If you’ve been reading this blog as long as I have, you may remember a couple years back when we launched an amphibious assault on the Wineries of the Willamette Valley, and just didn’t enjoy it as much as the places we’d visited in the Columbia Gorge. At the time we thought that perhaps the Pinot Noir wasn’t for us, but on further discussion it wasn’t so much the liquids, but the high tasting fees (compared to the Columbia Gorge) and just the feeling that we weren’t as warmly received as we were in other wine regions.

Frequent readers will know by now that our research seems to indicate that wine is sold more on an emotional connection, than what is specifically in the bottle.

Did we not know how to enjoy Pinot Noir, or was the situation where it was presented less than what we’ve learned to expect?

So why bring this up now? Fall of 2017 cracked over our heads like an egg into a hot skillet. What do you do if you’re 48 and need a job? Hey, why not be a harvest hand?

Here we are in a quiet moment on the deck behind the Torii Mor teahouse:

Can one be a harvest hand at 49? Well, it didn’t kill me. In fact, at the end of harvest I was so fit I could do pull-ups again.  The thing is, no one single task is too hard during Harvest, it’s the marathon aspect — 12 hours sorting grapes and you’re back at it again at 8am the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day.

That’s the hard part.  Standing up and doing every day, day after day until it’s done.  Here’s Steph doing a great job of Taking Care of Business:

Here’s the thing: making wine is mostly about cleaning things and moving heavy things around.  Endless respect to Jon for putting together a stellar crew.  Not one whiner, not one shirker, not one bum in the group.  If you needed something, by the time you turned around someone was handing the tool you needed almost before you asked.

Here’s Diane Nemarnik getting hands-on with Steph barreling down the wine she made with her grapes in the Torii Mor facility:

We also made wine for Dr. Mike. He’s a good guy, he had no qualms about getting his hands dirty helping us clean the equipment at the end of the day. However, he was a little confused. I don’t have a photo of this, but he generously brought some of his wine for the harvest crew to taste, and the guy with the good-paying day job asked, “So, what part of this is the best?” We looked at each other, and had to answer, “This part – the sitting down and tasting wine.” Why? Because there’s nothing fun about 12 hours of sorting grapes unless you’re touched in the head.

It’s just bloody hard work.  It’s rewarding, but it feels best when you stop.

Look, I’m going to tell you that  my favorite part of the work was throwing the punch-down stick over my shoulder and walking down to the cellar to work over the fermenters, feeling strong and vital and part of a thousands-something year old tradition of making wine.  Here’s what it looked like:

Hey, shall we flip some casks and steam the heck out of them? Of course!

Yes, I can run a forklift now.

Here’s a rare photo of Jon almost standing still.

As I mentioned before, making wine is mostly about cleaning things. I know, how romantic!

I was usually taking the photos, so here’s a rare one of your author proving that he wasn’t making this stuff up.

I hope I don’t have to tell you that this whip-thin set of grrlz did every physical thing us grunty/sweaty man-men did without complaint, if not straight out putting us to shame with their abilities.

Here’s a rare photo of our winemaker Jacques actually standing still. The rest of us had the easy jobs — just follow orders. The ultimate success of our efforts fell on his shoulders and he was one very busy man. Outside of the knowledge he carries around about turning grapes into something you might want to drink, I am still in awe of how he’d fill a five-gallon bucket full of bentonite and zip up an 80′ ladder with it like he was taking a sandwich to kindergarten.

Here’s Jacque again, schooling us on how to take care of the casks.

So, Pinot Noir? Yes, I’ve learned to love it. You have to watch out for it’s subtlety. Stand back and wait for it to come to you. It wasn’t easy, but I’ve had a chance to taste it at every step of the process and now I have that emotional connection spoken of at the start of this missive. Mayhaps you can have a journey half as rewarding as the one I’ve had.

This post wouldn’t be complete without this great portrait of Jeromy.

Here’s the deal — Lyle, Washington, lovely place.  They got the local wineries together for a group event.  One $15 fee, you get a glass and a welcoming smile everywhere you go: http://www.wineriesoflyle.com/

Is the Columbia Gorge lovely?  Yes, yes indeed it is:

What mysteries await us?  Let’s just see…

Syncline.  An old favorite of ours.

See back there?  They’ve expanded their garden / picnic space.  Lovely, lovely place to visit.

Cor Cellars.  They have built a beautiful tasting room.  Spacious, airy, comfortable.  We like to focus  on what people are doing *right* vs. what people are doing wrong.  Some years ago we had a poor experience at Cor, this is the first time we’ve been back.  The location is absolutely lovely, but the people there aren’t doing more than  pouring juice in a glass.  Sorry gang, you’ve got some work to do on the experience.


Voted as Most Improved: Domaine Pouillon

Our first visit some years ago was quite lovely.  Down by the barn, with all the wine making machinery, a giant wheel of cheese, goats, chickens…. very informal.  Like hanging out with the family. Lovely.  We really enjoyed it.

On our second visit, they’d built an official tasting room up the hill.  The experience was cold, like visiting a museum gift shop. We didn’t want to go back.

This visit, however, was a pleasant switcheroo.  What was different?  We think two things.  The physically layout of the room was more welcoming.  By having the tasting bar to the right on the way in seems to open up the room in a way that wasn’t true before.  Also, Joyce believes the people behind the wine were behind the bar, and showed a lot more heart.  It’s more than just a job, eh?

Memaloose.  Man, they have a lovely view of the Gorge.  Their wine was fine.  Go check it out.

And the big winner for the weekend is: Tetrahedron

Here’s Darren Michaels holding court in his tasting room in Lyle.  Why was Tetrahedron the best experience of the weekend?  Why is it the only place we bought a bottle to take with?  I’ll tell you:  Enthusiasm.  These people are excited by what they’re doing.

Oh, and we got to talk about Dungeons and Dragons.  That’s always fun for Steve.

Lovely hand painted bottles.  You know you need a couple of these for your gift-giving needs:

Instead of nothing, or a bowl of Costco crackers, Tetrahedron stepped up and showed the other wineries how it’s done.  That’s right.  Six wines to sample, and six snack-o-miendos to pair with each one.  But not just any snack — well picked to compliment the flavors of the wine.  Note: only two of the other wineries on this weekend’s even bothered to have Costco crackers.  Tetrahedron went above and beyond.    If you’re only going to stop in one tasting room in Lyle, this is the one.

Now, if you’re a regular reader, you know that this blog is about the experience of visiting and not so much about the actual wines.  Why?  Well, we are blessed in that almost every place you visit has good wine, so for our blog we concentrate on the experience and how it affects our ultimate purchasing decisions.

In this case, on top of the tasting room experience, Tetrahedron threw us for a loop with their wine.  Not only did Joyce enjoy their white wines, she even bought a bottle of white wine for later.  That never happens.  Joyce is not interested in white wines.  It’s not that white wines are bad, it’s just that they are mostly boring on the tongue. Tetrahedron’s whites are built with a more herbaceous quality.  We aren’t going to go into flavor detail here, like the old “notes of tobacco and broken dreams over BBQ and the souls of forgotten swamp children’s coffee” kinds of things you might hear elsewhere.  Probably the closest thing I can compare their three whites is to a cocktail of a regular white wine plus a bit of a European liquor.

Result?  Yummy!  Go get some for yourself.  You know you want to!

…and now some bonus shots of our heroes in action: