Food and Wine Pairing

With the Holidays just a few days away, I thought I would try to help some of you who are not sure what wine to serve with dinner. If you click on the title of the blog, you will be linked to a great resource to help with those questions you have. Don't think that I have all of the answers. Between my wife and I, we usually are able to serve the right wine with the course. Last week we had a dinner for our drivers and served four wines for dinner. We started with a Gypsy Dancer Pinot Gris to get things going when the guests arrived. Starting with a nice white wine is easy on the palatte and works nicely with the appetizers. We had a steak and salmon for dinner so we had a medium to heavy bodied Pinot Noir. We could have gone a couple of directions there, but we chose a Pinot from Panther Creek. For dessert, we chose Deglace which is a dessert wine from Adelsheim. I'm not sure if I spelled the wine correctly, but you'll get the idea.
Don't get all worried about what wine to serve with what course. I'm sure that everyone who reads this will be thinking, I would have served... Great! Sure, some wines work better than others, but the point is to enjoy the wine and food together with friends. Dont let it get all overblown into a big stressfull mess. Just eat, drink and be merry! Check out that link and learn a little and have a wonderful holiday season.

Harvest 2006

If you have not heard yet, 2006 is looking like a great year for wine. Wineries got perfect weather for the entire year. Yields were way up from the previous three years in Oregon. Quality overall is excellent. Some great wines will begin to be released later next year. I've talked with many winemakers in the area and the general response is the quality is very good and the overall harvest is a great one.
It will be nice to not be running out of Pinot around here for a change. Many wineries were closed over Thanksgiving weekend due to low amounts or no wine available.
If you find a wine you really like, I highly suggest you buy as much as you can afford and safely store. If you are like me, you will find a really good wine and then go back to buy more and find yourself not able to get any and then you are seriously bummed out! Wine is meant to be enjoyed, not just coveted too. Enjoy it, but when it's that good, enjoy more of it! Boy that makes me sound like a real lush! Hmmmm?

Gift Certificates / Holiday Wine Tours

With the holidays coming, now is a great time to think about giving wine tours as presents. I offer colorful gift certificates that you can give in any amount. You can customize them just like you can my tours. I can add lunches, tasting fees (over and above), special tours with stops at antique malls, Evergreen Aviation Museum, etc..
Also, in time for Christmas are tours focusing on great wine values for holiday meals or as presents. We also plan on stopping at Sleighbells in Sherwood with great holiday cheer and also at some of the wineries with great gift selections. We are going out every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Wine Tours are great thing to do with family members from out of town and a nice break from all of the Christmas malls and hectic pace of the holidays. Slow down for a day and enjoy some great wine and relax as we travel the backroads of wine country.

Call us at 503-681-9463 or at ron@orwinetours.com

Merry Christmas!

Oregon Wine Education

Oregon VINworks is a local wine education compnay run by a certified Sommelier and wine educator by the name of Harry Ryan. Harry is the only person locally who is a certified wine educator by the court of master sommeliers. He also holds many other certifications on wine education. If you want to learn anything about wine, please check out his website. You can link directly to it from the title on this posting. He has lots of great information and it's certainly worth checking out.
Harry joins us on many tours. He adds a fantastic element to the tour. He can answer any question and create a lot of excitement for the tours. He also puts together some great wine makers dinners. If you need any wine related corporate event, he can do that too. Check him out and enjoy!

It's Wine Season at Full Speed

Hi everyone. I haven't posted now in awhile so I thought I better get something out there. Many things have happened. I got married on May 20th. We only had two days away before Memorial Day Weekend. If you are one of the people who joined us on Memorial Day, thank you very much! We really do appreciate your business. I also hope that you had a great time.
We are going to have a new website very soon. I've had so many troubles with our current web host that I'm going to make an entirely new website, change web hosts and see if that can't make things a little better. If you have had a tough time getting ahold of us, I apologize for the troubles. It's meant a huge loss of business for us. We are much slower than last year. I've posted on my web site to email me direct at ron@orwinetours.com instead of filling out the form on the "contact us" page on our website. Every day it seems there is a new glitch to overcome. SO,

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A WINE TOUR OR MORE INFORMATION ON TAKING A WINE TOUR, CONTACT ME AT: ron@orwinetours.com
or call us at 503-681-WINE.

