Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

It’s time! You know what time? It’s Thursday! Is “Thursday” really a time? Well, maybe it’s a broad sense of a period of time. But Thursday it is, and that means it’s time for the Carpe Vinum Newsletter of the Week Time, and High Time to Take the Time to Announce the Tasting of the Week! And it’s just in time. What are we tasting this time? Get ready for this, because it’s always a good time: It’s the Wines of Oregon (time)!

We live in Oregon. Well, no . . . not necessarily you, given the international audience we’ve got for these weekly ramblings. By “we” I mean “me”, the party of one, here at the shop. Well, most of you on this list do actually live in Oregon, but let me get back on track here. I’m proud to be living in Oregon. We’ve got all kinds of things: Mountains, rivers, oceanfront property, a basketball team, dry and arid desert scrubbrush, squishy and mossy rainforests, salmon, hippies, hipsters, hippopotamuses, hip-boot-waders, hip-hip-hooray, hippidy-doo-dah, and so on. Also . . . We’ve got wine.

Apparently every state in the country makes wine of some sort. Some states are better suited for the grape-growing than others, and other states make wine from other fruits that grow where grapes can’t. That being said, I think we could rate Oregon wines within the top 3 states of a hotly contested race of best-wine-states, but when it comes to Pinot Noir, we got it goin’ on. Every year the Oregon Pinot Noir gets more recognition around the world, and the number of wineries seems to increase exponentially. It’s like the Pinot Noir Gold Rush. We call it “Purple Gold”! (Okay, nobody calls it that . . . but let’s hope it catches on.)

Now, Pinot love aside, there is a lot more growing in Oregon than just the “Purple Gold”. That seems to be the majority of what we hear about, and that makes sense. The wineries know which side their bread is buttered on, to follow that old cliché. But if you butter your bread on ALL sides, you . . . uh, you get your hands all greasy. Wait, where was I going with that? Ah. It makes sense to hype the breadwinner (or butterer), but we’ve got a lot more to offer than Pinot Noir, and a lot more affordable things too.

So I’ve pieced together a diverse selection of Oregon varieties. There are so many new and interesting things going on in the Oregon winemaking field that a tasting every day of the year wouldn’t cover it all. So we do what little we can, and enjoy it as best as possible! In the lineup we’ve got an Auxerrois (aw-sher-wah), a grape variety you might remember from the Alsace tasting last week. It’s rare and delicious. We’ve got the Oregon resident veterans of Riesling and Pinot Gris, both summery and refreshing. We’ve got a rose of Tempranillo from Southern Oregon, and a red blend from the Columbia Valley.

Then we have two of the quintessential Pinot Noir. The first is the whole-cluster fermented Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley Vineyards. Whole-cluster fermentation, a method they use in Beaujolais, is the carbonic maceration method where grapes are not crushed but fermented while inside the skins. This creates lighter and fruitier flavors and aromas. Then we have your regular super-charged-take-on-the-whole-world Pinot Noir from Erath, one of Oregon’s winemaking pioneers, growing and squashing grapes for almost 40 years. It’s the full spectrum set for the sampling!

So Friday, August 24th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Oregon!!!
Adelsheim 2006 Auxerrois, Willamette Valley
Anam Cara 2006 Riesling, Nicholas Estate, Willamette Valley
Roots 2006 Pinot Gris, Yamhill-Carlton
Abacela 2006 Rosado of Tempranillo, Estate Grown, Umpqua Valley
Willamette Valley Vineyards 2006 Whole Cluster Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley

M’Oregon!!!
Erath 2005 Estate Selection Pinot Noir, Dundee Hills
Sineann 2005 Red Blend, Columbia Valley

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.

Hope to see you here!

Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Super Summer Sipping, Slurping, and Swigging Spectacular!

M