate that a bit longer drive takes us to the Columbia Valley AVA & further still to Walla Walla and Yakima for some of the best (big red) wines in the country, IMHO!

Agree, the QPR for WA wine is (for now) unattached (shhhhh! Don't tell anyone)! And yes the QPR is not as great for OR PN and increasing what seems on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Anyway, glad you and Barb had a great visit. Hope to see you both next time-dinner and wine at our place-open invitation!

Cheers & Hi to Barb!!

(in reply to ChrisinCowiche)

Post #: 12