Spain is the third-largest producer of wine in the world. Winemaking is an essential part of Spanish history, as archaeologists have dated vines as far back as 4000 BC. However, it was not until recently that it became an important part of Spain’s economy and reputation. Since the 1950s, Spain’s economic independence has steadily increased, encouraging the development and exportation of wine. In 1996, restrictions on irrigation were lifted, further opening the industry for innovation and development.

Spain has a rigorous classification structure very similar to France’s. The classifications are (from most to least prestigious): DOCa/DOQ, DO, VCPRD, and VdiT. To receive DO or DOC status, wineries must submit their wines to the Consejo Regulador laboratory for testing and evaluation. Furthermore, Spain’s labeling requirements are very strict. Different labels refer to minimum aging requirements:

Crianza reds: 2 years, w/ 6 months in oak.

Crianza whites/rosès: 1 year w/ 6 months in oak.

Reserva reds: 3 years, w/ 1 year in oak

Reserva whites: 2 years, w/ 6 months in oak

Gran Reserva reds: 5 years, w/ 18 months in oak, 36 months bottle

Gran Reserva whites/rosès: 4 years, w/ 6 months in oak

Though Spain has hundreds of native varietals, recent decades have seen the plantings of additional non-native varietals, including Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, etc.

FILLABOA 2010 ALBARIÑO, RÍAS BAIXA

Albariño is commonly grown in Portugal and is sometimes called the “white Rhine” for its similarity to Reisling. In the last few decades, however, it was introduced to the Rìas Baixas region of Spain (just across the river Sil from Portugal). That area has a coastal climate, with a fair amount of rain and moderate temperatures. Albariño has done exceptionally well there, producing a wine that is much crisper than those produced in Portugal. Drinkers of Viognier or Gewurtztraminer are likely to appreciate albariño.

 This particular winery, Bodegas Fillaboa, is located across the river from Portugal and not far from the Atlantic. They are specifically known for their albariños, of which they produce some of the rarest and highest-quality. The Bodegas Fillaboa is owned by the Masaveu family, who traces their winemaking history to the 14th century, almost the beginning of Spain’s wine tradition. Unlike many wineries which purchase grapes from various off-site vineyards, Fillaboa uses exclusively their own estate-grown fruit.

This vintage has been described as “Straw-colored yellow, with crystalline and bright appearance. There are powerful apple and pineapple aromas combined with hints of citrus. Subtle memories of yogurt and stone fruit give the wine its distinctive freshness. Soft on the palate, the wine exhibits a well balanced flavor profile, enhancing its freshness and complexity. Well integrated acidity. Unctuous, soft and refined, culminating in a lingering finish.”

VALL LLACH 2007 EMBRUIX, PRIORAT

This wine is very much symbolic of Spain’s “wine revolution,” in which traditional varietals are combined with non-indigenous fruit to create a new world wine. Priorat, just west of Barcelona, is one of only two regions of Spain to achieve DOCa classification, the highest (Rioja is the other). Though it was recognized as such by the Catalonian government in 2000, it was not until 2009 that the national Spanish authorities approved.

The region is volcanic. The first layer of soil is made up of reddish-black slate with particles of mica, which reflect sunlight and conserve heat, and also forces vines’ roots to grow pretty far down for nutrition. This also keeps them anchored against the strong storms that are common in the area.

Vall Llach is a fairly small winery, with a self-imposed ceiling on production and growth to ensure quality.

Garnacha is one of the most common grapes grown here. This wine blends 30% garnacha with 30% cariñena, 20% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot and 10% syrah. In that sense, this wine respects the tradition of its regional grapes, Granacha and Cariñena, using a blend of international grapes to create a more complex wine. Embruix’s fruit is from new growth vines (6-12 years old), and 2007 was one of the best vintages.

CASTILLO DE MONSERAN 2007 GARANCHA, CARINENA

This is a very traditional, easy-drinking red Garnacha from the Cariñena region. This region, locateda bout halfway between Barcelona and Madrid, has long, hot summers and cold winters, with a constant dry wind that keeps humidity low. Garnacha (also called Vino Tinto) is the most commonly-planted grape, followed by Carignan (called Mazuelo in Spain) and Tempranillo.

This wine has been described as “easy drinking, fruit driven wine. Herbal overtones, bursting ripe berry and plum fruit of the Garnacha. Soft and round on the palate, this wine has limited extraction and tannin to enhance youthful consumption. Lingering fruit flavors.”