NEW SERVICES - We are working with www.oregonvinworks.com to host a number of wine education classes. These will be held at the Kingstad Center in Beaverton. Classes will cover a broad range of topics from a basic Wine 101 to advance courses designed to prepare you to take your sommelier test with the Court of Master Sommelier's. This is no average sommelier course. It's very intense and highly regarded in the industry. We are providing high end VIP wine tours for these classes in conjunction with VINworks.

*** We are getting more into high end winery dinners with exceptional chef's and fantastic wines. We have a few venues that pair some the best wines around with food that's just out of this world. The one's I've attended are events you will remember for a lifetime! Seriously!
From the exceptional wine, food, view and overall atmosphere, they are great ways of "wooing" the high end customers (or potential customers), thank you to clients for great business partnerships, and to have a night of a lifetime. You can call us for more details. Each one is entirely unique and very special.

Thanks again for visiting the wine blog. Please drop us a note just to let us know that you read the blog and a quick note on what you thought. Do you want some wine education here? More information on featured wineries? Ideas on food and wine pairings? Stories about our tours? Tell me what you would like to see here.

Cheers,

Ron

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

If you want to join Oregon Wine Tours on Memorial Day Weekend. I've only got four seats left for Saturday and I can take a group out on Sunday yet.
We will be going to wineries that are not normally open. These are the small craft wineries that you don't see in stores or even hear much about. They are making some outstanding wines however and sell extensively due to weekends like this and from word of mouth. These are the people that have tremendous passion for what they do and are extremely good at making wine.
You will have to call soon if you wish to go with us. Please, if you go out on your own, don't drink and drive! The cost is way too high and the chances of being caught are very good. They patrol the roads very heavily on these weekends. Allow us to show you around, teach you a bit about wine, the wineries and guide you through the maze of wineries.
Cost is $80/person. Call 503-681-WINE or via email: ron@orwinetours.com.

Cheers!

Website problems

Hey - If you have been to my website and requested information on a tour and I have not got back to you, it's because my website is not working properly at the moment. My web host (Yahoo) is doing nothing to fix the problem, so I have to get a new web host. This is going to take a week or so to transfer everything over. In the mean time, I've posted my telephone number and email address.
So please feel free to call me or send an email and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I am sorry for the inconvenience.
Let's see, I'll quit "wineing"... ha, ha, ha...
New 2005 white wines are being introduced around. Memorial Day weekend is coming. That is the BIG wine weekend around. Many new wines, the country side is breathtakingly beautiful. I can't even start to tell you how beautiful it is out right this second. Too bad we aren't at a winery right now, but you haven't called me! I've had so many requests for tours for Memorial Day weekend, I've added even more vans. So if you tried and I turned you down, I can take you now. Call back and I'll reserve a seat for you. We are going to some really good wineries this year and I'm very excited. Call us at 503-681-WINE to reserve your tour today!

Cheers,

Ron

Join us for a tour of Oregon's Wine Country

 

Many Exciting Things Going On!

Hi people. I want to draw your attention to several new things. One, we now have Oregon Wine Tour merchandise available as you can see. I'm very excited about this. I've had so many people on the tours ask if we had this stuff and until now, all I could do was to say, "Someday...".
Also, I want you to realize that Memorial Day weekend will sell out very quickly! If you wait, you won't be able to go. If you want to enjoy the kick off to Oregon's Wine Season and get into some of those little craft wineries that are NEVER open, call soon! 503-681-WINE.
Next - Check out our Yakima Valley / Red Mountain wine tour in June. It's going to be an incredible weekend. Save your money because you are going to want to buy a lot of wine. I always do and I usually wish I would have bought more. I'm only taking six people total so again, if you want to enjoy this weekend, book now. You wait and you won't be able to go. Every year we have to tell people the week before that there are no seats available. Remeber, the early bird drinks the good wine... (that's it isn't it???)

Cheers!

Oregon Wine Tour Merchandise

Oberglas 15oz. wine glass. Sturdy glasses with Oregon Wine Tour logo etched in glass. $8.50 each or two for $15.00.

