Honeymoon: Three Doors Down, SE Portland OR and Heading Home

Saturday May 4, SE Portland OR

After munchies with beer at noon on Saturday and so-so cart food later in the afternoon, it was finally around 8:45pm that we got somewhat hungry. For our final meal in Portland, Ann wanted a simple plate of pasta so we searched the web for the closest reasonable sounding Italian joint, which proved to be at Hawthorne and 37th, called Three Doors Down.

As an aside, how nice is it to go out somewhat late and still have lots of restaurants open? Living in small town Winchester VA, we are done with our dinner service by 9pm even at the end of June when the days are the longest of the year.

That said, I judged the crowd to be slow and asked our server about it. In Portland as in Winchester, it seems you cannot compete with Mother Nature. Because it was one of the first beautiful weekends of the year, so many were people out of town at the beach or otherwise enjoying the gorgeous weather and grilling out.

We commandeered a table out on the sidewalk and people-watched for a while with a bottle of Brick House Gamay Noir, which tasted exactly as Gamay should taste. If you told me I was drinking Beaujolais, I wouldn't have argued with you. But really, I don't know enough about New World Gamay to understand how it differs from Beaujolais.


Ribbon Ridge Gamay

Because we weren't super hungry, we ordered a couple appetizers followed by a plate of pasta. Both our starters were good. First up was a large slab of grilled bread spread with goat cheese and topped with arugula and duck confit. Yep, it was every bit as good as you might imagine, though an informed palate might be wishing it had some of our house-cured duck confit on it. There's no hiding the extra flavor that ours develops over the three-month curing process.

Duck Confit, Arugula, and Goat Cheese

Next up was a board of burrata topped with tapenade, some so-called jamón ibérico, and flatbread. We enjoyed this plate, but two things confuse me. First, look at the mash up of ingredients from at least three different cultures. How does this make intellectual sense? Second, look hard at the jamón ibérico. Really, if you're going to spend that kind of money on some of the world's best ham, are you then going to cut it thick and then partially cook it?

"Jamón Ibérico", Burrata, Tapenade, and Flatbread

By the time we finished our appetizers and the server delivered our plates (they split our pasta for us; kind of them, but they needn't have) of house-made ricotta cavatelli bolognese, it was really dark out on the sidewalk. Our server had brought us a candle earlier in the evening, but it was way too gusty to keep it lit, so Ann downloaded a candle app on her iPhone and set it to flickering.

I must say that the cavatelli was deftly made and deftly sauced but was desperate for salt. And doesn't anyone make true bolognese with shredded meat anymore? Really, you're going to the trouble to make cavatelli, but you won't do the same for your meat sauce?

In the end, it was a really nice low key dinner that we shared on our final night in Portland. We were very comfortable and enjoyed sitting and talking and watching the street parade. If I lived in Portland, I think I would like this place a lot.

Sunday May 5

Sunday the 5th is a day I would like to forget. I forced myself up at 0600 local time, trying to wean myself off Pacific time to help with the transition back to work on Monday morning. In retrospect, maybe this was a bad idea. We skipped breakfast at the B&B and hurried to return our rental car and get through security to catch our early morning flight to SFO. I managed to set off the millimeter wave scanner again: I'm simply too tall for the little booth. When I looked at the monitor, it had alerted right on the top of my head, the usual location, so I got my (lack of) hair patted down. All the TSA agents here were very friendly, unlike at Dulles, and the tiny guy doing the pat down started chuckling when I had to bend down so that he could reach the top of my head.

It proved that all that hurrying was for naught. Because of weather and because of weekend runway closures at SFO for federally-mandated safety improvements, our plane was over two hours late arriving at PDX. Our plane arrived at PDX *after* we were supposed to depart SFO for Dulles; how's that for late? The flight crews were bitching too: they have to deal with runway closures all the time and naturally, the brunt of passenger fall-out lands mostly on their shoulders. And their layovers are impacted as well. The whole situation is screwed up.

The weather continued brilliantly nice and we had awesome views of Mount Hood from the tarmac while we sat at PDX and the rest of the major Cascades peaks: Ranier, St. Helens with its flat top, Adams, and the Three Sisters down near Bend once we got airborne. We also saw Shasta and the peaks in California before weather closed in a few minutes out of SFO.

