It’s Willamette, DAMMIT!

Just in case you were confused on pronunciation, it rhymes with dammit. Now you got it.

I (Will) recently had the pleasure of going out to the Willamette Valley in Oregon for an industry event called “Oregon Pinot Camp.” It was four days of quickly travelling from vineyard and winery to the next one and taking classes about the soil, climate, grapes, etc. And then tasting through about 150 wines per day.

Right when I got off the plane we were carted to Elk Cove Winery for an event called “Riesling Revival.” There was a “preacher” there telling us all the Gospel of Riesling while people swam in the pool overlooking Mt. Hood just past all the vines. It was quite the site to see coming directly from the airport.
We’ll be mimicking one of the tastings I did in Oregon at Alexana winery. It will be a “Sense of Place” tasting. We will go through the Pinot Noirs from different sub-AVAs of the Willamette Valley and discuss how the soils, climates, and elevations of those wines affected them.

Finally, we will have a Cheese & Charcuterie Board to share and we’ll make sure that everything on there pairs well with the wines!

Here's the lineup for the Wine Tasting:

Volcanic Basalt Soils:

Cristom Vineyards Eileen Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022

Elk Cove Clay Court Pinot Noir 2021

Laurelwood/Loess Soils:

Elk Cove Five Mountain Pinot Noir 2021

Ponzi Vineyards Laurelwood District Pinot Noir 2021

Marine Sedimentary Soils:

Elk Cove Mount Richmond Pinot Noir 2021

Beaux Freres Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2021

This event will also be when our Wine and Spirits Education Trust Level 1 students get the results of their tests and we will discuss WSET2!