If you have worked in the restaurant industry as long as I have, and especially in restaurants that are only open for dinner service, then you probably are a night owl like myself. So when a wine maker hopped on nine cups of coffee comes knocking at you door at six forty five in the morning you would think such a person would be a little grumpy...as for me I have had years of training from my mother doing the same thing. So when Tahmiene woke me up again this early I was ready to go! Now I will admit that part of this was from the excitement of what the day would bring...but the rest was years of training by my mom...so I wanna say thanks mom...I always knew that your loud and sometimes downright offensive coffee making, phone talking, breakfast making, repaving of the driveway, and all the other crap you like to do at five thirty am would one day come in handy.
Once again we were off to the bus stop to load up on our buses, after a mimosa of course, and then down the Willamette Valley to the Van Duzzer wind gap. This is an area that is in the southern part of the valley and has a break in the mountains off to the west that allows the cool ocean air to come in and cool the valley at night....which as I mentioned a few blogs ago is perfect from growing pinot noir! That being said it is also perfect for growing a myriad of other types of grape...especially white ones. Oregon is always going to be know for it's amazing pinto noirs but that being said it also produces some of the countries best white wines as well. In a cool climate the acid structure of a wine is usually preserved better due to the fact that it is more difficult for the sugars to fully mature inside the grape. Since the sugar doesn't eat up all the acid then after the fermentation process you are left with a higher acid content. Now your probably asking yourself "is this a good thing?" Well in terms of wine and food its a great thing. As I mentioned in my last acid is essential for balancing foods with heavy sauces....so this makes Oregon whites really good food wines!
Our first stop was at the Van Duzzer winery for a tasting of Oregon white wines that ranged from some pretty good Chardonnays, Rieslings, and Pinot Gris' to some very interesting things like Gewurztraminer and Gruner Veltliner. All in all pretty standard tasting with some nice information presented by a few winemakers and then we all got to ask a few questions about these whites....this is where I got a bit perturbed. I asked the gentlemen, Jeff I think his name was, from King Estate about the use of oak in Oregon chardonnays. I noticed that all of the chardonnays we tasted were either completely un-oaked (meaning they were never matured in oak barrels) or they only saw neutral oak (oak barrels that have been used so many times they no longer impart any flavor into the wine). My question was if any Oregon winemakers are using new or semi-new oak to make their chardonnays...to which I received a very shocking response....which I would like to touch on for a brief moment. The answer I received was "do you mean to make crappy chardonnays...we don't make crappy chardonnays in Oregon." Now I know that I am not a winemaker...and I do not know that much about how chardonnay reacts with oak...but I do know that in some far stretch of the imagination they do use oak in places like maybe Montrachet, Napa Valley, or even say Corton Charlemagne...and last I checked they don't make crappy chardonnays in those places. The reason I mentioned this was because I was curious to see if the cooler climate would affect the flavor of the oak...not to insult this guys since of what Oregon chardonnay is...instead I got a terrible answer that really kinda embarrassed me in front of about forty people....and that is why I touch on this little "outburst" by the winemaker. Thanks to this tard I will now tell most people I know that this guy is obviously a dumb ass and I will also not buy or recommend his wines....and I guess this is the double edged sword of an event like this. For every great thing that we all experienced at pinot camp I am sure some of us....hopefully a small amount....had something that we did not like. I only mention this so you all don't think I am here to tell you all the splendors of pinot camp but to let you know that this is a working trip for us all and we take back with us not only the good....but also the bad things we find. We tell our customers, friends, and family members all of these things so that they can appreciate place Oregon for what they are...a place that is very rare that makes great wine but is not perfect. So hopefully that is enough of a Maury Povich speech for you...now back to the funny stuff!