Mt. Hood from the Tarmac at PDX

We managed to get re-booked on a flight out of SFO that departed not 20 minutes after we landed (and need I mention that our inbound flight sat on the ground waiting in SFO waiting for a gate to open?). When we got to the Washington departure gate, mercifully only about four gates from our arrival gate, the monitor above the gate read "Delayed - Awaiting Inbound Aircraft"), which confused me because there was a plane at the gate. The plane had just arrived and so we stood around for about 45 minutes while they turned it around, giving me time to nip over to the concession just behind us and grab some power bars and a couple sandwiches. At this point, we had been going all day without food.

"Delayed:" Just What Every Traveler Wants to See

Once we boarded, we had to sit at the gate for about 20 minutes before ground control would give us permission to join the long line of jets waiting to take off. We were about an hour on the plane on the ground before we finally got underway to DC and with weather ahead of us, we were unable to take the most direct route in. We finally arrived at just after 1am and by the time we got our car, got home, and got the dogs walked, it was 3am. Waking up just three hours later to go to work was a doozy!

This is the final post in the Honeymoon series. We had a wonderful time at the Oregon coast, in the Willamette Valley, and in Portland proper, along with some of the most fantastic weather ever to grace the first week in May in that area. What an amazing trip!

Honeymoon: Elk Cove and WillaKenzie Wineries

Tuesday April 30, Gaston and Yamhill OR

Ugh! Still not acclimated to Pacific Daylight Time, I woke up at 0530 after hearing squalls in the night again and sat around watching the gulls and the Mallards play in Ecola Creek, waiting for Ann to wake up. Once we packed up our stuff and loaded up the car, we headed down to the Sleepy Monk one last time for a cup of joe and another of their fabulous bacon and blue cheese scones. It was a good thing we did, for apparently I must have dropped my AMEX card on the floor the night before at the Irish Table. I was presented with my card as soon as I walked in. Thank you, thank you!

We were trying to decide where to eat for lunch and had thought about one of the restaurants in Astoria, so we drove north on 101 to the mouth of the Columbia River. We found it to be kind of a dumpy, depressing port town and kept on moving inland, upriver on highway 30 thinking to take in the river vistas and see some of the famed Columbia Gorge. Yeah, well after striking out in Astoria, US 30 proved to be a bust as well and the GPS wanted to take us into our destination, Newberg, via Portland and I-5. Not so much.

We made it as far inland as Clatskanie when we had both had enough of US 30 and so I headed up into the mountains on highway 47, knowing that it goes south into Carlton and McMinnville. The view was much more scenic, even if we were afraid of getting blown away by the logging trucks flying down the highway. Once over the mountains and down into the Willamette Valley proper, as we neared Gaston, we started seeing signs for wineries in the McMinnville AVA. But finding one open for walk-ins on a Tuesday where we could stop for lunch was a bit problematic.

I had thought to go to Patton Valley, whose wines we have carried at the restaurant for years, but they're only open Thursday through Saturday, so we ended up going to nearby Elk Cove Vineyards, one of Oregon's older wine producers. Not surprisingly for a Tuesday afternoon, we were the only visitors at the winery.

Elk Cove Pinot Noir "Mount Richmond" 2011

We tasted with a gentleman named Brad who was very good about answering our questions. One of the key things I wanted to get an appreciation for while we were in Oregon was not only the lay of the land and the relationship of the AVAs to one another, but a good handle on the recent vintages as well. At Elk Cove, we tasted through the Pinot Noir rosé, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Riesling, and several Pinot Noirs including a few of the reserve single vineyard wines. Standouts for me were the rosé, estate Riesling, and a couple of the reserve Pinot Noirs.

I noticed the glassware immediately. We tasted out of big Riedel Oregon Pinot glasses with the flared lip and etched with the Elk Cove logo. Except for the really high end wineries in our area who use small but beautiful Schott glasses, everybody else uses junk glasses, glasses that cost about $1.50 with logo, horrible, heavy glasses. Drinking out of these ethereally light Riedels was quite a pleasure and though we didn't know it yet, every winery save one and every restaurant would use these same glasses. More on glassware in a few paragraphs.

