Jump to Wine Areas: Willamette Valley – Napa Valley – Sonoma – Santa Barbara – Paso Robles – Lodi – Livermore – Amador County – Anderson Valley – Yakima – Red Mountain – Walla Walla – Mendoza – Okanagan – Chile – South Africa – The Rhone Valley
Like a Pavlovian dog responding to a dinner bell I know that the popping sound of pulling a cork from the bottle will elicit a cry of “Happy Noise” from my wife and favorite wine buddy and she will soon be standing in front of me with a glass in hand and a smile on her face.
My wine hideaway
The cork wall that now encircles 2/3’s of my cellar – lots of glue gun work!
Wine and travel is a great way to combine two things that can be mind and eye opening and that when experienced together can heighten each other’s best attributes. I’m not going to pretend to be a wine critic and try and tell anyone what is good and bad. I’ve always felt that if you like it then it is good to you – period.
Palettes will change over time and though you may have thought White Zin was “the bomb” in your college days, in your adult life you may come to think of it as being too much like soda pop and prefer a nice dry wine. And yet to you they were both tasty at the time and so who am I to say differently – my tastes have certainly evolved over time!
So in this section I will mainly discuss visiting wine areas and wineries – was it pretty? was it expensive or a value? what varietals did they have? and were the people friendly and knowledgeable?
Wine Areas to visit By Country \ State
USA – Oregon
Willamette Valley
Yamhill-Carlton District – Chehalem Mountains – Dundee Hills – Eola-Amity Hills – McMinnville – Ribbon Ridge
Erath’s Prince Hill Vineyards in the Dundee Hills AVA
Oregon is my home turf and it has some wonderful wine areas – this link discusses the various American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) across the state and I think we have visited them all except one – Oregon Wine Areas
I’m lucky to have been born into this time and place in Oregon’s wine evolution. In my lifetime I’ve witnessed the birth and growth of this beautiful Oregon Wine Industry to where we stand now as a true player in the world of wine. Oregon wines were ranked #2 and #3 on the 2016 Wine Spectator List of the World’s Top 100 wines and have made regular appearances on the Top 100 list over the past decade and before. – 2016 Top 100 List
The Willamette Valley AVA includes the Chehalem Mountains, Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, McMinnville, Yamhill-Carlton District, and Ribbon Ridge appellations. This is the area that put Oregon on the wine map and Pinot Noir is the star attraction and most widely planted grape varietal by far. That’s not to say that they don’t grow some lovely whites – in fact the #3 wine on that Top 100 list was a Chardonnay – and they also do a fine job with Pinot Gris.
The Willamette Valley is a beautiful area with rolling hills, rivers and streams, evergreen forests, and farm fields and orchards along with acres and acres (around 20,000) of grapes. The Willamette Valley AVA welcomes wine tasters with most wineries available for walk-in tastings – many on a daily basis and most on Fri. \ Sat. and Sun. There is good signage directing you to the wineries and a good map can be printed on-line or picked up at the first winery you visit.
Some of the wineries have serious money behind them and are owned by beverage conglomerates but there are still smaller production and family owned wineries where you can get close to the grapes and the people that grow them, squeeze them, blend them, and bottle them. But keep in mind that Pinot Noir is not an easy grape to grow and the yields are lower than many other varietals and those costs are passed on to the wine drinkers and wine tasters in the form of more expensive bottles and higher tasting fees. So expect to pay $10+ for a Willamette Valley Pinot tasting and expect single vineyard Pinot Noirs to run you $40+ and so if you taste and buy you can spend some serious money.
My tastes mostly run to bigger red wines but a well done Pinot Noir can be a revelation and paying up for a tasting of reserve or library wines at a winery like Domaine Serene, Beaux Freres, Bethel Heights, St. Innocent, Cameron, Panther Creek, Domaine Drouhin, Adelsheim, or Bergstrom to just name a few can be very worthwhile. And the beauty is that new wineries are popping up every day.
The Yamhill Carlton AVA
The section above about the large Willamette Valley AVA in some ways does a disservice to the winemakers of the region because in Oregon Pinot Noir Country the producers will release wines that are far more specific to the place where the vines were grown than a geographical area as large as the Willamette Valley. The term used in the wine world for the unique soil, climate, elevation and environment in which a grape is grown is terroir – which for some reason happens to be one of the most difficult French words for my mouth to form.
In many of the higher quality Pinot Noirs produced in Oregon the fruit comes from a very specific place and the producers may label their wines with a certain sub-appellation such as Yamhill-Carlton or Dundee Hills or they may list a specific vineyard such as Shea or Seven Springs, and in some cases they may list a particular 5 acre block within a particular vineyard to indicate precisely where the grapes came from. And to the credit of the pinot noir grape and its ability to communicate its surrounding into the taste of the wine, certain sub-AVA’s, certain vineyards, and indeed certain blocks within a vineyard can receive higher tasting scores and command higher prices than grapes from other areas.
The Yamhill-Carlton AVA was created in 2004. The AVA covers 60,000 acres of which about 2500 is planted with grapes. There are over 50 wineries and double that number of vineyards. Most of the grapes grown in Yamhill-Carlton are Pinot Noir, Pino Gris, and Chardonnay.
The Dundee Hills AVA
The Southern Oregon AVA includes the Umpqua Valley, Rogue Valley, Elkton Oregon, Red Hill Douglas County, and Applegate Valley appellations.
Of the other Oregon AVAs – Columbia Gorge, Columbia Valley, Snake River Valley and the Walla Walla Valley I am only covering the Columbia Gorge under the Oregon section. The Columbia Valley and Walla Walla Valley AVAs I’ll cover under Washington and when I get time to visit I’ll cover the Snake River Valley under Idaho.
Columbia Gorge AVA
USA – Northern California
Rutherford, Los Carneros, Stags Leap, St. Helena, Oakville, Calistoga, Yountville, Atlas Peak, Howell Mountain, Mt. Veeder
Top
Sonoma County
Los Carneros, Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Rockpile, Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast
Central Coast and Santa Cruz Mountains
Arroyo Grande, Arroyo Seco, Carmel Valley, Edna Valley, Livermore, Monterey, Santa Lucia Highlands, Santa Cruz Mountains, Santa Clara Valley, Santa Maria Valley, Santa Rita Hills,
Santa Ynez Valley
Santa Barbara
Top
Paso Robles
Central Valley
Top
Livermore
North Coast
Mendocino
Anderson Valley
Top
Sierra Foothills
California Shenandoah Valley, El Dorado
Amador County
USA – S. California
Temecula
USA – Washington
Woodinville, Walla Walla, Red Mountain, Rattlesnake Hills, Wahluke Slope, Lake Chelan, Horse Heaven Hills, Columbia Valley, Snipes Mountain, Naches Heights, Columbia Gorge
Yakima Valley
Red Mountain
See my blog post on Red Mountain
Rattlesnake Hills
Walla Walla
Top
Chile
Casablanca Valley
Maipo Valley, Chile
Casillero del Diablo, Concho Y Toro
Argentina
Mendoza
Valle de Uco, Argentina
Maipu Valley, Argentina
Uco Valley, Argentina
Ruta Del Vino – Maipu Valley, Mendoza
Canada
Okanagan
See my blog post on the Okanagan Valley
Australia
Hunter Valley
Austria
Wachau
Wachau Valley, Austria
South Africa
Stellenbosch, Paarl, Franshoek
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Fairview Winery – Paarl Wine Country – Goats do Roam
Franschoek Wine Country
Stellenbosch Wine Country
Croatia
Korcula, Croatia
Pompeii