We had a chance to kinda decompress with a little breakfast and some incredible views then we were off to our next destination....Eola Amity!!! As I mentioned before the great thing about Oregon is their dirt....and our next little experiment showed me this in a way I never thought possible. When we arrived at the Eola Hills winery I noticed that we had been parked right next to the green bus....hmmm...interesting. We all walked into a large fermentation area where we were presented with six different red wines that we knew nothing about...except they were all red wine of course. After we were all settled Jesse Lang of Lange Vineyards came in and began to explain to us about the different types of soil in Oregon...which Tahmiene had already told me about...so that was nothing new....but then he elaborated on the fact that if we knew what we were looking for we could also taste the different type of soil in each wine. He explained to us that in our glasses there were two different soil types represented in our glasses....marine sedimentary and volcanic. The marine sedimentary he explained could be tasted because it would have a higher concentration of limestone flavoring in it and the volcanic would have a deeper earthier flavor in it. Then we all tasted the wines and once again by a show of hands were asked to tell which is which...and this time something different....only about five or six of us actually got all six wines...and yes I was one of the five or six. The reason being wasn't because all the people were just bad tasters but because they had not been trained to taste deductively....which once again is a blog for another day. Deductive tasting is what the Court of Master Sommeliers teaches its students to do in order to figure out were a wine is from, what vintage it is, and what the climate and varietal are. Each of the people who got it right had been trained that way. Now once again I am not saying we are in better or worse then the man next to us, just that our palates are trained a little different. Earth is one of the major components in wine that we must know in order to be able to tell all of these thing about a wine....so I guess we are just very sensitive to these things. The only reason I mention this is because it is helpful when trying to pair wine with food....obviously earthy flavors go very well with other similar flavors...say maybe in things like truffles or mushrooms...so if you are trying to pair wine with these types of food then you need to be able to detect these flavors in the wines. If you can successfully do this than maybe you should start making flip cards and bind tasting too....you never know you may too be a sommelier one day. Until after we were finished none of us knew that we were all trained this way....so we didn't really pay much attention to it...instead we all sat there fascinated by what we had just figured out by tasting these wines....not only could we tell climate or type of grape but we actually got the soil type right....WOW....that was pretty cool to a nerd like me.
After asking a bunch of questions, and a quick lunch, it was time to head back to the buses to load up and head out for our much deserved nap time....when at this time is when I was approached by a certain person that I will only identify as our "camp counselor"....this person too had noticed that we had parked directly in front of the green bus....the evil and dastardly green bus. This "person" notified me that if I just happened to coral a few of my fellow red bus campers onto our bus...our sabotaged bus...that we may find an entire bucket of water balloons and an arsenal of super soaker squirt guns. So going on a hunch I decided to grab a few fellow campers and scurry off to our bus and set a little ambush. Upon arriving I discovered no less than forty or so water balloons, ten super soakers, and two very large buckets of ice water. Now if I was the type not to hold a grudge I would have simply turned a blind eye to all of these devices of evil....lets just say I am not that guy. We immediately deployed half of our super soaker ration to one side of the green bus....the other half to the back of our bus with the emergency door at the ready. We set about five ready and willing campers behind a small tree line with the water balloons and for the crowned jewel propped the iced water inside their bus door and exited out of the back. Like Patton awaiting Rommel we quietly watched the counselors and campers from the evil green bus approach their chariot....as the opened the door the buckets of ice water fell down onto about four of them....the back door of the red buss swung open with super soakers slinging water everywhere....water balloons began to rain out of the sky from behind the trees...and the other super soakers were then unleashed from the other side of the bus. Like trapped cats thrown into a swimming pool they all began to pile into their bus to get out of the line of fire...little did they know that the red bus "patriots" had planned for this and began to shoot through the windows of the bus and completely soak them while inside their fortress.....AHHH...our revenge was at hand. Slowly they began to try and mount a counter attack....but by this time we were all loaded on onto our bus and were in route for a much needed nap...I mean after all ambush can really take it out of you.
Awaking from our slumber we all gathered by our bus and toasted to the sweet taste of revenge and a job well done. We were now off to our last dinner....a salmon bake like no other....but first we had some drinking to do. We arrived at Witness Tree Vineyards and were escorted up a large hill to the area where they had once again set out about sixty different tasting tents. So by now you know the drill, recon, whites, reds, freebies...then onto something truly spectacular.
