So yesterday was a loop to the South of McMinnville. Today was a loop to the North. Tomorrow, all of our tastings are *in* McMinnville, which will be nice.
Final stop was Durant Vineyards. This one was a let down. It felt like a very corporate wine garden. The wine was only OK and our server wasn’t very knowledgeable. It felt like a restaurant, which isn’t what we were looking for. https://durantoregon.com (Dayton, OR)
The nice thing about Domaine Drouhin is that we were able to taste and compare their Oregon wines with a few of their French wines. As much as I like Oregon wine, we both preferred their French wine.
Domaine Drouhin was great, but it’s a huge operation. They make 10x the amount of wine of any of the other wineries we’ll visit on this trip. And that’s just their Oregon operations—it doesn’t count France. They have a lot more resources, and their tasting space showed it.
Second winery of the day was Domaine Drouhin. The Drouhin family has made wine in Burgundy for generations, so their purchase of 235 acres in Oregon 30 years ago was a real watershed moment, proving that Oregon wine was legit. https://domainedrouhin.com (Dundee, OR)
A lot of the staff at Patricia Green Cellars bring their dogs to work with them. This is Maggie who greeted us upon our arrival by flopping over and assuming the “belly rub” position. She was not disappointed. ?
First stop today was Patricia Green Cellars, in the Ribbon Ridge AVA. The wines at PGC were lovely, especially their estate wines. And the grounds were beautiful. This was definitely our favorite stop of the day. https://www.patriciagreencellars.com (Dewey (historical), OR)
We’re back from our wine tasting loop that took us North of McMinnville. Today was a hot one! And very different from yesterday.