Honeymoon: Nick's Italian Cafe, McMinnville OR

Thursday May 2, McMinnville OR

After tasting at Eyrie we drove a very few blocks to the very nearby Nick's Italian Café where I haven't visited since the mid-1980s. We wanted to order everything on the menu. Seriously. Look at it. We also got a look at the dinner menu, which is almost identical, with the addition of a few secondi. Seriously, look at this menu and drool. I changed my mind: try not to drool. I bet you can't.


Droolfest!

So the place isn't a whole lot to look at. If you're expecting something other than a café, you'd be disappointed, but we really don't give a crap what the inside of a restaurant looks like. We're there for the food. The décor is gravy. At Nick's we really like the one long wall of barrel staves: that's a pretty cool statement of where the restaurant is located.


Not Much to Look at

Cool Wall of Barrel Staves

Nick's has a hell of a wine list for a small café and the list of Pinots is a veritable who's who of the Willamette Valley. Ann's favorite wine of our Wednesday tasting was the 2011 Ayres "Perspective" and so I ordered a bottle for her. Not that I minded in the least. This is one great wine!

Yes, Please!

We started with panzanella which turned out to be more of a green salad than a bread salad, but who cares. This mixture of Arugula, grilled bread, tapenade, and mozzarella in a lemony dressing was a great, honest salad. I would have been happy with just that for lunch. This is Ed food: direct, clean, honest, and flavorful. I don't think I have words for how pleasing this salad was to me.

Simple, Bold, Direct, and Awesome!

Ann was hell bent on pizza and I don't blame her. The potato pizza with sautéed stinging nettles and red chile flakes was as good a pizza as I have had in years. You could have put dog poop on a crust that good and it still would have been a great pie! Pretty cool to be serving the pizzas on barrel lids. Our health inspector would have a cow!

For those of you reading along who wonder about stinging nettles, their nasty stinging habit aside, they could be spinach or any mild green. At the restaurant, we use them every spring when they are in season.


Potato and Stinging Nettle Pizza

And we ordered a pork panino of slow-roasted pork belly, fennel seed, chili flakes, sage, rosemary, and braised rapini. The bread was awesome and the sandwich was tasty, but we are spoiled by my off-the-hook pork belly and this wasn't even close. On the plate also were homemade potato chips (a tad over-fried) and homemade giardiniera that was outstanding. [Psst. Nick's: I'll come out and show you how to make really phenomenal pork belly. You show me how to work a wood-fired oven that makes crust that freaking awesome! Deal? Call me.]


The Giardiniera was the Highlight of This Plate

Because One Photo is not Enough

After lunch, despite our plans to hit the Dundee Hills and visit White Rose and Durant, I guess it all caught up with me and we headed back to the B&B where I took a long nap before cleaning up for dinner. I was at the point where I just couldn't and didn't want to visit another winery or taste another wine. It happens.

This would prove to be the second best meal we ate in Oregon and I would love to go back and eat my way through the entire menu.

[Note, August 2023: McMinnville icon Nick's inevitably closed in July 2023 after struggling for at least a decade. Because of the unpredictable quality of the food after Nick retired, we rarely visited this landmark during the five years that we lived in McMinnville.]

Honeymoon: Cristom Vineyards and The Eyrie Vineyards

Thursday May 2, Eola-Amity Hills AVA and McMinnville OR

Cristom Vineyards

After our delicious breakfast at the B&B, we set out for points south in the direction of Salem to visit the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, the only one of the Willamette sub-appellations that we hadn't yet driven through during our stay in Oregon. I think we both knew instinctively that no matter what we tasted today, it wasn't going to live up to what we tasted yesterday. And we were right, but we had fun nonetheless.

We decided to go to Cristom Vineyards in part because they make one of our favorite domestic Syrahs but also because they are known for their Viognier, a grape that we are all too familiar with here in Virginia. And truth be told, I wanted to drive through the Eola-Amity Hills AVA and see where everything is located. It really helps me have a connection to the wine if I understand where it comes from and what the geography is.

We arrived early in the day, just after 11:00am and on a Thursday morning pretty much had the run of the place. As you can see in the photos, the weather was absolutely fantastic and we spent a lot of time outside at Cristom marveling at the landscaping, especially the intensely fuchsia-colored rhododendrons up against the building.