We walked back down the hill to the tent they had set up for us where there was a fire pit that had been built that was about forty feet long. Burning on it was hickory logs and on each side were twelve foot long spikes that were mounted into the ground. Each spike had been split and inside the split had been placed the most beautiful filets of Copper River sockeye salmon that I had ever seen. About fifteen or twenty of these spikes were placed down either side of the fire pit and they were constantly being attended to by the chefs that were cooking the salmon. In addition to the salmon inside the tents were about five large buffets set up with every type of food you could imagine. Eventually we all found a seat and began to gorge ourselves on fresh salmon and delicious food for the better part of two hours. Now once again I was lucky enough to sit with a few of the Domaine Serene people and my host Tahmiene...and once again we got to drink some amazing single vineyard Oregon Pinots. After all of this imbibing I surely figured that Tahmiene would want to go back and crash out....oh was I sadly, sadly mistaken. Apparently there is a tradition at Pinot camp that on the last night all of the counselors go to a little diver bar in McMinville called Lumpy's. Being from Panama City I know a good dive when I come across one....and I truly had respect for this one due to the fact that the men's room had no door....my type of place. As any good red blooded American would do I ordered a beer and began to watch the festivites. If you have ever been in a true karaoke bar than you know that if their are Japanese people....and I don't mean Asian-Americans...no I mean people that are from Japan that cannot speak English and drink massive amounts of sake....that once get a little liquor in them they truly love to sing karaoke. I am all for this part of thier culture...cause to me it is friggin hysterical....and so went our night for the next few hours. We got to hear renditions of Elvis, Garth Brooks, and my personal favorite.... Fight for your Rights by the Beastie Boys. As the night went on I began buy8ing them shots, they were buying me shots, and before you know it we were all singing karoake and having a grand time! However little did I know that our night was far from over....Tahmiene had planned a little party back at her house and had invited about half of pinot camp to come over...so I figured why not invite my new friends....it didn't matter that I didn't speak Japanese and they didn't speak English...no sir....because we all spoke the universal language of shit-faced! So after all of the kaoroke we could handle we piled into Tahmine's car and were off to her house to play a new game....beer pong!
Growing up in the South and going to school at Auburn I have played beer pong many, many times....but never with anyone from Japan. For those of you that don't know what beer pong is it is a game in which a table about five or six feet long is set up....on this table there will be a total of twenty plastic cups, ten per side, that are arranged in a pyramid fashion....now without getting into the technicalities lets just say that the object is to take a ping pong ball and throw or bounce it into the opponents cups....if you do this than they have to drink the beer in the cup that your ping pong ball landed in....whoever knocks out all of the opponents cups first wins...oh and the opponents then have to drink the remaining cups of the winners. Now obviously this is a very silly game for grown adults to be playing at three o clock in the morning but after a long day of drinking eating and more drinking what else were we going to do? As I mentioned I am quite familiar with this game and surely thought that since my Japanese counter parts had never even heard of it that I would reign supreme as the beer pong champion....or so you would think! I explained the game to the one gentlemen that could speak a little English I could see that the other three gentlemen were listening intently on his every word and noticed that they seemed to understand the game very clearly....so I figured lets just play a game. We set up the cups, poured about four ounces of beer in each one from the keg, and began to play....and it was at this point that I realized I may be in a little trouble. Now I don't know if in Japan they have a game where they also throw something the size and shape of a ping pong ball into something size of a Solo cup from six feet away but if they don't then the Japanese are apparently born with some type of inherent skill for this game. With their Samurai like focus, within about three throws I had one cup left and they were only missing two cups...now if you paid attention to the rules then you know that means I had drank about twenty four ounces of beer in a little under five minutes....then add to that fact that no one told me that we were actually drinking a beer that was about nine percent alcohol by volume and you can imagine the state I was slipping into. I also at this point began to notice that my new Japanese friends were so insanely focused on this new game that I had about as much a chance to beat any of them as I did hitting the lottery....twice! That fact of course did not stop me from trying though....it did however stop me from remembering what time I finally went to sleep or even where I went to sleep. All I know is that when Tahmiene cam to wake me up I was not feeling so hot and apparently slept with my both my shoes on....which I must say I was a little surprised that I made it all the way until the last night before that happened!
The next day as Tahmiene was driving me back to Portland I had a good chance to reflect on everything that I had seen and learned at Pinot Camp. I noticed that Oregon as a whole is a really down to earth place. It has a wonderful since of direction in its style of wine making and a wonderful set of people that really care about their product. I also thought about the weather and how truly unique it is....I mean most nights the sun wasn't even out of the sky until nine at night....and the breeze is always blowing because of the Pacific. Overall I was the most impressed with the non touristy part of Oregon....everyone treated you like family when you came to their winery and you could tell they weren't being fake, it was just how they were! I really liked this part because so much of our culture has turned into a "cow-herding" mentality when it comes to the public. I think that Oregon has fought against this notion and that's something that makes me proud to be in this business and get to experience such an amazing event like Oregon Pinot Camp!
