Sound and Fury

I took my sister Amy wine tasting on Saturday. Satya came too; my other friends ditched us for work-related reasons (or because they were in Wyoming). I had five vineyards planned, but I only managed to hit three. My first mistake was to attempt to approach Tualatin Estates armed only with directions from Google. Some of the turns we were supposed to take did not exist, but we managed to find the place with a minimum of backtracking. But they were closed. Apparently, there was a road closure (which we had not yet encountered), and they figured that not many would brave the detour.

So we turned around, and started off in the direction of David Hill. The road was closed. But, Schaffer Vineyard cellars was right there, and we stopped by. Their wines haven't changed much since I visited last. I noted a distinct petroleum aroma on most of their wines, which I found a bit off-putting. Still, their Pinot Noir Blanc was nice, and inexpensive. I bought a bottle, and Satya bought two. The proprietress was kind enough to give us an empty wine case to carry our purchases in; I've seen other vineyards charge $3 for them. Schafer is certainly friendly.

At any rate, having been given directions to circumvent the construction, we proceeded to get ourselves lost, and immediately find ourselves on HWY 6, which I knew would take us to 47 S, and David Hill. We did that, and had a very nice tasting.

It was getting late, so I decided it would be a good idea to skip Montinore Estates (which was on the list because Amy had expressed interest in inexpensive but good wine), and proceed to WillaKenzie with hopes of making Adelsheim before they closed at 4:30. I had underestimated the distances involved though, and we arrived at WillaKenzie too late to make Adelsheim. We had a nice tasting there, and we headed home.

Note to self: wine country is big and sprawly. Pick an area and stick to it. Don't try to hit three corners of it in one day.

I feel that it is necessary to expose my sister to the Dundee Hills region. So I'll probably try to do this again in early September.