Spectacular Weather; Spectacular Rhododendrons

Photo Doesn't Do the Landscaping Any Justice

Looking Back down the Driveway

We went in to the tasting room where we tasted through Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Viognier, several Pinot Noirs, and the famed Syrah of which we sell a lot at the restaurant. With only an acre of Syrah vines near the winery building itself, I feel really fortunate to be able to get any Syrah at all for our list. We are lucky to be able to sell about 2 cases of this wine each year.

I was more impressed with the white wines from Cristom than the Pinot Noirs. This is a stylistic thing for me. Eola-Amity Hills generally produces bigger, riper, and fruitier Pinot Noir than the other more northerly AVAs and for a guy who likes leaner, higher acid wines, there's a touch of culture clash. All the Cristom wines were well made and I understand why they find favor with their fans.


Ann Being Sneaky with Her Camera

We took leave of the beautifully trimmed out tasting room and had another wander around the immaculate grounds before setting our compass north and heading through Amity to McMinnville.

The Eyrie Vineyards

While I was in Oregon, I wanted to taste old vine Pinot Noir to see how a lot of these wines are going to evolve as the vineyards age. So, why not visit the winery that started it all? From Cristom, we set sail for the The Eyrie Vineyards winery in downtown McMinnville. True, the grapes are from vineyards in the Dundee Hills (the initial vineyard on an old prune orchard), but the winery is in McMinnville in an old dairy. It is still kind of strange for me to visit an urban winery. Although I know intellectually that wine can be made anywhere, it seems somehow unnatural that a wine be made at some distance removed from the pastoral setting where the grapes grew.

I have always liked the lighter nature of Eyrie's wine, where founder David Lett (now deceased) understood that the beauty of Pinot Noir was in its restraint. He's a guy I would have liked to have met. So going to Eyrie was a pilgrimage of sorts for me.

On entering the tasting room, we were greeted by Tasting Room Manager Ed Gans and we tasted through their line up. The age of the vines shows clearly: the wines are certainly weightier than most and even the 2011s seemed as weighty as everyone else's 2009s.

It was too dark in the tasting room to get good photos, but we managed to get these two out in the foyer.

Did You Have to Think about This for a Second?

Showing off Their Longevity; Bottles from Each Vintage

After our very pleasant visit with Ed, we grabbed a bottle for happy hour later and headed off into downtown proper to get some lunch. Our plan after lunch was to tackle Dundee Hills on our way back to Newberg.

Honeymoon: Thursday Breakfast

Thursday May 2, Newberg OR

Thursday morning when we came down to breakfast, the table was set with a different collection of herbs. Today it was blooming rosemary and blooming sage from the flowerbeds outside.


Breakfast Herbs

Grilled Pineapple

Rhubarb Muffins

I mentioned in yesterday's breakfast post that Kristin set the table with several of her homemade jams and jellies and today was no exception. When she was going through the list of jellies to accompany her rhubarb muffins made with rhubarb from her back yard, she saw me double take when she said Queen Anne's Lace flower jelly. Say what?

Queen Anne's Lace is a common weed; in fact, there's a 5-acre field of it behind our house. Who knew you could make jelly from the flowers? It's a wild carrot and the leaves and blooms have a distinctly herbaceous carrot top-like scent. I expected the jelly to be grey-green and herbal, yet I was looking at a light peach-colored jelly with a slight quince flavor profile. It was neat to experience this transformation from green and white herb to blushing pink jelly, but I didn't find it sufficiently flavorful for me to want to run out and make a batch. A novelty, yes; a staple, no.

Delicious Eggs Baked with Asparagus; Potatoes

After this delightful breakfast, we headed south towards Salem to visit the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, but that's a tale for another post.

Honeymoon: Recipe, Newberg OR

Wednesday May 1, Newberg OR

Though I swore we wouldn't go to Recipe because I emailed them about a tasting some weeks ago and received nary a response, we ended up walking in anyway because nearly everybody we met urged us to reconsider. We didn't have any firm plans for dinner Wednesday evening and even though I was up for doing something light, Ann really wanted to go to Recipe, so we did.

And after we were seated and asked if they could do an impromptu tasting, it became clear that Sherry Simmons from Willakenzie had already called and let them know my displeasure about not having my email returned. When she and we were discussing places to eat, Recipe was the first place she recommended and I explained to her why I wasn't considering eating there. Apparently she picked up the phone and let them know about it. It turns out that Recipe chef Paul Bachand was the chef for Willakenzie in the past and there seems to be still a pretty tight connection: Willakenzie's wines are well represented on Recipe's list. I'm not sure how we all connected the dots, but the dots were connected.

