Don't Be A Whiner

Joined Heidi and Julian yesterday for the opening of wine touring season here in good ole Oregon. We bought tix for the North Willamette Wine Trail Tour,  which gave us a glass (each of course) and access to many an independent winery for tasting all day (for us anyway, it lasted Saturday and Sunday).

Huge kudos to Julian for being our designated driver for the day!

Here is the map for all the potentials that we had to choose from (click the map to enlarge)...

We started out at Garden Vineyards and they had some nice wine and snacks to start us off.  Then we headed over to Helvetia Winery where we were treated to some delicious Salmon treats (sliders and Hors d'oeuvres).  Apparently their son in law is a tribal fisherman and he supplies the goods.  Pretty tasty and pretty cool.  We ended up purchasing a canned smoked salmon infused with Jalepeno.

Not to stay on the beaten track, we then went to SakeOne for...  Sake tasting.  Not my cup of kale but, Susan liked the offerings.

Next up was Montinore Estate for some more traditional Pinot tastings.  Most of what we were having on the trail were Pinot Gris and Pinot Noire as this is the Oregon grape of choice.  They served us up nicely (Buffalo Wellington and Fresh Fruit Tartlets) and we had to head outside to get away from the Grateful Deadesque (or not) music.

Here is a photo of us by what may be the old estate mansion...

First vineyard sighting (not really)...

Plum Hill Vinyeards was our next stop.

Very nice barrel tasting out front...

Most excellent barn photo...

Next Up Patton Valley Vineyard.  They had an assorted meat and cheese plate to go with the tasting.  I think Julian took full advantage of the meat plate.  Great Pinots and this may have been our fav...

Hmm.  Wish they had frog legs?

Awww.  Death Metal Man and Banker Heidi...

Beware of... Satanic Cows with Deer Antlers (and red golf ball Rudolph nose)...

Dos Mas.  We decided to hit Kramer Vineyards and made a quick visit here.  After that, we went to our holy grail of the trail, Elk Cove Vineyards.

They probably had the best tasting, even though we were a little late, and sported a $100 bottle of Pinot tasting!  The server graciously treated us to seconds on this beast.

At least we ignored the parking signs!

You're Dead To Me..

Not Dead Yet!

All in all, great day to be touring the area and we had great company to boot.