I went with three wine-interested-but-not-wino friends out to Newberg this weekend for the primary purpose of picking up '06 wines from Le Cadeau and Prive and the secondary purpose of tasting and enjoying an afternoon out of the city. 

 

With a 3 pm appointment at LC and an "after LC" appointment at Prive, I wanted to fill in the early part of the afternoon with two more stops.  Chehalem was my first addition, in no small part because winemaker Harry Peterson-Nedry is an entertaining writer (see the newsletter on the Chehalem website for examples).  He also makes one of the three current LC wines. 

 

I was hoping to arrange a tasting at Owen Roe, to add some diversity to the lineup we'd be tasting through (in the form of Washington State Rhone and Bordeaux varietal wines) as well as ensuring that there would be wines that my friends would find affordable, but they were all booked for the day.  August Cellars (which houses wine production for seven wineries) was my next choice, but I decided at the last minute to switch to Rex Hill, knowing that they're part of the same ownership as Francis Tannahill (another LC cuvee producer).  

 

We had weather as perfect as it gets in early February in Yamhill County -- sun, gentle breezes, good visibility across the valley. 

 

Rex Hill looked to be very quiet as we arrived.  The only car in the parking lot was on their way out.  But inside, the tasting bar was crowded.  Apparently we were preceded by a limo-borne party (in perhaps more than one sense of the word).  We squeezed into a corner of the bar.  The largish group was loud and the servers were clearly distracted (and a little put off) by them.  Tastings were $10 for a flight of five wines (with $5 creditable towards a purchase).  We had an unoaked Chard, a Pinot Gris, and if memory serves, the '06 WV Pinot, the '05 Reserve Pinot, and a William Hatcher Pinot.   These wines were consistently thin and tart, despite the best efforts of our server to imply otherwise as she poured them.  I wondered if my palate was off.  One of the higher-end wines (I think it was the Reserve Pinot) approached something like elegance, in a fruitless, Burgundian wine.   We wandered around the tasting room and left without buying anything.  I wouldn't recommend a stop here, though it helped build a nice narrative for the afternoon.

 

We arrived a couple minutes early to our appointment at Chehalem, just as a previous group was on the way out.  The tasting room is a small, clean room with a stainless steel table.   It was wonderfully quiet.  Chehalem employee Jason (who, it turns out, is practically my neighbor) led us through a tasting of three whites and two reds.  We started with a dry Riesling, with pretty and delicate grapefruit and lemon on the nose and a dry, shortish finish that reminded me of drinking mineral water.  Next was a Pinot Gris.  I don't remember the flavor profile but I was surprised at the length of the finish.  The last white was the Ian's Reserve Chardonnay, which is their (moderately) oaked Chard (they also do an unoaked, the INOX).  This wine had a sweet honey and floral nose, a dry, mineral palate, and a good finish.   I don't drink much white wine (starting to explore more) but I enjoyed all three of these.  While we were tasting, Jason did a good job of explaining the history of white wine production in Oregon as well as Chehalem's relationship/approach to the different wines.   We also tasted an '06 3 Vineyards PN (this is their basic appelation wine) and a 2000 Rion Reserve PN that was the product of a fruit exchange between several local winemakers.  Both of these were highly-structured, tannic wines.  I wouldn't open the 3V for at least a year, probably two, and I wasn't that impressed with the older wine, though I suspect it might be a wine that would show better over the course of an evening.  

 

After the  tasting Jason showed us around the winemaking facilities, which we'd been hoping we'd see, and talked very lucidly about their approach, their use of oak, etc.   We bought a mixed case of whites and I would recommend this as a nice visit. 

 

As we left, it turned out that none of had particularly enjoyed any of the Rex Hill wines, and we'd all been having the same doubts; further, we'd all enjoyed all of the Chehalem wines.  Nice turnaround.

 

We drove up the hill to Le Cadeau, catching some fantastic views from the top of Parret Mountain, and met Tom and Deb Mortimer at the vineyard.  Tom gave us a wonderfully clear explanation of the different parts of the vineyard (our kind of geek).  We retired to the "tasting room" (Tom and Deb's kitchen) where we opened an '03 Le Cadeau (tasting note left) and talked about the new plantings (there are several new blocks of vines in varying early stages of plantings), some history on California viticultural research, and the personalities of the Willamette Valley.   A lovely stop and I'm looking forward to returning in the summer to see the vineyard in full green bloom.   Tom mentioned that LC's fourth '06 cuvee, Equinox, will be released in the next month or two. 

 

The Prive stop was nearly aborted, as nobody was answering the phone, and the gate was closed.  Turned out that the winemaking team (Tina Hammond) was judging an event up in Washington, and had forgotten to mention our visit to the viticultural team (Mark Hammond), which was taking advantage of the weather to get some pruning done.  Eventually, I found him, and he let us in.  We didn't end up tasting any wines, but I enjoyed talking to him, and I'll do my best to make it back for the fall release party for their '07 wines.  Prive, like LC, is on a gorgeous hillside setting (possibly steeper than Le Cadeau), though the house and winemaking facility is below the vineyard. 

 

Next time out I plan to explore further west, including a stop at Heater Allen.