Paul's business partner and sommelier Dustin Wyant came to the table and apologized for the miscommunication which was quickly accepted and we moved on with life. In chatting with him, I found out that he's also a UVa grad. That just goes to show that there is more than one of us in the foodservice world. Anyway, we put ourselves in his hands when faced with the vast list of local Pinots and asked him to pick something good for us. He chose a 2001 Willakenzie, a bottling of the 114 clone. How nice is it to have some older, ready to drink vintages on a wine list?


Delicious and Ready to Drink

Once we had the wine on the table, the dishes started appearing. Photos first; comments at the end.


Golden and Chioggia Beet Salad with Goat Cheese Crema and Banyuls Reduction

Gnocchi with Truffle Butter, Dungeness Crab Gratin, Grana Padano Broth

King Salmon, Buttered Savoy Cabbage, Orzo, Avgolemono, Walnut Aillade

Pork Tenderloin Wrapped in Bacon, White Beans, Fennel Butter, Pear-Hazelnut Jam

Leg of Lamb, Yogurt Spaetzle, Braised Radish, Lamb Jus

Rhubarb

Everything was very good. The gnocchi were perfectly executed; light and expertly cooked. Primo. The salmon was desperate for some salt. Aillade is a synonym for aïoli that I have not encountered before. The bacon around the pork tenderloin was incredibly smoky and the pork was cooked perfectly. The pear-hazelnut jam was too sweet for me and too sweet for the dish which didn't have any acidity to play against the sweetness of the jam. Yeah, and that's about it. Nicely executed dishes, but with the exception of the incredible gnocchi, nothing got me excited. It was a good dinner and well crafted, but didn't excite us in the way that dinner at Thistle did.

We spent a few minutes talking shop with Paul after dinner and discussing where to eat the following evening. Ann was torn between Jory at the Allison Inn or The Painted Lady, both in Newberg. Paul was adamant that we would like The Painted Lady better and called to book us a table the following evening. We thanked him for a nice evening and drove back up to our beds on top of Chehalem Ridge.

Honeymoon: Colene Clemens and Soter Vineyards

Wednesday May 1, Ribbon Ridge and Yamhill-Carlton AVAs, OR

Colene Clemens Vineyards

After leaving Ayres Vineyards, we next moved on from the extreme southern end of Ribbon Ridge to the extreme northern end to newcomer Colene Clemens, whose panoramic views must surely be unparalleled in all of Oregon wine country. As we climbed the long hill to get to the summit, it quickly became apparent that the views up at the tasting room were going to be spectacular. And indeed, at the top, the views are stunning. If for no other reason, I really appreciated coming here so that I could get a better handle on the lay of the land. We were right where Ribbon Ridge AVA abuts Chehalem Mountains AVA.


Looking Southeast: Chehalem Ridge on Left; Ribbon Ridge on Right

But the views are not the only stunning features: unlike the no frills wineries that we visited earlier, no expense was spared at this winery and the tasting room/winery was amazing, a post and beam building with stacked stone foundation and chimney with a low, gently sloping roof. You can tell from the roof pitch that we are not in snow country!


Stunning Arts and Crafts Meets Pacific Northwest Winery

Of the four wineries we visited on our tour with Jack, this was the only one open to the public, but traffic was very light on a Wednesday afternoon. Facing the building, to the left is the crush pad and a large extended patio bounded by a stacked stone wall. And what a gorgeous crush pad, if such utilitarian things can be called gorgeous, it is! During lunch, the swallows trying to build nests up under the crush pad were making quite the ruckus.

Now, That's a Crush Pad!

Speaking of lunch, Jack furnished a beautiful lunch that you can see below and we sat outside on the patio and munched on it while starting our tasting of the Colene Clemens wines. I really liked the tomato-eggplant spread, but it was the smoked salmon that really tasted great with the 2011 Pinot Noir rosé. This was the only wine I drank all day. When I am out tasting wine, I am learning and evaluating and thinking about the restaurant wine list and I can't do that with a buzz! Ann calls it "Ed mode." That's her code for working while having fun.

But I have to admit that being driven to a gorgeous winery on a spectacular sunny spring day to have someone lay out a spread for a patio lunch and then bring you wine to taste, this, my friends, is a terrible thing to endure!

Lunch, Courtesy of Our Driver, Jack

Delicious with Lunch!