The hat is a 100% cotton, adjustable band hat with full color embroidered logo. Hats are $16.00 each.
To order, call us at 503-681-9463 or email at: ron@orwinetours.com. Shipping and handeling charges will apply if glasses are shipped.

A Recent Tour

 

Oregon's Wine Country

Spring time is Beautiful in Oregon's Wine Country

Just a quick post today. I took a group out yesterday. One had just moved here from the Bay area and the others were from New York City. We were focusing on red wines and I have to say, they tasted some of the best wine in the area. We started with Natalie's Estate Winery. They are a very small producer of some very good Merlot's and Cab's along with some other wines. I always love to take people there. When you go to Natalies, you sit down with the winemaker (or his wife, President of marketing) and get the real inside scoop about the grapes, the wine and how it was made. It's really why I started doing tours. Nothing like sitting down with the winemaker and feeling the passion about their wines.
I have to say, even though we were tasting some great wines yesterday (April 6, 2006), the real hit for the day was the weather and the look of Spring. Trees are blooming, flowers are springing up, it's getting absolutely beautiful. If you haven't been on our tour yet, now is the best time of year to do it. It is stunning in Oregon's wine country now. I'll have some pictures posted in a day or two. I'm doing a tour today and tomorrow and the weather is perfect, so I'm taking the camera. It's funny to think that less than a month ago I was shooting pictures of it snowing in wine country and now I'm telling you how incredibly beautiful it is. Isn't Oregon something? Cheers!

New wineries

We don't get the opportunity to go out and taste wine very often anymore. I'm not complaining, but it's hard for us to be able to stay up to date with wineries, when I'm going on tours all the time. Again, I'm not complaining!!!

Yesterday we had the chance to visit three wineries that we just have not had the chance to go to. Our first stop was the Pinot Station in Dundee. I don't feel right taking guests to someplace we have not been to before to make sure the tasting room staff is knowledgeable, friendly and that the wines are good. The Dundee Pinot Station was a very pleasant surprise. They have a very nice tasting room, nice staff and a great selection. We will be adding this to our regular stops now.

Second was De Ponte Cellars. What a beautiful location. Up in the Dundee Hills and in a beautiful, new tasting room. There are three wines to taste ( 1 white, 2 reds) and all were excellent. Again, this will be a great stop for our tours. Aaron is the tasting room manager and very eager and willing to provide you with the best tasting experience possible. Again, I was really impressed here. The atmosphere was comfortable and fun. It's well worth stopping at!

Finally, we stopped at Domaine Serene. I have to be honest now. I went to Domaine Serene one time several years ago and was not impressed with the wines or especially the staff. They were not the most friendly people and the wines, I thought, were way too expensive. I was not impressed with the place at all! I try to be open minded and fair, so we decided to stop and visit the tasting room one more time.

We were greeted very kindly by Nicole, the tasting room manager. She asked for us to sit at a table and she would be out with some wines to taste. At this time, there was about 20 other people in the tasting room. We went and sat at a table over by some windows to look out at the view. Nicole came over with our glasses and the wine very promptly. She poured the wine, explained it very well and then excused herself so she could assist the other guests in the tasting room. As far as I could see, all guests were consistantly treated very well, very promptly and all seemed to be having a great experience. We tasted the wine, wrote down notes, talked about it and just really enjoyed the experience. When we finished the wine (a nice chardonnay by the way), Nicole was over at our table with the next taste. I was honestly impressed with how she was paying attention to her guests and making sure all were being served promptly and politely. Again, we tasted, wrote down notes, etc...
This went on through five tastes. Nicole was always willing to answer questions and never made us feel like she was rushed or didn't have time to talk to us.

Out of all fairness, Domaine Serene was an excellent experience. The wines were incredible, very enjoyable and certainly worth purchasing. In fact we bought three bottles of wine and will be back to buy more! Nicole is to be commended for providing excellent service and turning around our feelings about Domaine Serene. My apologies for the previously negative attitude. They have a $15 tasting fee, which is a bit high for some, but I felt well worth the wines and experience. I will absolutely be taking my guests there in the future!

So we added three more wineries to our tour line up. All three stops were excellent. We are so lucky to live here in Oregon. Come visit us and experience some of the best wine in the world.

Memorial Day Weekend

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND - May 26, 27 & 28.

