Newport Continued . . .
So where was I?
Ah, yes. Just about to get to the wine parts of the trip to the fine, fine Oregon coast!
So the first night, having just arrived for dinner with only enough time to drop our bags and check the mirror, the thought of wine for dinner wasn’t at the forefront. Also during packing we didn’t really think of bringing anything along. I mean, from the years of having the shop and the years at the distributor before that, my cellar does have a few things that need to be popped before all hope is lost. Do I mean hope? I think I mean flavor. That’s another discussion.
The wine list at the restaurant was simple. Really, I could tell they kept the wine ordering easy considering I could tell all the wine came from one distributor. It’s the guys that carry all the beer, so it’s usually wine I consider lowest-common-denominator wine. Grocery-store stuff. Fair enough. It’s an easy way to order. Only having to write one check for the wine and the beer at the same time, etc. And it wasn’t like they’re ordering specifically for me anyway. I mean, I bet most folks sitting down to dinner there really only need to specify red or white. Or . . . ugh . . .pink.
We chose the Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel, maybe because all the other wines seemed to be the “safe road” for the wine list. An uninteresting Pinot Noir. An uninteresting Merlot. An uninteresting Cabernet. An . . .ugh . . . uninteresting White Zinfandel. And then your traditional Chardonnay. And a red blend that I only found interesting because I’ve noticed the distributor had been selling the same vintage for the last 7 years. I guess either the winery made too much of it or nobody likes it. Of course, if nobody likes it, then they definitely made too much of it. But I digress.
The Ridge Zin was about what I’d expected. That winery has been seemed to me to be traveling the safe road. And by “safe road” I mean “sacrificing an interesting wine for a reliable wine”. It was good, but it was also unexciting. I expect Zinfandel to be strong, spicy, aggressive and assertive. This was like . . . a warm bath after a long hike. Or . . . a warm, fuzzy blanket after . . . a warm bath . . . or something. A purple drink that neither excited nor offended. It was a Cabernet-lover’s Zin. But, hey. It washed down dinner just fine.
The following day we knew we wanted to wander through Nye Beach a bit and see the sights and sip the wine. Not even one block from the hotel was the Village Market & Deli. We popped in for a quick snack and spoke at length with the proprietors, Bob and Deborah. It’s a great place for a quick meat and cheese plate and a glass of wine. In fact, the meat and cheese plate had about double or triple the quantities of delectable goodness than the one from a local Portland wine bar. (A place to which we went only once, just for that reason).
From there we wandered down the road another block to the Nye Beach Gallery - Art and Wine. (Come to think of it, I didn’t really notice any art. Perhaps I was just distracted.) Once there we enjoyed a wine tasting of Spain vs. New World wines and talked with Wendy and Zachary. We actually stayed there quite a while, discussing the Oregon wine scene, the folly of some American wine making styles, the foibles of the local sales infrastructure and distributors, and raving about most of the same wines.
The point I have to make about the whole voyage, as it relates to wine, is that in these tourist-y, out-of-the-way places can be some of the best treasure hunts when it comes to rare and valuable bottles. Most folks aren’t really out shopping for wine when they take their trips to the beach, so the special bottles that might be snatched up in town end up collecting dust on the shelves in these places. Between the Village Market & Deli and the Nye Beach Gallery, we racked up a case of wine . . . the most we’d purchased for ourselves since opening the shop. (Well, besides a trip to Walla Walla. That’s a whole other story.) Many were bottles that I knew were sold-out long ago within Portland and some that I was not “allowed” by the distributors. (That’s also a whole other story.)
Of course wine and food are not the only things to do at Newport’s Nye Beach. I’m not writing a tourist’s guide, so I don’t need to go into to much detail. Of course there are galleries and shopping, not to mention the beach itself. But during the winter it’s a bit rainy and stormy, so those walks on the beach can be a bit soggy. Watching those storms roll by from the comforts of a nice cafe or the Sylvia Beach Library with a nice glass of red in hand, and great company at your side, can make a relaxing vacation.