The Scenery *Sucks* at Colene Clemens

After lunch, we went inside to the tasting counter to finish tasting the wines we didn't taste outside and were blown away by how spectacular the tasting room was. It was as nice as any hotel lobby I have ever seen. But little did we know, we would see a tasting room later in the afternoon that would blow us away totally and more than this one.


Hotel Lobby or Tasting Room?

As we tasted through the wines, I couldn't help but conclude that after the previous two wineries and their world-class wines, the wines here were not quite in the same league. Don't get me wrong: they were competent, delicious, and I would drink them again. But they didn't speak to me as did the morning's wines. And the prices seemed a little on the high side. But that rosé, I could drink a bunch of that! Really great wine!

Soter Vineyards


Soter Vineyards, the next and final winery of the day was our first of the day outside Ribbon Ridge. We made the 20-minute drive to the Yamhill-Carlton AVA just east of Carlton to the eponymous winery of Tony Soter, famed founder of Étude Wines and consultant to Napa legends such as such as Araujo, Niebaum-Coppola, Shafer, Spottswoode, Viader, and Dalle Valle.

After making the long drive on an unmarked gravel driveway up a hill crowned by what appeared to be Douglas Firs, we arrived at a hilltop building that upon first inspection could be a utilitarian building. But the closer we got, the more this appeared to be a building straight out of Architectural Digest. The deep gables on each end, the deep and shallow lean-to roof over the entry, the long line of clerestory windows the length of the roof, and finally the epic glass entryway gave me to understand that this building is much, much more than the warehouse or old train station it appears to be at first glance. This phenomenal piece of architecture has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated, but you can see more details on the architect's web page. Unfortunately, the sun was all wrong for me to get a good shot of the building exterior.

Upon getting out of the car, we were greeted immediately and enthusiastically by a young female Chocolate Lab named Xoco. Xoco belongs to Hallie Whyte, the wine club manager at Soter, who hosted our tasting.

Who's Having More Fun: Ann or Xoco?

We proceeded to enter the tasting room through the glassed-in entryway that you see behind us and we were astounded to see that the building is a totally open room with arched trusses above, an exquisitely furnished kitchen to the left and a floor to ceiling fireplace on the right. Hallie greeted us with a glass of the sparkling wine that Soter is known for. It was a very, very good sparkling wine with complexity of nose and palate; I could drink a lot of this.


Nice View, Huh?

WANT!

As you can see here, there is a long wooden tasting table in the center of the room and glass doors to the rear open to the spring air, with amazing views of the valley floor below us from the chairs on the back portico.


Tasting Anyone?

After looking around for a few minutes, we sat down to a really wonderfully conducted tasting that started with rosé, then to Chardonnay, and finally to Pinot Noir ending with the heavy hitters from the estate itself.

Tasting in Style

The Only Winery with Non-Riedel Oregon Pinot Glasses

Part of Our Tasting Line Up

After tasting the line up, I really loved the sparkling wine and I thought that the North Valley Pinot had potential for our wine list as an every day drinking wine. But I really loved the 2010 Mineral Springs Ranch (the estate) Pinot. It has awesome cellar potential. On the other hand, I found the 2009, a much warmer vintage, to be too concentrated and too ripe for my taste.

Happy, Happy Hour!

We bought a bottle of the 2010 MSR for our happy hour later on and said our goodbyes to Hallie and Xoco. Jack ferried us back to our B&B, tired and happy. After grabbing a couple of Pinot glasses from the rack downstairs, we went upstairs and retired to the little balcony off of our room where we enjoyed what was left of the stupendous 2005 Ayres Pinot Blanc that Brad had given us early in the day, after which we opened the MSR. After a day of hard work at tasting, I have rarely been happier with a glass of wine that with that Pinot Blanc. This is a wine that I will never forget; it has been added to my tiny pantheon of life-changing wines.

As we sat and looked out at the hawks flying below us, we had a chance to reflect on our day and its superlatives.

Best Tasting: Patricia Green Cellars/Jim Anderson
Best Wines: Ayres Vineyard
Best View: Colene Clemens
Most Spectacular Tasting Room: Soter

I really want to thank Jack Cranley of Backroads Wine Tours for a spectacular day. Thank you for making all the arrangements and thank you for listening. Winos that are serious about seeing the best of Willamette should seek Jack out. Guzzlers need not apply.