“Like many Spanish reds, it’s light, bright and jammy, not terribly complex but providing beams of red fruit across the palate. The smoothness and balance make it a nice choice for any season and a delightful companion to roast chicken and/or root vegetables.”

MIGUEL TORRES 2005 “GRAN CORONAS” CABERNET SAUVIGNON, PENEDES

This is one of Spain’s most renowned wineries. The winery is located in Penedes, near the coast, just south of Barcelona. It has been a family-owned operation since its foundation in 1870. Today their mission is “to maintain our hundred year old tradition as a family company, with international projection, both self-financed and independent.”

The company is credited with revitalizing Spain’s wine industry, particularly with their research and promotion of the region’s indigenous grape varieties. The grandchildren of the original founder now have winemaking operations in other parts of the world, including Chile and California.

The current president of the company, Miguel A. Torres, has received much praise. Awards include: Lifetime Achievement Award (International Wine Challenge UK, 2010), Wine Personality of the Year for Innovation in Wine (Wine International, 2005). The winery has also been named #1 winery on Green List (British Drinks Business Magazine, 2009), Best European Winery of the Year (Wine Enthusiast 2006), and Most Important Winery in Spain (Wine Spectator, 1999).

This wine, which is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Tempranillo, demonstrates Miguel A. Torres’ innovative drive. He planted the French variety of Cabernet Sauvignon in the Penedès region at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, when normal practice was to plant local white varieties. Thanks to this, Gran Coronas has become a benchmark for Reserva red wines.

Experts describe it as, “Structured with intense fruit flavors and silky tannins, this Reserva displays alluring aromas and flavors of blackberry, currants, coffee, vanilla and a classic touch of roasted bell pepper.”

The slopes of Priorat

Last month, in addition to bringing back wine tasting dinners, we introduced wine flights to our regular routine. The trial run, with Rhone-style wines, proved a success. It gave us a chance to share new wines with both our staff and our customers, and create a fun and educational conversation about those wines.

This month, we are continuing our exploration of traditional and contemporary European wines, but are heading to Spain! Spain is one of the oldest wine-growing countries in the world. Historians believe that varietals have been cultivated there for close to 3,000 years. In the late 19th century, as phylloxera killed off most of France and Italy’s vines, winemakers from those areas moved to Spain and brought with them varietals and expertise. Phylloxera eventually reached Spain, but not until many years later and had much less of an economic impact than it had on France.

Over the last several decades, Spain’s wine industry has seen a revitalization. Though the country is known globally for its spicy, full-bodied Tempranillos, other varietals are on the rise, and blends that incorporate non-indigenous grapes are proving that Spanish winemakers are serious. David has carefully selected four Spanish wines for our current wine flight:

The flight’s white offering, a Fillaboa 2010 Albariño, is a beautiful example of Spain’s special place in the international marketplace. Albariño is commonly grown in Portugal and is sometimes called the “white Rhine” for its similarity to Reisling. The Fillaboa winery is located on the western coast of Spain in the Rías Baixa region. It’s just north of Portugal, yet its interpretation of Albariño is purely Spanish. The varietal has done exceptionally well here, lulled by the cool Atlantic breezes, creating a bright and crisp, yet full-bodied white wine that drinkers of Viognier are likely to appreciate. Unlike the majority of wineries, which purchase fruit from various vineyards, Fillaboa uses exclusively estate-grown grapes, ensuring quality and consistency.

The first red is a Castillo de Monseran 2007 Garnacha, a very traditional red wine from the Cariñena region. The region is about halfway between Barcelona and Madrid with long, hot summers and cold winters. A fairly constant dry wind keeps humidity low and makes it an ideal region for Garnacha. This wine is made 100% from the Garnacha grape. It’s fruit-driven, well-rounded, and smooth: a perfect example of a traditional Spanish red.

To showcase the introduction of international varietals into traditional Spanish wine-making we are off to the legendary region of Priorat, offering the Vall Llach 2007 Embruix. The backbone of this wine is made from Garnacha and Cariñena grapes, which are two of the most popular varietals in Spain. In addition to coming from a very small-production winery, there are a couple of things that make this wine decisively unique. One is that these indigenous varietals are blended with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, which lend the wine a fullness and complexity.