This is the BIG weekend in the wineries. It is the official opening to the wine season. All of the wineries open their doors and excitedly present you their wines. They usually offer nice food to eat, plenty of wine to taste and other surprises.

We take out extra vehicles this weekend. We encourage you to put together a group of friends, family or coworkers and spend the day with us in Oregon's beautiful wine country. We usually go to those small craft wineries that are not normally open. Visit those hidden gems that may only produce 600 - 1000 cases of wine a year. Meet the wine makers / owners. Talk to them about their wines and share in their passion of wine.

Enjoy a great day. Book early, we always sell out!

Cost: $75.00/person.

RED MT. / YAKIMA VALLEY WINE TOUR

June 23rd through June 25th. We leave on Friday, June 23rd around 4:00 (I'm open to leaving time... I realize people need to get home, but I don't want to leave too late.).
I've arranged to stay at a nice hotel in the area at a discounted rate. I'm only taking six people. Cost is $185.00/person. Price does not include hotel or meals.
You MUST MAKE YOUR RESERVATION WITH ME BY JUNE 1st!!! If I don't get six people by then, the tour will be cancelled! NO EXCEPTIONS. Just so you know... My regular one day tour price is $85.00/person. So considering this is two full days, the price is pretty good!
We will visit 10 wineries while there. I've recently been able to taste some of these wines with the wine makers and I have to say I was really impressed. That is why I had to do this tour. I just have to share this wine with someone. It's too good to be missed.
If you are not familiar with Red Mountain, it's east of Yakima about 50 miles. They are growing some very good fruit there and naturally, making some excellent wine too. We will actaully be staying in Prosser. That's closer to Red Mountain than Yakima. It's a nice new hotel, so don't worry there.
I'm also working on a nice wine makers dinner for Saturday night. I really want this trip to be high end and one to remember. High end does not necessarily mean super expensive though. I'm trying to keep my price as low as I can. I also arranged to get lower than winter rates at the hotel. I'm contacting all of the wineries that we will be visiting and trying to work out deals for you. Eather no tasting fee or discounted wines or something special. I promise you that I'm doing everything I can to make it my best tour to date! I'm also throwing in a few extra special things for you. I want my guests to be treated the same way I would want to be treated. And that's to be treated very well!
If you have any questions on this tour or our Walla Walla tour in September, please call soon. I don't think these seats will last long. I want you to go, but you have to call me soon. 503-681-WINE or by email: ron@orwinetours.com.

Cheers,

Ron

Client Appreciation / Day of Fun

One of the things I like most about my business is the great people I get to meet. Last week I took out Stephanie and Irene. Two great ladies who were fun and as nice as two people could get. Turns out that they not only have a working relationship, but a friendship as well. Irene flew into town for a long weekend, and Stephanie thought it would be fun to go on a wine tour. After the tour, I think they signed a pretty big deal, so... what a great investment on Stephanies part huh? Not to mention they got to go to some very good wineries, taste some great wine, see some beautiful country and just relax and have fun. Thanks ladies for a nice day. I really appreciate having guests like you two.
Yesterday (March 29th, 2006) I was lucky enough to take out the catering crew from Cirque du Soleil. Once again, a very enjoyable group of people. They started out the day working in the van on the way to wine tasting. I'm thinking to myself that I am so glad to be out of that environment. They were ordering supplies, checking on orders, confirming deliveries, etc... But by the time we got to the first winery, they were in full RELAX mode. It was great. We had a wonderful time. Our first stop was with Adelsheim Vineyard. Tim, who is the "guy in the tasting room" is always a fantastic host, as well as Katherine. They are by far the best winery to visit in the Willamette valley in my opinion. Not only because they have good wine, but because they are the best at their jobs and they care about you, the customer. They are very polite, fun, knowledgeable, responsive and just enjoyable to be around. Speaking of Tim, I have to tell you a "twilight zone" type of story. I took a couple in there a couple of weeks ago. The lady is tasting the first wine, looks at Tim and says, " you look familiar... What is your name?" Tim steps back and says, "Alicia???" Turns out they use to work with each other in North Carolina. In fact, they were very good friends out there. That turned out to be a long stop. They had years of catching up to do. Isn't it amazing though how people from the opposite side of the country can run into each other while on a wine tour? Wine really can bring us together.
Hope to see you soon. Check us out.
Cheers,