Honeymoon: Patricia Green Cellars and Ayres Vineyard

Wednesday May 1, Ribbon Ridge AVA OR

Wednesday marked our second of three days tasting in the Willamette Valley and we did something very unusual for us: we arranged for a local driver and a tour of the valley. This is unusual because I really dislike canned tours for the same reason I hate tasting at a lot of wineries: the tour guide is working by rote just like the pourer bot is reciting a canned script. Nauseating.

We found Jack Cranley, self-employed owner of Backroads Wine Tours, on the Internet and after reading through his reviews, I sent him an exploratory email, in part to judge his responsiveness and in part to judge our level of compatibility. Very shortly I had a response from him. Not only a response, but one that made it clear that he not only read and understood my email, but one that indicated that he was a kindred spirit in seeking out small producers of extraordinarily high quality makers of Burgundian-influenced Pinot Noir. I went with my gut and my gut said Jack was the right guy. Boy was I ever right!

Patricia Green Cellars

Jack picked us up at the B&B around 10:30 and off we went in his minivan with the dual automatic sliding doors, definitely a pimped out soccer-mobile ;). I had no idea where we were headed and wanted to be surprised so Jack only told us about the next winery as we were on route to it. Of all the wineries in the Willamette Valley, the one that I most wanted to visit was Patricia Green Cellars. Imagine my surprise as we pulled up to a stop sign just having passed hundreds of glorious California Poppies on the side of the road and Jack announced that we would be stopping first at Patty Green!

It turns out that Jack decided to show us around the Ribbon Ridge AVA, the smallest of the Willamette sub-appellations and many would argue, the best. As we turned off North Valley Road (right next to Beaux Frères), I loved the fact that there isn't any sign out front of Patricia Green Cellars indicating it's a winery (keeps the tourists away) and that there is no multimillion-dollar tasting room. What it says to me is that they are all about the wine as am I.

As we exited the minivan, we met the four-footed greeting committee, Chompers, a Corgi cross Border Collie who barked and barked, the whole while his tail wagging in big circles, a real tough guy. An unnamed black lab mix woofed somewhat half-heartedly from up near the house, but clearly wasn't interested in people. Inside the spartan and utilitarian winery building, Chompers would clearly prove that he and winemaker Jim Anderson are best buddies.

Patty was just rolling out as we arrived and so we were left in the ultra-capable hands of her friend,  business partner, and winemaker Jim Anderson. By Jim's own word, he mostly deals with the wines and Patty mostly deals with the vines.

High Tech Décor!

We tasted on a makeshift table standing on the concrete slab floor in the utilitarian winery in front of a ratty burner atop a propane tank to provide a bit of warmth: it hit 34 degrees overnight where we were and there were a lot of people seriously worried about frost. I could see where several people had hastily mowed in an attempt to let the cold air slide off the hillsides and I heard tell of one winery owner who brought in a helicopter that morning to mix up the air, much to the delight of his neighbors.

We started with Sauvignon Blanc 2011, the first and only SB that we would taste in Oregon and it was credible with enough acid to make it pleasing. Of course, the acidity should be good in the very cool 2011 vintage. Then it was on to the current 2011 Pinots: Estate Old Vine, Bonshaw, Anklebreaker Block, Balcombe, Balcombe Block 1B, Durant, Marine Sedimentary, and Volcanic. This was really a fantastic tasting that helped me come to grips with two of the predominant soil types in the valley: marine sedimentary (Ribbon Ridge) and volcanic (Dundee Hills).

You Are Jealous of This Line-Up. You Are!

After this, we tasted two library wines, 2002 Quail Hill and 2001 Four Winds, delicious wines that are all the better for having a decade of bottle age. We had a case of the Quail Hill shipped home: it was that delicious!

And finally just before we left to move on, Jim asked rather enthusiastically, "Do you want to taste some muscat?" How could we say no? And so we finished with barrel sample of a dry Muscat Ottonel 2012 that will make a fun patio wine for sure.

Ayres Vineyard



Ann Did

From Patricia Green Cellars on the west side of the AVA, our next stop was up on top of Ribbon Ridge on the south end of the AVA at Ayres Vineyard. Their tag line "We grow it. We make it. We live it. We love it." was almost palpable as soon as we were greeted with a warm smile by Brad McLeroy, winemaker extraordinaire who cut his teeth at Domaine Drouhin Oregon in the nearby Dundee Hills.

Brad is enthusiastically proud of his wines and loves where he lives and grows wine. And he should be. He lives in one of the world's great wine appellations and he makes some of the best wines in that appellation.

