I’d heard a lot about Ore­gon Pinot Noir, and thought about vis­it­ing Willamette Val­ley to see what all the fuss is about. This month, as part of a road trip to Port­land, I finally made it hap­pen.  Some friends and I spent a day near Dundee, an area regarded as the epi­cen­ter of the Ore­gon wine indus­try, where early wine pio­neers began plant­ing Pinot Noir in the 60’s.

As we drove through Dundee and began see­ing all the tast­ing rooms on 99W, we couldn’t help but won­der where all the vine­yards were.  It turns out the vine­yards and scenery are off the beaten path to the west on NE Wor­den Hill Road.

We started our day at Argyle Win­ery, which spe­cial­izes in Pinot Noir, Chardon­nay and Sparkling Wine.  The wines here were very nice, although a tad on the expen­sive side.  I would rec­om­mend tast­ing the 2000 Extended Tirage Brut, which is crisp, clean and absolutely danced on my tongue.  I was also impressed by their 2007 Spirit­house Pinot Noir, with its silky smooth mouth­feel and berry flavors.

Next we headed west­ward and into the hills to visit Erath.  The wines here are mod­er­ately priced, and this was one of the few winer­ies we vis­ited that would waive the tast­ing fee with a pur­chase of $30 or more.  Their 2007 Bat­tle Creek Pinot Noir was impres­sive, and I also took home a bot­tle of their 2006 Estate Pinot Noir, which inci­den­tally was $30 and a good value in my opinion.

By now we had encoun­tered enough peo­ple to get some sug­ges­tions on where to go next, and many folks were rav­ing about Domaine Serene and Domaine Drouhin.  We decided to head to Domaine Serene.

The grounds at Domaine Serene are exquis­ite, almost like a coun­try club.  The tast­ing room feels like you’re in someone’s man­sion.  If you plan on vis­it­ing, you should be aware that the tast­ing fee ($15) and wines are on the expen­sive side.  My favorite here was the 2008 Jerusalem Hill Vine­yard Pinot Noir.

Wine Tast­ing at Domaine Serene | Photo by Tom Fitzgerald

Finally, we vis­ited Dobbes Fam­ily Estate, which was a real plea­sure.  The tast­ing room was mod­est and warm, the folks behind the tast­ing bar were very friendly, and Joe Dobbes (owner and wine­maker) even came through and intro­duced him­self to us.  The 2009 Grand Assem­blage Pinot Noir was delight­ful and very acces­si­ble at $28.  Joe has another label called “Wine by Joe”.  These are meant to be unpre­ten­tious, acces­si­ble every­day wines to be enjoyed with food.  The 2008 Pinot Noir was fruity, bal­anced and just $19.

I’ve tasted a lot of Pinot Noir from Cal­i­for­nia, par­tic­u­larly from Russ­ian River Val­ley, and  Dundee hills Pinot Noir is very different.

By and large the Dundee hills Pinot Noir I tasted tends to be lighter in body and has less con­cen­trated fruit fla­vors.  In look­ing at the wines, you’ll also notice they tend to be much lighter in color.  Some say Pinot Noir here fol­lows a more tra­di­tional Bur­gun­dian style.  Other folks I spoke to say the wet­ter Ore­gon cli­mate leads to less con­cen­tra­tion in the berries, par­tic­u­larly if rain occurs before harvest.

Try­ing this dif­fer­ent style of Pinot Noir was a great expe­ri­ence for me and I look for­ward to vis­it­ing some other Ore­gon AVAs in the future.

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