Ron

Featured Wineries

We have been asked to add DePonte winery to our list of "Featured wineries". I was very honored to be contacted by the winery and have them ask to be a part of our regular tours. They make a very good Pinot too. We have had a bottle of their wine in our wine rack for some time and decided we needed to give it a try. I was very impressed. It was a 2002 Pinot Noir. Excellent nose, taste and finish.
We have also added Lawton winery. These guys are great. They make just a few wines, but what they do, they do very well. They have excellent price points and are a very kind and welcoming couple. I look forward to taking people to both of these wineries. You will be very impressed with each.

It's Snowing in Wine Country

It's March 10th and snowing in Oregon. If you are from many places in the country, I can hear you now saying, "big deal, it always snows here in March...". Not in Oregon it doesn't. I had to alter our wine tours to lower elevation wineries. Many of our wineries are on the hills, and I couldn't take the van up there. I took some nice pictures of the snow.
We still got some great tasting in however. There are so many excellent wineries here, that we can still visit some outstanding wineries. It amazes me how many new wineries have sprung up in the last year. Many are very small boutique wineries, and I think that's great. Not many of Oregon's wineries are what many would consider large. In fact very few are what I would call large. The average winery in Oregon produces on the area of 15000 cases of wine. Many are smaller and a few are larger.
We are getting numerous calls for tours ranging from next weekend to October. It's amazing how many people come here to taste wine and still how many more people have no idea how great the wine is here. Oregon is the second largest producer of wine in the United States. The wine growing region is mainly up and down (north and south) in the area between the Cascade mountains and the coast range. It's a beautiful area with moderate temperatures and in many cases, perfect for growing wine grapes.
Well, I hope to hear from you soon. If you looking for going on a winery tour, give us a call and mention that you read our wine blog.

Cheers,

Ron

Feb. 18-19 wine tours

I'm going to write my blog before the tour this week. This weekend is incredibly cold. Luckily, the van's heater works great. You know that this is an excellent time of year to visit the wineries. I think this weekend will actually be excellent out in wine country because it's so cold. The crowds associated with summer, will be very small. In fact, I'm guessing that the wineries will be darn happy to see us. I wouldn't be surprised to get some barrell tasting in, maybe a tour and certainly some extra pours of wine. That's worth putting on a coat to me!
For anyone who is keeping up on our blog, Cindy and I are thinking of May 20th as a wedding date. If that doesn't follow for you, read the blog from last weekend. The problem we are having is where to hold the reception. Any ideas? A winery you say... Gee, I didn't think of that... Actually very few will allow that and those that do are out of my budget range. I'm trying to keep my prices down so anyone can enjoy a wine tour. That was the reason we started Oregon Wine Tours. We wanted to share our passion and excitement for wine and wine tasting. Some other companies charge just too much money. I don't think thats right. Wine Tasting is not just for the wealthy. At least it shouldn't be. Anyway, I would love our wedding reception to be at a winery, I just need to win the lottery. Then we will do it at a winery in Italy!
I've got to get our itinerary done for tomorrow and Sunday. Every tour includes a nice printed itinerary. We always provide cheese, grapes, crackers and water too. Sometimes Cindy throws in some truffels too. Then we clean the van inside and out very good. You will never go on a tour with us in a dirty van!
You all have a great day. Stay safe. I hope to see you on a tour soon. Be sure to let me know that you read the blog. I'm curious if anyone reads it and what the thoughts and comments on it are.

