wine country – Riveted

More Fun in Wine Country

Laura Domela — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 15:42:20 +0000

Spots 11 and 12 at Willamette Wine Country RV. That's us on the right:

Yesterday we did some work in the morning here and then met up with our friends Lisa and George. They arrived early in the afternoon and the four of us headed first for Seufert Winery and then over to the Dominio IV winery to pick up our wine club shipments (we had about a year's worth!).

Dominio IV:

We met back up with the Hardersens when we returned to the RV park and everyone got together for a fun group dinner. The weather was beautiful and the moon was big and bright. (We also got to ride our bikes around a bit!)

The clouds moved in later in the evening while we were all still out visiting and then suddenly the rain came with those big fat raindrops so we quickly cleared the tables and moved inside. Fun evening!

It rained off and on all night, and this morning it's more of the same. We were going to go home today, but figured we'd get a bunch of work done here instead, cozy and out of the rain, and go home tomorrow.

Airstreamin’ in Wine Country

Laura Domela — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 14:49:27 +0000

We dusted off the Airstream on Thursday morning and headed down to the Willamette Valley wine country (only a little over an hour from our house in Portland) to meet up with some friends for the weekend.

When we got to our RV storage unit, everything was just as we'd left it and there were no big issues. Pretty good after sitting for a year in storage! The tires needed a little air, the clocks needed new batteries, and the fridge light needs a new bulb, but other than that everything was ready to go.

We are camping at the Willamette Wine Country RV Resort and so far, we have mostly remembered how to do everything. Campgrounds are definitely noisier than anchorages and mooring buoys, but it's still fun to be out in the trailer. (And there are no ferry wakes tossing you awake at 7am!)

Kevin and I had a reservation for dinner on Thursday night at the Joel Palmer House (thank you to Kevin's mom for the sweet gift card!)

The Joel Palmer House, in Dayton, Oregon:

Our table:

Because this is truffle country, we did the Mushroom Madness tasting menu, and because we're in pinot noir country, we shared a bottle of Methven Family Vineyards Pinot Noir. All was delicious and it was a nice evening.

In the morning, we met up with our friend Kathy Hardersen and her son Kyle. (Kyle just bought a new Airstream International 25' and is parked right next to us, and Kathy left her Airstream at home and is staying here in one of The Vintages.) We had breakfast at our trailer, and then went over to Sokol Blosser for some wine tasting on the patio.

Sokol Blosser has a gorgeous tasting room and patio, and we couldn't ask for better mid-October weather!

We were there for a couple hours just visiting and playing cards and tasting wine. Kathy is a wine club member at Sokol Blosser, so we got a nice complimentary charcuterie tray during our card game:

We brought back a deck of cards from the Trickster Company in Juneau, Alaska. This is the Tlingit language edition, and they're fabulous to play with!

We had some lunch at the Red Hills Market, then went to Penner-Ash Wine Cellars for another tasting (and met up with more of Kathy's family). I didn't take any photos at Penner-Ash, but they too have a gorgeous place up on the hill with a fantastic view of the valley. We really enjoyed several of their wines, and left with four bottles: a 2013 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, a 2014 Viognier (served at the White House State Dinner a few weeks ago), a 2013 Oregon Syrah, and a 2013 Rubeo (70% pinot noir, 30% syrah).

We decided to finally let Kyle have something HE wanted drink, so we stopped at Deception Brewing for a bit. (Kevin and I didn't try any of their beer though…next time!)

Dinner last night with the entire Hardersen family (table for 9) was at Ruddick/Wood in Newberg and was a blast. We always have so much fun with these guys. So. Much. Laughing!!

We started with a Honey Badger and a Whiskey Sour, and shared the duck confit hushpuppies (the winner) and a grilled octopus salad for starters, and the Fishermen's Stew and the Chicken Roulade (the winner) for entrees.

Today, we've got some more friends (Lisa and George, in their Argosy motorhome) joining us here and we'll probably visit two more wineries today…maybe ride our bikes around a bit, and just spend more time visiting and catching up.

It's definitely nice to be back in the Airstream, but I miss the boat and the water a little bit (and the rocking!). I think we're going to need to revisit the boondocking side of RV travel a bit more next time we set out for a longer trip…get away from the traffic noise and the leaf blowers and lawn mowers.

Dinner at Paulée

Laura Domela — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 18:46:36 +0000

Yesterday we left our beautiful 4th Flat at Third Street Flats in McMinnville and stopped for a light lunch at Nick's Italian Cafe just down the road. Nick's is a great neighborhood place with very good food!

