“California pinot noir is like a beautiful woman in a red dress that’s cut up to here and down to there,” Jim Burnau told me in the tasting room of Willamette Valley Vineyards the other day. “You absolutely have to date her, and you should.”
“Oregon pinot noir is like a beautiful woman in a slinky black cocktail dress,” he continued. “Just gorgeous — and you want to take her home to mom.”
I knew there was a reason I settled in Oregon.
We had some friends from Iowa drive across the country (they made it in 2 days!) to visit us during Spring Break. I’d like to think that they were coming just to see us, but knowing how Oregon can take hold of the newcomer’s imagination and not let go, I felt inclined to give them a one-day best-of visitor’s tour.
Problem: I’ve been here three months and don’t yet have a best-of visitor’s tour.
So we did what they thought they might love based on our descriptions on their visit on Tuesday.
Morning: Sleeping and breakfasting for a few hours.
Mid-day: 5-mile hike at Silver Falls
Afternoon: Willamette Valley Vineyards tasting
Evening: Momiji sushi
Late-evening: Drinking of WVV’s Tualatin Estate Mueller-Thurgau varietal
Sorry, South Falls, a personal pouring session starring Jim Burnau beats waterfalls any day of the week. Jim’s this amazing character. He has a great ability to draw people into conversation, and comes across as a generous spirit eager to introduce newcomers to Oregon’s wine bounty. You might say he is an excellent salesman (we walked out with a couple of bottles for the group), but I much prefer a sincere and passionate salesman to one that isn’t interested in talking to me.
Strangely, though we came for pinot noir, we stayed for the Mueller-Thurgau. I think it has something to do with the world being so springy and puddle-wonderful.
Like so many of my experiences with Salem and it’s surrounding environs, I go out seeking something specific and find that want I want is something I had never even heard of (or in this case, tasted).
By the way, Jim spent St. Patrick’s Day at Johnny’s Bar and Grill on 1729 Center Street NE. He claims that they have the best bar food in town.
WVV is a wonderful place. The drive up the winding entrance between the vines makes you feel kind of regal just to get you started, and the wines are actually good (not just good intentions). Their chardonnay has always been my favorite, and the Oregon style of pinot noir is gradually growing on me even though I still prefer the California style. I realize that liking chardonnay at all and preferring CA pinot to Oregon’s immediately mark me as an “unsophisticated” wine drinker, but it is what it is.
WVV has lots of special events; you and your husband might like to sign up for the grape stomping competition later this year. You just have to figure out which one of you is the better stomper, then the other one holds the jug to collect the juice; no previous winemaking experience required! The winning team goes on to the national championship in Santa Rosa, CA, and at least one year the Salem team won that.
January’s big event is sponsored by Mo’s and involves eating crab and clam chowder. A Statesman-Journal photographer took a picture about nine years ago of my husband and me enjoying the seafood, and it shows up in the newspaper at least once a year. We call it “the photo that won’t die.”
That reminds me – if you live in Salem for at least a year or so and you actually leave your house on a regular basis, you will eventually have your picture in the Statesman-Journal, even if it’s just for eating crab. I thought that kind of stuff only happened in really, really small towns, but I was wrong.
I can believe it is so close. As for wine, people like what they like, there’s no shame in that.
The very fact that they’ve been recycling an old photo for nine years means that you are attractive people, or the photo is just that great, or their photo budget is that limited, or their photographers are that lazy.
WVV has joined my must visit list.