The flight finishes with a world-renowned wine from a well-reputed winery: Torres 2005 “Gran Coronas” Cabernet Sauvignon. Torres over-achieves at every price point and this wine is no exception. The winery was founded in 1870 and remains a family-owned operation to this day! It has been showered with recognitions and awards for environmental sustainability, creativity and innovation in wine-making, and for its important role in the resurgence of Spanish wine industry. By the way, Torres is an even more prolific distiller of fine Spanish brandy.

The wine we are featuring is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Tempranillo. Miguel Torres took a calculated risk in the 1960s and early 70s when he first planted Cabernet Sauvignon in the Penedès region of northeast Spain. Tasting this wine, you can appreciate Torres’ expertise. The wine is well-structured, silky, with a hint of spice. A true “New World” wine from Spain!

French Rhone wines come predominantly from two areas. The Northern Rhone begins just south of Lyon at Vienne and continues southerly to Valence. The northern tip of the much larger Southern Rhone is located around  Montelimar and reaches down to Avignon before it forks westerly to Nimes and easterly to Cavaillon. Between the two is Clairette de Die. Janet and I will be vacationing in the region this spring and are yet to decide on the details of our trip so we decided to begin our adventure with you and taste wine from all of these areas. Let’s get started.

Sparkling Greeting

We will greet you with a selection of appetizers accompanied by a sparking wine from Clairette de Die   The countryside known as the Diois is located in the Drôme Valley around Die (pronounced “Dee”), east of the Rhône in between Valence and Montélimar. It is also the home of the appellation Clairette de Die, derived from its former name, Dea Augusta, during the Roman Empire. Among the most well-known of Clairette de Die’s producers today is the tiny Domaine Achard-Vincent.  Jean-Pierre Achard, and his son, Thomas, descend from five generations of growers. The domaine has farmed organically since Thomas’s grandparents were directing it, although it is now officially certified as both organic (since 1982) and biodynamic (since 2007). Though French certification agencies have stricter criteria than those of the United States, incompatible legislation between the two countries, believe it or not, has forced all mentions of their methodology off labels imported into the U.S.

Die is at the northern extreme of the Mediterranean climate, and therefore enjoys periods of extended, intense sunshine and warm weather mixed in with fast-developing mountain storms and rain showers. The soils are characterized by craggy outcrops of glacial rock formations and the high cliff faces of the Alpine foothills. The vineyards which produce the grapes for Crémant de Die and Clairette de Die wines are planted in soils which are the product of millennia of erosion – a combination of chalky clays and sedimentary rocks.

The Clairette de Die “Brut” that we are tasting is made using the méthode champenoise. It is comprised of 100% Clairette and is fermented dry at 11% alcohol.  The Clairette de Die “Tradition” is a sweeter wine and uses the méthode dioise, an ancestral method that allows a secondary fermentation in the bottle without dosage, because the wine is bottled with residual sugar remaining, typically at 6-7% alcohol. The bottles are then decanted off of their lees and rebottled under pressure following the secondary fermentation. We’ll save this experience for another time.

Salad Course

We designed our Smoky Rogue salad for wine tasting as we eschewed vinegar in the olive oil based dressing and Janet tops the salad with green apples and filberts to match up to the wine. Here we drop down to the Southern Rhone and the famous estate of Perrin et Fils.

Perrin et Fils Reserve Cotes du Rhone Blanc 2010 The Perrin family owns vineyards within the best terroirs of the Southern Rhône Valley. Amongst these are the plots that produce such famous wines as the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Château de Beaucastel, Beaucastel’s Roussanne Vieilles Vignes, the Côtes du Rhône Coudoulet, the Vinsobres Les Cornuds, or the Château du Grand Prébois, which produces the bulk of the Côtes du Rhône Perrin Réserve. This is year-in-and-year-out one of the best Rhone values, red or white. Full, bright and very alive on the palate.

The grape blend used to produce this Reserve class white wine is 50% Grenache, 20% Viognier and the rest Marsanne and Roussanne. Awarded 87 points by both Wine Spectator and the Wine Advocate, the wine is recognized for its light, fresh style, with unadorned melon and honeysuckle notes and a breezy finish.

Meza Course

We usually like to follow the salad with an intermediate course using pasta or polenta and build up from lighter and medium bodied wines to a “big” wine to accompany the final course. The Crozes Hermitage we have selected to accompany this course made with pasta and local wild Black Trumpet mushrooms is nonetheless a very full and rich wine.