We started our tasting at a nice bar off to the left side of the underground winery, with barrels stacked around us. This so reminds me of utilitarian tasting tables crammed into corners of wineries in France and Germany. The gigabuck tasting room is an American thing and nothing says "this is about the wine" to me more than absence of a tasting room.


Brad McLeroy

Too Cute!

We started with the 2011 Pinot Blanc which is utterly delicious and high acid, 2011 being the coolest vintage on record in Oregon. When we started talking about how good the wine was, Brad started talking about how well the Pinot Blanc aged and then suddenly raced off to the back and emerged bearing a bottle of 2005 Pinot Blanc. Tasting that wine was a serious OMG moment for me. I asked Brad if he would sell me a case of the wine, but when he checked, he has but four remaining bottles. He did however give us the open bottle, which we lovingly sipped at happy hour later that afternoon out on our balcony. This wine, of all the wines we tasted in the Pinot Noir capital of the US, a white wine, would prove to be the best wine of our trip.


Best Wine of our Trip

We went on to taste four bottlings of Pinot Noir, all estate fruit, and about the third bottle, a house and terroir style emerged: funky nose and a blueberry core wrapped in baking spices. These wines were unlike wines we had elsewhere and while each wine was distinct from the others, the family resemblance was there; this was certainly the best expression of unique terroir and house style that we tasted. These wines would prove to be my favorite group of the trip and Ribbon Ridge has now clearly supplanted Yamhill-Carlton as my favorite of the Willamette sub-appellations.

After tasting the bottled wines, Brad eagerly clambered up on the barrel stacks to steal us some 2012 barrel samples. Already it is evident that this is going to be a fantastic vintage.


Lavender Trailing Down 7 Feet from Above!

As much as we would have liked to have stayed and enjoyed the scenery at Ayres, Jack reminded us that it was getting long in our day (now after 1pm) and we still needed to grab some lunch, so we reluctantly shook hands with Brad and set off down Lewis Rogers Road and the very north end of Ribbon Ridge.

Honeymoon: Wednesday Breakfast

Wednesday May 1, Newberg OR

I'm not a breakfast guy ordinarily: the last thing I want to do when I get up in the morning is put food in my face. You might be one of those that wakes up ravenous and is a bear to face before food, but that doesn't work for me. I'm good with a cup of coffee until 10:30 or 11:00 in the morning and then we can talk about breakfast.

But I was on vacation, at a bed and breakfast (Chehalem Ridge B&B), one whose cook had been to culinary school, and breakfast was another opportunity for rare alone time with my wife, something the restaurant business affords us not. So gladly and cheerfully did I approach the breakfast table at 9am each morning, which was bearable enough since I had already been up for a couple of hours and already had plenty of coffee to get me going.

This morning, after our late night at Thistle in McMinnville the night before, I was up at 6:30, showered, shaved, and downstairs for coffee at 8:15. Ann came downstairs just before breakfast was served. It was very pleasant sitting on the sofa in the family room looking out over the valley, lazing around until breakfast. Kristin arrived around 8:30 and greeted me as she came in the door from the short walk over: she and her husband Curt live next door in quite the fabulous house. After hearing Kristin bumping around in the kitchen for about a half an hour, she invited us in to breakfast. That's still a very weird thing for me: I'm supposed to be the one in the kitchen!

Different Jellies and Jams Each Morning

The table was set each morning with different jams and jellies and different herbs and flowers in the vase that was like a series of test tubes in a rack. The house is surrounded by flower, herb, and vegetable gardens. I really didn't walk around too much outside, but I saw lots of herbs, blueberries, rhubarb, and artichokes along with garden beds ready to plant.

Rhubarb Crumble with Hazelnut Granola Topping

During breakfast, we got to chat with Kristin in more depth and found out that she went to culinary school and is no stranger to restaurants. Early in her career she moved from the hot line to the pastry side and it shows in the delights that she made for us. I appreciate the fact that nearly everything on each plate, she made. The hazelnut granola on the rhubarb crumble was a great topping whose crunch offset the soft crumble. This is a great trick that we use at the restaurant. And I really appreciate that the rhubarb came from the back yard and that its acidity was deftly balanced with sweetness.

Chai-Spiced Scones

Southwestern Eggs Benedict

The rest of our breakfast consisted of chai-spiced scones and Southwestern Eggs Benedict: black bean cake, avocado, poached egg, pico de gallo, and cheese. The eggs were beautifully poached. There is something really awesome about a good poached egg and these were a great start to our first day of wine tasting in the Willamette Valley.