Cheers,

Ron

2/11/06 Wine Tour

Well this tour will go down as one of my most exciting tours! Today was a special tour. One it was our guests 30th birthday. Her husband arranged for the entire day. I have to say I was very impressed with him. He had four of her friends come out to their house where he had breakfast all prepared early in the morning. Then we showed up and the girls were surprised that they were going on a wine tour. The husband stayed home and watched the kids all day so the moms could relax and enjoy a wine tour.
We started the day off at Oregon's Winery of the year for 2005, Cuneo. They specialize in Italian style wines. They make, in my opinion, some of the areas most enjoyable wines. We love bringing groups to Cuneo. The owner, Gino Cuneo is a great guy and the tasting room staff is fantastic too. Our next stop was Panther Creek. Great Pinot there. Several different single vineyard pinot's to choose from.
We had lunch at Golden Valley Brew Pub. I have to say that they make a very good lunch. We have been stopping here more frequently. They have a great variety and the food is very enjoyable.
Our third winery was Adelsheim. I included a link to them on today's Blog. They make some very excellent wine. I always tell people that I feel Adelsheim to be a perfect example of an Oregon winery. The selection of wines, the atmosphere, the style of wines and the location of Adelsheim make them an excellent stop for anyone wanting to sample Oregon wines.
This stop today however had a little extra twist to it. I had arranged with several of our friends and family to meet us there today precisely at 3:00 pm. We arrived at 3:10. When Cindy and I walked in, Cindy looked around the room and started to notice several people. She noticed more and more people. Then she looked at me and asked, "What's going on Ron?" I grabbed her hand and led her to a area of the room where our friends and family were all gathered. I told her that I invited our friends all there because I wanted to share with them this day. I then got down on one knee and asked Cindy to marry me. Her jaw about dropped down on the floor. She, very excitedly responded, "Of course I will!" The whole room started to applaud. In Cindy, I have truely found the perfect person for me. She is my sole mate and I love her with all my heart.
So that added a little excitement to our stop at Adelsheim. It didn't stop there however. I also arranged another person to finish the tour from there. I did take them all to the next winery, along with all our friends to make sure they got taken care of. Afterwords though, while the other driver took everyone home, our group went out to dinner. Our final winery by the way was Lawton. This is a small winery up in the hills. A very romantic stop with some very fine wines.
That was our wine tour for today. Not your average wine tour. A very special tour. I hope you can join us for a tour someday. Many exciting and fun things are possible in Oregon's Wine Country.

Yesterdays Wine Tour

On Saturday, Feb. 4th Oregon Wine Tours hosted three gentlemen on a tour. Steve was from the great state of Minnesota while both Chad and Dan were from Washington. We picked them up at 10 am at their hotel in downtown Portland. We then started off the day with a visit to Domain Drouhin on the Red Hills of Dundee. The wine there is spectacular but honestly our guests were much more interested in Amy, the tasting room manager. She is very attractive with a matching personality.
Our next stop was to White Rose winery. This place has personality. The tasting room is like nothing in the area. You are not sure what to think as you approach what you think to be the front door. When you step inside, you step into a whole different time and place. It's worth the visit just for the tasting room. The wines are good too.
The third winery during the day was Panther Creek. This is always one of my favorite spots. The wine is very good and the staff are very friendly and knowledgable. I always enjoy our stop there. The guests love the wines there too.
After Panter Creek, we made the terribly long and tedious one block ride to Golden Valley Brew Pub for a delicious lunch. All of the guests tried various hand crafted beers that they make on site.
The afternoon held to be two of my favorite wineries. The first stop only eight miles away is Solena Cellars. Solena really specializes in big red wines. They have a few Pinot's and a Zin, Merlot, Syrah and Cab's. All of their wines are of excellent quality and priced reasonably. Once again, our guys are loving the wine, the gal in the tasting room. In order to impress the nice lady in the tasting room, all guys buy wine. I'm noticing a pattern here with Steve. ALL the wineries with cute gals in the tasting room, get special attention from Steve. Can't say I blame him.
Our last stop is Cuneo. Cuneo has all red wines. They make italian style wines. It's always a favorite stop with our guests. Rarely do I leave Cuneo without guests buying wine there. The staff is very friendly, the atmosphere is warm and inviting and no matter what time of year I go there, there is alwyas a busy tasting room. It's the only winery I know of that is always buzzing with excitement. Just goes to show that they make good wine at reasonable prices and serve it up in a fun manner. Cuneo is certainly the biggest contributor to our wine rack at home.
After a very enjoyable day in Oregon's beautiful wine country, we head home. It's getting lighter again. It's nice to finish the day in the daylight again. The ride home is mellow. We listen to music, talk and laugh. I like to make sure that everyone is having a good time. That's what it's all about. Enjoying life.
I like to say on my web page; Join us for the day... Remember us for a lifetime. I sure do hope that's true. I really do want to provide our guests with the best day possible.