Hermitage and Crozes Hermitage According to legend, the Knight Gaspard de Stérimberg returned home wounded in 1224 from the Albigensian Crusade and was given permission by the Queen of France to build a small refuge to recover in, where he remained living as a hermit (ermite in French). The appellation fans out from the town of Tain l’Hermitage. The vines grow on the south west side of a steep granite hill facing the afternoon sun. Hermitage contains approximately 345 acres (1.40 km²) of vines growing in soil composed greatly of granite and gravels.  Crozes-Hermitage, along with the rest of northern Rhône has a continental climate that differs from the Southern Rhone, which has a more Mediterranean climate. Winters are wet and marked by the cold le mistral winds that can last into the Spring. The appellation is fairly large by Northern Rhône standards, with its 1,238 hectares accounting for approximately half of the entire region’s 2,400 hectares. The appellation’s boundary begins around 10 km north of Tain-l’Hermitage, extends around the village of Gervans with its south- and south-western granite slopes and then spreads south around Larnage where the land flattens and consists of more clay. Approaching Tain and the village of Mercurol the land rises again and the appellation spreads east. In this region, the soil is mostly rocks, sand and clay.

Syrah is the primary red grape of Hermitage, mostly used on its own, although the appellation rules do allow the addition of 15% or less of Marsanne and/or Roussanne grapes. Hermitage reds tend toward being very earthy, with aromas of leather, red berries, earth, and cocoa/coffee. Because of the high levels of tannin they are usually aged longer than American or Australian Syrahs and are often cellared up to 40 years.

Domaine du Colombie Crozes-Hermitage 2009

Made from vines planted a stone’s throw from the Hill of Hermitage it is succulent, juicy and crunchy Syrah with lovely smoky, brambly fruit. Fleshy and ripe palate with silky tannins and excellent freshness and purity. The grapes are crushed, destemmed and fermented on their skins in stainless steel & cement tanks. After fermentation around 50% of the blend is aged in large, old 600 litre demi-muid casks. No new oak is used.

This 16 hectare estate was created by Florent Viale’s great grandfather over 80 years ago. The family sold their grapes and must to negoce, primarily to Guigal, until 1991 when, after Florent joined his father at the domaine, they began producing wine for sale under the domaine name. They invested in a vinfication cellar and all the necessary material and they now bottle almost 80% of their production.

Colombier are the only Crozes producer in the commune of Tain and are beacons of quality in an appellation bedeviled by inconsistency. The domaine is spread over the communes of Mercurol and Tain-l’Hermitage planted at high density on stony slopes in Syrah for the red, almost 14 ha, and Marsanne for the white. The domaine produces a Crozes Hermitage blanc, a Hermitage blanc, two cuvées of Crozes Hermitage rouge and a Hermitage rouge. They own 1.6 ha of vineyard in Hermitage. The grapes are harvested by hand. Fermentation is in tank are aged in demi-muids (600 l, 160 gal)

Main Course

We wanted to finish with this wine because it is so very special. The 2007 vintage from the Rhone is believed by many to be one of the all-time great years. We have selected this because it is one of Janet’s very favorite wines and will accompany it with a final course of French Brew Beef brisket with 40 cloves of garlic.

Domaine du Presquier Gigondas 2007   Having been awarded a score of 91 points by both the Wine Advocate (Robert Parker) and the Wine Spectator, we’ll  just let the WS describe this one:

“Another beauty from what is certainly the finest Gigondas vintage I have ever tasted, this 2007 boasts a deep ruby/purple color along with endearing notes of black and red currants, raspberries, and crushed rocks. The tannins are sweet and mature, and the wine is deep, full-bodied, and impressively layered and long. It will be even better with 1-2 years of bottle age, and should keep for 10-12 years.”

“Quite ripe, with fleshy, full-bodied fig sauce, mulled plum and blackberry paste notes that glide along, carried by graphite, black tea and chocolate ganache. The long finish hangs together nicely. Only 2,000 cases made.”

The wine is made using 75 % Grenache, 20 % Syrah and 5 % Mourvedre grapes.

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There is actually quite a bit of work that remains in order to fully incarnate the restaurant. But it’s working now. The people come and they enjoy their experience. The staff is happy and they are able to support their families. The bills get paid. Hooray!

