Willamette Valley

About an hour outside of Portland, the Willamette Valley is home to hundreds of wineries. Since I adore wine, especially red wine, it was a great place to go for a night. There is enough to do in the area that we could have gone for at least another day, but being as it was late February and a little rainy, an overnight trip was perfect.

Day one we drove down to the Wine Country Farm. I had a difficult time picking a place to stay, because I wanted it to be romantic, but not too far away from many of the wineries I had mapped out. This place fit the bill, and while not the cheapest, did have a great breakfast, a gas fireplace in our room, and a complimentary wine tasting. The main building also had a hot tub. The biggest downside was that it was very quiet. Almost too quiet. And while the owner obviously wasn't used to six twenty-somethings staying there, she was friendly and mellow about it. (We met up with Charles / Erica and Frank / Ann.)

After settling it at the B&B, we drove right across the street and tasted at Domaine Drouhin (spendy and stuffy). We then went to Argyle and had sparkling wines and Pinots. I liked Argyle for the most part - they had good wines for decent prices, and a bustling atmosphere. For dinner, we ate at a little French cafe in town. The food was delicious, although on the expensive side for a group. And then we all hung out in the hot tub!

Day two we slept in (at least somewhat) and then had a family-style breakfast in the main house (our room was over the tasting room in a secondary structure.) We packed up, checked out, and headed out to visit the WillaKenzie Estate. I loved these wines. Not only did they smell *fantastic*, but they tasted pretty nice too. ;o) The tasting room here was the best we went to: it had both a casual-yet-upscale ambience and educational information sprinkled around the room.

After WillaKenzie, we went to Ponzi, which had a fantastic Pinot (the Tavola) but in general was a bit more expensive. Who knew Pinots cost so much! It's still a fun experience, even if you don't buy much. Or you can be like Erica and Charles and just go nuts - at least you'll enjoy the wine later!

We headed home, stopping in Olympia for dinner, as neither Phil nor I had ever been there. I'd go back to the Willamette Valley again, but would love to go when the weather is nicer and take advantage of some of the trails and horseback riding in the area.