a jaunt to a few wineries in newberg and carlton

Nora and I set out with my parents for some wine tasting on the day before my birthday and hit a few places I have never been to before. The first stop was August Cellars. August is actually the first winery one comes upon when taking 99 from Portland out to wine country. August has a rather upscale and open tasting room. Unfortunately, the wines were pretty uneven to say the least. The first of the line up was the 2008 Oregon dry Riesling. The nose was a mixture of canned pears, lime, and balsa wood. It was an extremely fruit forward wine with a very thin body. A one dimensional puckery lemon flavor dominated the profile. Nora said it was like drinking water with citrus fruit in it. I concurred.

The 2007 Washington Riesling didn’t fair much better. Its nose reeked of laughing gas and the inside of a balloon with a hint of confectionary sugar. The awkwardness of the nose carried through on the body. Finally, the sweet Riesling with fruit from Eola-Amity Hills had a nose like gummy candy and mashed over-ripe peaches. Its touch of acidity and understated sweetness gave it a better balance than the other two efforts but it was still nothing to write home about.

The only Pinots on the tasting menu were from the 2004 vintage. The staff admitted that it was an extremely difficult vintage and that the grapes got picked a little later than they would have liked. He further explained that they tried to make up for the watered down flavor profile with exposing the grapes to more oak. There was a Willamette valley pinot as well as a single vineyard designate from the Aubre Vert vineyard. Both the wines were still alive and vibrant but without a doubt overly-oaked. They had a crimson color with hints of brown beginning to take over on the edges. The smells reminded me of smoke from a BBQ with hints of smoked cheese and a bit of cherry. The wines did have a silky big body for such a rainy vintage probably imparted by the oak. Nora said they tasted like an oak sponge. I got beef jerky, tar, and bitter fruit as well.

The 2005 Washington Merlot was probably the best of all. It also had a big punchy nose with English garden rose, chocolate cake, red fruits, and a hefty dose of alcohol. It was a rather simple wine with an explosion of strawberry on the front end and a white pepper tinged acidity with a fairly short finish. There was a fair amount of burning alcohol on the end as well.

Our next stop was the Dark Horse Wine Bar in Newberg. The wine bar operates as a tasting room for Sineann Wines, Medici Vineyards, and Ferraro Cellars. We were able to taste through a number of selections. Sineann sources most of its fruit from vineyards in Willamette and Columbia Valley. But they also make some wine from California and even New Zealand. We tasted two northwest gewurtztraminers that both had beautiful fresh fruit and spice noses and round exotic flavor profiles. A Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc proved to be clean and full bodied with hints of peach and candied nuts. It’s Marlborough counterpart was true to the variatal and style with an overwhelming fresh red grapefruit flavors and a persistent acidity.

A pair of 2008 entry level Pinot Noirs from the Columbia Valley had pleasant dark fruit flavors with toned down acids while still remaining balanced and lean. Next up was a 2002 and 2003 estate block designate Pinots from Medici. Time in the bottle had rounded out the tannins beautifully and brought to the foreground hints of spice and caramel. Still the cherry fruit notes were lively as ever. The 2003 block 1 and 2 designate was my favorite wine of the bunch with its abundance and purity of fruit. It’s a great value at $30 and will drink well for at least another 5 years. The Columbia Valley Cab-based wines from Ferraro and Sineann were all about candied and sweet pastry fruit. Still they were fairly elegant for the price point.

Trisaetum Vineyards is a fairly new project based in the Carlton AVA. They have gotten a lot of buzz recently for their Rieslings. A 94 point rating from Wine Enthusiast for their twenty some dollar 2008 release had me excited. Though it wasn’t quite up to the hype, I was still impressed with how open the wine already had become with layers of ripe lemon and pear fruit and spice. The tasting staff gave us a sneak peak of the 2009 dry Riesling which was still quite tight and lean but showed good potential. We tasted an entry level 2008 Pinot as wells as a 2008 artist series (barrel select) and a higher end 2007. As so often is the case, I was most impressed by the entry level with its wet stone and brambly fruit notes on the nose. Those same notes came through on the flavor profile as well as a strong dose of anise. It had a medium body and a nice long finish with those seamless fruit flavors carrying through to the end.

Our final stop was Lemelson Vineyards and admittedly at this point I was feeling a bit of palate fatigue. We tasted a decent Pinot Gris and dry Riesling. The 2007 reserve Chardonnay was a real stand out. It was the most fragrant wine of the day with exotic notes of sandalwood, sweet incense, ginger bread, and key lime pie. It was silky smooth on the palate with a pronounced lime flavors and a nice acidic lift in the middle. The oak had been integrated so beautifully and was a perfect platform for the fruit to shine. The higher end Pinots leaned more toward a lush style and were perfectly fine but I was slightly unimpressed with their 2007 “6 vineyards” Pinot. It was fairly fruit forward with fresh strawberry but fell off pretty quickly. The acidity was super salty throwing it off the balance. The “6 vineyards” goes for only 20 or so dollars but I have had better Pinots even at that price-point.