Janet’s biography is one that has always had a restaurant and cooking as part of its story. Janet is a restaurant lifer. I am not. I often say that my qualifications for the job as Director of Customer Experience are based on 35 years as a grumpy diner. However, my ability to channel Janet’s creativity and talent into the creation of the business that provides her satisfaction and fulfillment was made possible by my 40 years of experience as an entrepreneur. I love being a restaurant owner, but I’ve never wanted to be a restaurant manager. Janet and I tried for a while to divide the labor of managing the restaurant operations. But the prospects for these two strong personalities and war tested battle-mates to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder and steer the business happily through calm waters became problematic. As a team, well, “…there’s bound to be a fight!” Just too much horsepower for cruising I guess. Janet is perfectly capable of running the business on a day-to-day basis without my meddling. These last two months I backed away to create the space for her to step fully into that role, which she has done beautifully. I moved my office to the house and focused on picking up the administrative details that were scattered about my desktop and knitting together the frayed edges of our home life.

I’m grateful for the spaciousness that allows me to get back into my writing and focus my efforts on behalf of Janet in the areas where I can do the business the most good. Meanwhile, I contemplate the next big thing. Something like: funding a micro-finance initiative to support businesses in the Philippines in their efforts to remediate the effects of climate change, changing weather patterns and rising water levels on their island communities. You know, something easier than starting a restaurant.

I am in the restaurant most days from time to time and I try to be there during busy dinner hours, especially Friday and Saturday night. I am spearheading the work to reinitiate regular winetasting dinners. If you haven’t seen me for a while and would like to, just mention this to the staff when you make your reservation and I’ll try to make a point to come in while you are dining. It is a good thing that we are taking these next steps as it makes both our professional and our personal lives more sustainable. I am excited to be off on my next adventure. But I do miss my friends and I hope to see you soon.

Restaurants usually define the realms of their operations as front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH). I believe that you would be able to consistently distinguish those restaurants whose focus is on hospitality by looking at the way they regard their BOH staff. If you are a hospitality business your focus must be on creating a great experience for your customers. If you are a service business that pays lip service to hospitality the focus is more on getting people what they want or need without giving them cause for complaint. Of course, these things occur on a spectrum. There are a number of subtleties to creating a great experience for your customers. If you are a business, like we are, that focuses on cultivating relationships with “regular” customers, these subtleties become more pronounced. The gesture of hospitality requires that we meet our customers where we find them with who we are. If the fundaments of this meeting are missing or untrue, the true spirit of hospitality is compromised. If I don’t meet you where you are but instead set out rules you have to follow in order to be my customer, then I have compromised hospitality. If I don’t meet you with who I am but instead offer you an artifice of who I think you want me to be, then I have compromised hospitality. It’s our work to find out who our customers are and learn their criteria are for choosing us, their desires, preferences, etc. It’s also our job to know who we are, understand our own values and the core beliefs that determine our decision-making, and then strive to make ourselves and those around us better.

This brings us back to the BOH versus FOH equation. For I believe that we cannot be an organization of people who purport to truly care about the needs and preferences of our customers and have within our organization a class system for how we treat our employees. Likewise we cannot expect our FOH staff to emanate warmth and enjoyment to our customers if the operations behind the curtain are not resonant with these same qualities. That’s why we pool tips at Bethany’s Table. And that’s why you’ll often see the kitchen staff delivering food and drinks to the tables. What also occurs, that the customers don’t see, is the extent to which the servers also help out the BOH staff and the warmth and humor that characterizes these relationships.

We have had individuals working out front that were competent servers but not particularly skilled in the art of hospitality. Perhaps they weren’t good at tuning into their customers’ needs and unique considerations. Or perhaps they were not inclined to bring themselves genuinely to these relationships, or when they did it wasn’t particularly appealing. Similarly, we’ve had people working in the BOH who were diligent and hard-working but not able to interact well or support their coworkers. The FOH staff can readily step out into the dining room with a smile on their faces, and meet customers with warmth and joy, as the kitchen is filled with that same energy. A restaurant whose focus is hospitality must be staffed with people who enjoy what they do and treat each other well. At Bethany’s Table we are in a very fortunate place in our biography. We are not perfect and we are not staffed with perfect people. But we are all getting along wonderfully these days, enjoying our work and enjoying each other. Correspondingly, breakdowns have become less frequent and our well of regular customers continues to fill. It’s a nice place to be.

We are now offering Mid-Week Wine Flights Tuesday through Thursday all day. You may select 3 of 4 wines to taste for $14. It’s a fun way to try some new wines!

