For our 4th anniversary, Michael and I travelled to Oregon for a week. A lot of people ask “why Oregon?” And our response is for multiple reasons: (1) We feel in love with Oregon Pinot Noirs (2) Neither of us had ever been to Oregon (and for Michael this is a big deal as he has only a handful of states left that he has not visited) (3) We wanted to do something different – since our honeymoon, we’ve gone to the Caribbean every year (not that I would've complained about going somewhere sunny - so let's just be frank, number 3 was Michael's reason).
Oregon truly is a beautiful state – and I can attest to that since we drove ALL over it while we were there. We flew into Portland on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and spent the rest of the day and night in the downtown area. Due to the time difference, we landed in early afternoon in Portland but it was close to dinner time in Nashville so we snacked at a place called Noble Rot. I’ll give you one guess as to why we went there. See below the balcony that overlooked downtown Portland – which is where we enjoyed a glass of wine and a cheese plate just to tide us over til dinner.
That night we ate at a wonderful little French restaurant called Little Bird Bistro. It was located right on the street downtown, and one side of the windows was the kitchen that you could look into and watch the chefs.
How well-done is the sign? It’s like a bird cage…
To this day, Michael has not stopped talking about the Duck Confit he had. And yes, he is a total snob.
Sunday we headed out to Oregon Wine Country for wine tastings. Because it was Memorial Day weekend, many of the wineries that are typically not open to the public were hosting special wine tastings – our fees included the tastings (and most places had at least 5 different kinds but sometimes they had like 12!), our glasses and some munchies that they laid out. And man, did we drink some wine.
Our first stop was at Sineann/Medici – neither one of us particularly liked the wine there, so if you’re travelling to Oregon Wine country you can skip this one.
Next we headed to Adelsheim – highly recommend this one. They have a wine they produced called “Elizabeth’s Reserve.” You would think I like it because of the name (and, you would be right!), but it’s also a delicious Pinot Noir. We bought a bottle – I plan on opening it for my birthday.
Second to last stop, Penner-Ash. Notice how dark and gloomy the sky is… it was like that pretty much all week until we got to the coast.
Last and final wine tasting stop was Shea. Most of the wineries in Oregon buy grapes from this vineyard – they’re that good. So needless to say the wine was fantastic. We even got to try 2010 wines that were still in the barrel. We ordered three magnums of Lot 7 wine – one magnum to open on our 7th anniversary. The other two I guess we’ll open whenever – who’s coming to dinner at our house soon? Wines on us, my friends.
After a much needed nap, we went to the Painted Lady for a four course dinner with wine pairings (cause we needed more wine).
Michael told them it was our anniversary and this is what they did:
Cheesy? Yes. But I still took a picture.
Day 1 and 2 total count:
Wineries visited: 6
Wines tasted: already lost count
Number of people that apparently live in Oregon: 3.8 million (what??!?! that's like nobody!)
More to come!
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