After profusely thanking Brad for his patience with us and great walk-through of the Elk Cove wines, we asked him to pick one bottle for us to have with lunch which we took out on the patio facing northwest looking at the vineyards and mountains behind. For our lunch, Brad selected the 2011 Pinot Noir Mount Richmond which we thoroughly enjoyed; I really appreciated the structure of the 2011 wine and how well it went with our sausage and cheese. In retrospect now from having tasted wines from 2007 through 2012 barrel samples, I am coming to love 2011, which because it was a very cool year has produced lean, high acid wines of a subtle nature, wines that suit me very much.

Summing up from a week of tasting: 2007 and 2009 were like Virginia in 2007 and 2010, super warm and very ripe, bordering on overripe and under-acidified. 2008 was like Virginia 2006, 2008, and 2009, sleeper vintages that just get better with age. 2010 and 2012 are just great vintages from the get-go and should age pretty well.

Looking East over Riesling Vines

Elk Cove is a gorgeously scenic winery with plenty of room outdoors for picnics. The winery is surrounded by vines with a stupendous view of the mountains to the west. The tasting room, with its mounted elk head dominating the tasting counters, has spectacular views of the vineyards. The wines are delicious and worth the trip, but you will keep returning just for the sheer beauty of the location.

Due West from Elk Cove

Due North from Elk Cove Lies Patton Valley

From Elk Cove, we decided to stop by WillaKenzie and taste through their line up. Even as we were driving down Laughlin Road to their driveway, I just kept saying "Wow!" because the scenery was so fantastic. You enter WillaKenzie's driveway way below vineyards that are visible on the hilltops above you on both the right and the left. Only as you make the long drive up the seam between the two vine-clad hills do the tasting room and winery buildings come into view, buildings that are tucked tastefully into the hill so as not to mar the setting.

Walking from the south-facing parking lot in front of the Pinot Blanc vines to the big open square between the winery on the left and the tasting room dead ahead, the first thing you notice is the beautiful landscaping around the buildings and in the center of the partially paved piazza. The entrance to the tasting room is at the back (north) end of the piazza and down a half flight of steps.

Outstanding Landscaping in front of WillaKenzie Tasting Room

It took me several minutes of taking in the phenomenal, breathtaking property before I was ready to go into the tasting room, where we met Sherry Simmons, 13-year veteran tasting room manager whose encyclopedic knowledge of the property and the wines I really appreciate. We were one of two couples doing the tasting that afternoon and after the other couple left, we tasted some other wines that are not normally part of the tasting.

In particular, when I inquired about the Gamay (which they call Gamay Noir, which is itself short for Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc) that I saw in the display along the wall, Sherry kindly opened a bottle for us. Although I am not surprised that they grow Gamay, I never really connected the dots with Oregon and Gamay, though I had heard of Brick House's bottling even back in Virginia. It turns out that Gamay is very rare in Oregon. Willakenzie's Gamay is spot on, bright purple, oozing with fruit, and displaying that distinctive Gamay nose.

Ann asked about the Riedel Oregon Pinot Noir glasses that we were tasting from and wondered aloud if the glass made any real difference to the wine. Without missing a beat, Sherry went back in the kitchen behind the tasting counter and grabbed two Bordeaux glasses and poured us each a taste in a Bordeaux glass and in a Pinot glass. Suffice it to say that Ann is now a believer. The difference is not subtle: the Pinot we tasted was very dumb and closed when drunk from the Bordeaux glass and very fresh, light, and lively when drunk from the Pinot glass.

WillaKenzie had always made great wine but we don't get to taste too many bottlings of it back east, the vast majority of the wines from the smaller parcels being sold to their club and at their tasting counter. I truly enjoyed the opportunity to taste and compare the wines from the different parcels around the property. My favorite wine of the day was the Triple Black Slopes, from the steepest blocks on the estate. It had super-concentrated fruit with the biggest structure.

Gamay Just Beyond Us

After tasting at WillaKenzie, it was time to find our B&B near Newberg and get ready for dinner over in McMinnville, so we headed into Newberg and then followed the GPS on a hugely tortuous route along seemingly the whole length of Chehalem Ridge, finally arriving at the Chehalem Ridge B&B with its stunning views of Newberg and the valley surrounding the town. More on that later.