This month’s theme is “Local Vines” and includes a Bergstrom Riesling, an Elk Cove Pinot Noir, a Cana’s Feast red blend, and a Seven Hills Syrah. These are all from the Willamette, Columbia, or Walla Walla Valley, giving you a chance to sample something from each region.

We hope you’ll join us for this fun, ongoing event!

Here you can read the bulk of the review, but more details can be found here on Willamette Week’s site.

Janet O’Connor and David Bowles jokingly refer to their Northwest bistro and wine bar as a “gem in the culinary desert of Washington County.” They’re right. If Bethany’s Table were jammed in along one of the eastside’s restaurant rows, its simple, tasty cuisine would get lost in the shuffle. But since it’s hidden in an upscale strip mall in the land of Walgreens and Subway in Bethany, it’s an absolute oasis of fresh ingredients and deft cooking for westsiders who don’t want to motor across town for a crisp-skinned roast chicken (recently served with a sticky molasses bourbon sauce and peaches) or a juicy no-fuss burger with tasty potato wedges. Most everything here is better than you expect it to be, from the mess of creamy beans and tomato jam under the tender pork shoulder to a rustic, slurp-worthy tomato soup. Pastry chef Amelia Lane makes the best flowerless chocolate cake in Portland, its suburbs and maybe the world.

Wow! There are so many excellent eateries in this town, and we are so honored to be on this list. Thanks to Willamette Week!

Fall has arrived! Season changes are busy times for the kitchen, and even though Janet loves hot weather, she admits that fall is one of her favorite “food times.”Produce deliveries are looking less like strawberries and more like butternut squash, wild huckelberries, and chanterelles.

The butternut squash pannini is back!

Comfort foods are back! The panini grill has come down off its lonely shelf, and as requested by customers, our butternut squash panini has returned to the specials board. No one can get enough of Janet’s warm beet salad, served with creamy chevre over swiss chard. Our dessert menu has shifted towards tummy-warming bread pudding and Oregon berry crumble, which pair well with the tasty hot drinks we’ve added to our cocktail list.

It’s a beautiful time of year, and no place is more cozy than our dining room!

Photo courtesy of L.A. Times

It’s ancient, oddly-shaped, and vibrant. It’s shockingly tannic- biting into one immediately sucks all the moisture from your mouth. Quince is widely believed to be more ancient than the apple, and many have speculated that Eve’s forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was not an apple, but a quince. In Greek mythology as well, Aphrodite’s “golden apple” is thought to be a quince, crowning it the “fruit of love.”

Most commonly, quince is used in marmalades or jellies. It contains a lot of natural pectin, which encourages a jam-like consistency, plus the addition of sugar brings out the flavor while mediating its raw astringency. We have had a big bowl of quince out on the big table all week, allowing their lush yellow color and knobby shape to be on full display. This week, we’ll probably cook them into a jam to serve as an accomaniment to our cheese plate. Janet has been collecting other suggestions, as well, so feel free to share them!

Ken Wright has been making wine in Oregon for twenty-six years. Over this period of time, the Wrights have established a reputation for creating exceptionally beautiful Pinot Noirs. They have mastered the art and science of winemaking, and as a result their fan base is vast and well-informed.

We are thrilled to be offering the following four of Ken’s wines on our wine list, all of which scored over 90 in Wine Spectator:

Abbott Claim Vineyard 2007 Pinot Noir: This vineyard is in the Carlton-Yamhill AVA. Here soils are high in sand and therefore offer the excellent drainage necessary for pinot grapes. This particular wine is described as balanced and lively, with aromas of smoke, spice, and and raspberry. Portland Monthly just named this #4 on Oregon’s 50 Best Wines!

McCrone Vineyard 2008 Pinot Noir: Also located in the Carlton-Yamhill AVA, McCrone faces more to the west than Abbott Claim. Each year, this vineyard produces about 700 cases of wine that is described as lush and powerful. It’s described as exotic, succulent, and deep. 

Carter Vineyard 2009 Pinot Noir: This vineyard is located in the Eola Hills. The soil is volcanic and shallow, allowing fruit to ripen more quickly. Grapes generally have a higher acidity, producing wine that evolves to “show dark fruits and fresh, healthy earth scents.”

Willamette Valley 2009 Pinot Noir: This is the first blended Pinot that Ken has ever produced. It encompasses grapes from nine of his vineyards. Wine Spectator describes it as “Light and satiny, with modest tannins around a delicate core of cherry, raspberry and coffee flavors, fleshing out more on the long finish.”