Fall in the Dundee Hills
After our Portland family breakfast we took a drive in our Mitsubishi Eclipse rental car to one of my favorite wine growing regions, the Dundee Hills appellation in the Willamette Valley.
Some of my favorite Pinot Noir wine comes from this region. Pinot Noir is a grape that is associated with the Burgundy region of France, where it is called Red Burgundy. It is widely considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world, but is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine. Pinot Noir varies a lot depending on the soil and climate of a region.
We have a lot of Dundee Hills Pinot. But, it was not Dundee Hills Pinot I was seeking, but it's white cousin Chardonnay. Dundee Hills Chardonnay is different than California Chardonnay because it comes from French Dijon clones. California Chardonnay comes from clones developed mostly at UC Davis. Dundee Hills Chardonnay is more like white Burgundy in my opinion for that reason.
Being eclipsed by California wine, Dundee Hills Chardonnay is very hard to find in California. Dundee Hills Pinot Noir is easy to find here in California if you know where to look.
The Fall colors were abundant and our first stop was the Leeds certifies winery, Stoller where Tasting Room Supervisor Mich Nelson gave us a great tour and sold us some yummy Dundee Hills Chardonnay. Mich also gave us some great winery recommendations.
After that we stopped for lunch. We went wine tasting again to Argyle, Winderlea which was closed, Erath and lastly Daedalus Cellars where we had some great wine including some unusual Gruner Veltliner. (This is an Austrian Grape.)
The wine at Daedalus Cellars was poured by one of the owners (and wife of the wine maker) Pam Walden. We brought home some Gruner and Chardonnay from there.
We had a wonderful time and brought back some super wine!
Technorati Tags: Wine, Oregon Wine, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, ssloansjca
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