The cow turned another year older and I hope he enjoyed the weekend spent in the Willamette Valley Wine (WVW) country. He left work early on Friday and we drove about an hour into the valley between Carlton and Newburg for a sampling of grapes. The day was warm, warm, warm!
We used the WVW map to guide our path of afternoon tasting. First stop, Adelsheim Vineyards. Very well known in the area as being one of the first families in the valley.
I know we stopped at a few on the first day but my NEW favorite place is Penner Ash. The view from this hilltop winery is fantastic. They have built a brilliant wood focused tasting room and also have a massive dining area for wine makers dinners with a state of the art kitchen. They had four wines offered we purchased the Roseo and Rubio, both fabulous.
Late afternoon on Friday we found our hacienda for the weekend - Abbey Road Farms. The proprietors have taken an old horse farm and turned it into a small goat farm. They make a variety of mild goat cheeses which were offered at breakfast with homemade bread. The owners, John and Judy. seemed to have "cashed out" of Vegas and have built the lodgings on the farm out of old grain silos. There custom built house on the same property was quite impressive. I would say that John likes to hear himself talk about the successes he has created and Judy really loves animals and is very excited and proud of their adventures. The lamb (Shadow) being fed by Judy is only a week old. Shadow was abandoned at birth by mom after a stressful delivery.
Saturday we awoke to a cloudy cool morning but by the afternoon we found ourselves parked on a winery patio enjoying the sun on our skin and closing the place down. I will not go into great detail but the town of Carlton is where to be if you are young, have energy and are willing to work to make wine. It is a quaint, cute walkable town and we enjoyed four wineries within a three block radius. We drank great wine all day: R. Stuart (BigFire), Panther Creek, Solena cellars, Scott Paul, The Tasting Room, Zena and lastly Cuneo Cellars (great patio).
The big birthday dinner was a drive to Dayton for the historic Joel Palmer House Restaurant (think antebellum mansion with a porch that screams MINT JULEP). This is the mushroom forager of the Northwest. I was looking forward to this dinner for a very long time. We ordered the Mushroom Madness Five-course dinner. All mushroom all night long.
Menu: Wild Mushroom soup, Three mushroom tart, Portobello/Onion,Gouda and Red Pepper Puree, Truffles, crab, scallops, and shrimp in creamy Riesling sauce, Crab Cakes with porcini duxelles and mustard vinaigrette, Salmon with chimichuri sauce over quinoa, desserts were strange with candied mushrooms on top. What a great way to spend a weekend, we were very happy driving home under a full moon that lit the farm land like it was daylight.
1 comment:
feliz cumpleaño señor vaca
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