Things one might pick up on a shopping trip in Ho Chi Mihn City, when you’re dazed and confused from travel and find a nearby mini-mart.
Let’s run down these purchases:
From left to right:
Meanwhile…
We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!
So, I ordered a Bia Saigon and the man brought out an unlabeled bottle, see photo below.
Tasted like Budweiser. I was at Ben Thanh market: http://www.vietnam-guide.com/ho-chi-minh-city/ben-thanh-market.htm
I also bought some fermented crabs for later. FERMENTED CRABS.
It’s a busy place.
Rum, it’s what’s for dinner.
Saigon Rum, product of Vietbev
Caribbean Dark Rum Superior, product of Viet Beverage Corporation
Been looking for something worth-while to bring back fom Vietnam, always looking for local examples of interesting beverages. It may be a bad thing that these labels are in English instead of Vietnamese. I’m not sure, I’m new here. The city so far, seems awash in the kinds of alcohol you’d get in the Duty Free shop instead of something made nearby.
The dark rum has a strong brown sugar flavor, the light a pleasant vanilla flavor. Neither are very complex, but they were about $6/each so perhaps they are intended as more of something fun to take home vs a vital part of local culture.
In fact, taking a closer look at the label on the Caribbean Rum it says, “Blended and Bottled from French Rum Concentrate”. Ingredients list “French rum concentrate, food grade ethanol, pure water”.
Terra Vina Tasting Room in downtown McMinnville. They also have a great story. Their winemaker was making wine at home and winning awards for it until he just decided it was time to upscale. Somehow he still holds down a full-time job elsewhere. Worth a stop!
Pinot Vista Tasting Lounge, in downtown McMinnville is a nice place to visit. Half the fun is just being in McMinnville which has many tasty choices.
Pinot Vista isn’t attached to one particular winery, they have several available, and beer as well. One of the wineries offered is Eola Hills Wine Cellars, which go back to the 80’s. They have a great story!
Cathedral Ridge tasting room in Dundee was another pleasant visit. It’s right next to Hawkins Cellars and they share that fine patio. It’s a comfy place, our tasting room associate was cheerful and knowledgeable and we liked their wines. “Big bold reds from the Columba Gorge.”
Hey kids! Right next to Hawkins Cellars in Dundee, this place is going to shower you with an impressive and/or incomprehensible number of choices. No. You aren’t going to sample 48 wines, but perhaps you could if you had good spitting practice and could sleep over.
So pick five.
Hawkins Cellars tasting room, more wine from our fine Columbia Gorge, right next to Cathedral Ridge tasting room in Dundee.
Notice the fine tapas plate they had available anyone needing a snack
What a lovely patio for a picnic. Let me tells yas, Dundee is not much to look at during (what HST would call) this our Foul Year of our Lord 2018. It looks like a bunch of accidents and abandoned half-born dreams between convenience stores and scruffy parking lots.
Sure, you may object to that and there are clear exceptions like Argyle and of course, Lumpy’s, and I think we can be certain that the town will be very different in 10 – 20 years, but for now Dundee presents itself as a place that feels like it’s run by a city council with a mutual death-grip around the necks of elderly land-owners and they’re all going down together rather than let change happen.
So, what a pleasant surprise to find this lovely oasis right on the main drag. Heck, you might even be convinced to enjoy a lovely afternoon hour or two right here instead of bopping over the speedbump of Dundee on your way to somewhere else.
Why look, they even have a sense of humor — the koi pond is inhabited by a fine plastic lizard.
August Cellars as you can see, has a lovely building. They rent out the facility for eight other wine makers, so they have a wide variety of grape juice to try. We took home a bottle of Port.
Zerba Cellars is located in Milton-Freewater, out in the Walla Walla Valley. Very conveniently they also have this tasting room right on the main drag in Dundee.
They make all their wine in Milton-Freewater with Walla Walla fruit, so that means if you’ll looking to step away from Willamette Valley pinot noir, here’s a good place to stop.
They’re also very friendly.
Dominio IV has moved their tasting room from the winery which is in the city of McMinville out into the country near Carlton. They’ve got a lot more room here in this lovely renovated farmhouse.
It’s a great place for a picnic, as you can see:
Dominio IV turbos up their location and bottle labels with things like poems and even a visual graph of how the flavors of the wine move across your palette. Fun and unique!
Here’s our favorite tasting room associate of the day. Every see someone so good at their job that they might as well be telepathic, as she always seemed to be right there with what we wanted right when we were thinking we might want it, always one step ahead. Like magic!
Good wine, friendly people, beautiful location. We’ll be back.
Dominio IV was also our choice for the 2017 Truffle Shuffle.