We stopped by Twelve Wine (a few doors down from Nick's) after lunch to taste a couple wines. (Kevin had previously worked with the owner of Twelve Wine. We were sitting next to him on a flight back from San Jose about a year ago and found out he and his wife owned a vineyard in Carlton. Glad we finally got down there to try their wines!) We left with a couple bottles of wine, and picked up a few chocolates at Honest Chocolates (they share a storefront with Twelve Wines, and they had pumpkin bacon ganache chocolates…how could we resist?) and then we headed to our next stop: Inn at Red Hills in Dundee.

(**Note: My original plan for Kevin's birthday dinner on Tuesday was to take him to Paulée. However, Paulée is closed on Tuesdays and so was born the "Three days of food and wine in the Oregon wine country extravaganza birthday celebration" with the last night being dinner at Paulée.)

We checked into our room at the Inn (which was fine, but not nearly as cool as our 4th Flat was), worked for a bit, and decided to visit one more winery we'd read about (just down the road — the Dobbes Family Estate). Joe Dobbes has been making wine since 1985 and created the Dobbes Family Estate in Dundee, Oregon in 2003.

We walked into the tasting room from the cold (27 degrees or something!) and were immediately and warmly greeted by Joe's wife, Patricia. She was incredibly friendly and charming, and made sure we had a lovely tasting experience. (Thanks Patricia!) Joe makes some fantastic wines, and his second label, Wine by Joe, (from the website:) "is one of the first high quality screw top ventures in Oregon, producing quality Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc varietals. Wishing to give back, Joe donates a portion of all WINE BY JOE proceeds to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Northwest. "

They also have a Charitable Giving Program where each quarter, a different employee has the opportunity to select a cause that has special meaning to them. During that quarter they feature a wine and donate 10 percent of its sales to the chosen charity.

Cool people. Good wine.

Okay, and now finally: Paulée.

Our reservation was for 6pm.
– midweek in December
– the week or so after Thanksgiving
– when the temp outside is 27 degrees Fahrenheit
– and the forecast is for snow

And that's how we ended up being the only party for dinner last night. We sat at the chef's counter and had the 9 course chef's tasting menu with wine pairings, and it was incredible.

I took no photos at all except this one from the counter into the kitchen, but trust me, the food was gorgeously plated and expertly crafted. The ambiance inside was lovely as well: warm, contemporary, inviting. Here's a shot from their website so you can get a feel for the interior:

The chefs and the servers were so wonderful. There's no way you could really plan for this kind of focused, individual treatment (well, unless you bought the restaurant out for yourselves for the night I suppose) and we feel pretty lucky to have happened into it. We will definitely be coming back to Paulée.

Airplanes, Vineyards, and Thistle

Laura Domela — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Yesterday after work and breakfast we headed over to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum for some serious aviation goodness. It's funny that I lived in Long Beach (CA) for all those years a mile or two from the Spruce Goose and never even saw it until I moved to Oregon and saw it here in McMinnville. We'd flown into the McMinnville airport and walked to the museum. From the road you can see (huge wall of windows) the plane inside the museum and I said to Kevin "It doesn't really look that big. How huge is it, really?" (Can you even SEE it in there, from here?)

Well I can tell you, it's freakin' HUGE.

This is a great museum. There's one huge building with all airplanes (including the Spruce Goose), and another building with a very rich space exhibition. So much information!!

I loved the look of the engine guts of the SR-71 Blackbird. This is an amazing aircraft. Since 1976, it has held the world record for the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft (Mach 3+, West to East coast in 67 minutes), and was used primarily for reconnaissance. Read more about it here.

Next door to the main museum there's a water park, with a water slide that comes out of a 747!! How cool is that? (Not today, though…it was 36 degrees here.)

Last night at the Joel Palmer House we had a glass of a pinot noir we really liked (Seufert Coleman 2009) so we thought we'd go to the winery and see what else they had. (We're learning a bunch about pinot noir this trip. I know, it's about time!) We tasted several pinots at Seufert that we really liked (and brought some home). We got some recommendations for a couple other wineries, and next headed over to Stoller Vineyards.

View from the tasting room. As you can see, the weather was amazing!

During the warmer months, those huge window wall doors are opened up and the lawn is covered with adirondak chairs and tables. Sounds like we need to come back with a picnic! (We brought home a Chardonnay and a 2009 single vineyard Pinot Noir from Stoller.)

Also, last night (second day of Kevin's birthday extravaganza), we went to Thistle. Small, cozy, only a couple of blocks from where we're staying, and SO GOOD. We did the chef's whim menu (giving up all decision-making, just like we like it) and it was so worth it. Reasonable prices for fabulous, creative food. Highlights: the steelhead tartare, the kale salad, pork rillettes, and the cardamom panna cotta.

Birthday celebration day two! Success!