Friday Flights! Wines of Oregon!
Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!
This week we’re visiting our own back yards with wines from Oregon. If you haven’t looked in your backyard in a while, you haven’t noticed notice that the wine industry there has been spreading like unrestrained bamboo, or the wisteria that is slowly tearing the raingutters off my house. We’re talking exponential growth, with 250 wineries existing in Oregon right now, up from 175 two years ago!
Oregon has all these wineries, and it seems every one of them makes a Pinot Noir, a Chardonnay, and a Pinot Gris. It makes sense, since those seem to grow pretty well here. But it’s gotten so you could throw a bottle of Pinot Noir out the window, and it would probably hit another bottle of Pinot Noir. So sure, we got Pinot out the wazoo, and I could quite easily put together a hundred tastings of nothing but Pinots, but what of the other varieties? I find it interesting to see these other grapes winemakers are venturing out of the norm to produce, like Zinfandel and Syrah. Some say the climate is all wrong for those grapes, but I believe someone said that about Pinot Noir about 30 years ago. . .and look where that has gotten us!
So Friday, March 5th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:
Wines of Oregon (It’s more than just Pinot):
Brooks 2002 Runaway Red, Wilamette Valley
Carabella 2001 Les Meres Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley
Elk Cove 2002 La Sirene Syrah, Oregon/Washington
Girardet 2000 Baco Noir, Umpqua Valley **
Henry Estate 1999 Syrah / Cabernet Sayvignon, Umpqua Valley
And because Zin makes the world a better place:
Mystic 2002 Zinfandel, Columbia Valley
Solena 2000 Zinfandel, Applegate Valley
** Baco Noir is in no way related to Pinot Noir. It is a hybrid of two different grapes I have never heard of before - Vitis Vinefera Var (AKA Folle Blanche or Gros Plant, a French grape used in the distillling of Cognac that also makes an unpleasant white wine from the Loire), and the Vitis Riparia (an American grape). The hybrid was made by Maurice Baco, hence the name. Although the two parent grapes might make the greatest wines, if they make wine at all, Baco Noir, itself, makes a pleasant full-bodied red.
A good deal at $10 for the first 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!
Next week is a South America!
M