Day 16: Willamette Valley and Wine Tasting

We are still here in Portland. Our longest stay in one place since we started our road trip. We woke early and hit the gym so we could be in tip top shape for our wine tasting tour in Willamette Valley (just outside of Portland).

We found this guy to take us on the wine tour of Willamette Valley: http://www.agreatoregonwinetour.com/

While we were waiting for Wayne, our tour guide, I almost lost James to a beer tasting tour that pulled up right in front of us. Thank goodness Wayne showed up when he did... he picked us up at our hotel and we drove out to the beautiful countryside.

Oregon Wine Country

Our first stop was Anam Cara. We dropped by the vineyard before our tasting.

Anam Cara Vineyard

We were greeted by some cute puppies

Almost ripe grapes

This is Wayne- our tour guide. He was very informative. We retained about 10% of the information. I remember that 2008 was a good year for Willamette Valley wines. 

The tasting room was in the town, not at the vineyard. After checking out the vineyard, we went for our tasting

The Willamette Valley is known for their Pinot Noirs

I should have taken a picture of the red wine glasses. The Oregon wine association, (I don't remember if that is really what they were called), developed this special glass that holds an entire bottle of wine. It had other properties, but that is the one I found most fascinating. 

We learned that you can have a dry riesling- not sweet!! This one was very tasty. I didn't know I could like a riesling.. 

We then moved to our 2nd winery. The tasting room was on the vineyard, which makes for a great atmosphere. Colene Clemens Vineyard had a beautiful view and adorable dogs to greet us.

Chewie- a white dachshund. He was scared of me. 

Meet Wile E. Coyote. He was not afraid of us. He followed us around hoping we would share our lunch. Beagles are my favorite. I mean, look at this guy. Adorable. 

Lunch

View of the vineyard

A nice wine tasting break involving water

Wayne- Our tour guide. Yes, that is a purple shirt, purple hair and purple fingernails. He was supporting the grapes with his personal appearance.

We stopped to do an olive oil tasting and then onto our third vineyard. It was hard to get excited about cooking ingredients when you don't have anywhere to cook.

Durant Vineyards, our third stop, is the oldest vineyard in Willamette Valley. It's been around since the 70's (yes, Oregon is young in it's wine making)

Tasting list

We purchased quite a few bottles of wine and then headed over to see the rose garden in Portland. As James mentioned yesterday, Portland is also known as the Rose City. We literally stopped to smell the roses.

You could smell the roses as soon as you opened the car door

Wayne then brought us to Rogue- one of Portland's breweries to do a tasting. James had a sampling of the IPA's Rogue offers.

Flight of beer

After an exhausting day of tasting, we needed to eat a real meal. We've been told by quite a few people that we can't leave Portland without heading to Pok Pok. It's a Thai place and we LOVE Thai.

We just beat the rush. We didn't have to wait, but everyone tells me the wait can be up to 2 hours.

Al fresco dining at Pok Pok

Pork Skewers

Pok Pok's famous chicken wings

It was one of the messiest meals we had ever eaten, and the wings were tasty. I would rate it at 3.5 stars out of 5. I think Portland has better to offer. We were a little surprised by how highly recommended this was. It was good, but not sure it was the best. Maybe it was an off night? 

We went to bed early. We are too light-weight to start a wine tasting at 11:30 and stay up past 9:00. Tomorrow, we are going to hit the coast with a destination of Florence, OR. We are heading to the redwoods, but since it's a long drive, it may take us a couple of days to get there. It is about the journey, not the destination!