Wine Royalty

The winds have shifted. This morning there was a strong smoke smell in the air. Hopefully it will stay south while we are in wine country. People say this area is like Napa Valley used to be 25-30 years ago – more down to earth, less pretentious, a more relaxed vibe. We were about to find out if all that was true. St Innocent Winery was our 1st stop. It’s a small winery on the edge of Williamette Valley. Since it was early and the temperature was only 80 we elected to sit out on the patio. There was a nice breeze for most of the tasting but we were glad to head inside when we signed up for their wine club. Yup! One winery, one wine club. We both agreed this can’t continue!

We got into McMinnville before our AirBnB was ready. We didn’t really have anything else planned for the day. Back when the weather was supposed to be reasonable we thought we’d walk around the cute little town. At 102° that idea no longer sounded fun! So again we had to be flexible 🙂

The host of our AirBnB mentioned a new tasting room about 15 minutes away. It was an old grain elevator that had been converted into a tasting room. With time to kill and intrigued by the idea, we went to check it out. It was busy about 25-30 people were there as part of a bus tour. It really wasn’t that big so we had to sit upstairs. I loved the decor. It was very well done. But we soon felt sorry for Mindy, our wine concierge, who had to keep climbing up and down the stairs to bring each wine. As soon as the group left we went downstairs to enjoy the rest of our wine and appreciate the decor.

Since it was almost closing time Mindy’s dad stopped in to pick up some Chardonnay. He seemed like a nice guy so we started talking with him. He seemed to know a lot about wine! I thought maybe he was the wine maker so I asked – nope. We talked some more and Jon asked what his top Oregon winery was. We were surprised he didn’t say Eyrie. David Lett is one of the pioneers of Oregon wine, credited with planting the first pinot noir grapes in the late 60’s. Bethel Heights is also right up there with Eyrie for being one of the first to grow pinot noir grapes. We talked some more and I asked why he thought Bethel Heights was better than Eyrie. He very casually and humbly said, “I founded it.” Say what?!

Turns out he has quite a few stories to tell for a 73 year old. He started in Napa Valley. Worked with some big names out there – Charles Krug, Robert Mondavi (or Mr Mondavi – told us he often called him crazy but never called him Robert!) and Andre Tchelischeff. He came to Oregon, after looking at all the data, to find a place where pinot noir grapes would flourish. We talked some more until finally Mindy was all cleaned up and ready to go home. We asked for a few of their favorite wineries to visit in the area. We’re planning to go to them. After all who better to take recommendations from than the guy who planted some of the very first vines of pinot noir?