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-Idleyld Park and Steamboat Inn
- Waterfalls!
- Foreign Fauna
- Driving for Vineyards
- With
Melpomene, Clio and Thalia
- Historic
Jacksonville
- Up the Rogue
- Crater Lake
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Driving for Vineyards
The Umpqua Valley has at least a dozen wineries (http://www.umpquawines.com/)
and we had picked up a map and a coupon for a corkscrew while
at the Safari. The first one was just up the road and quite easy
to find. Abacela (http://www.abacela.com/)
is a fairly new winery with an emphasis on reds. We tasted a
very nice Tempranillo (which Sheila bought) and a Malbec and
a Pinot Noir and a Cabernet. But since we intended to visit 5
or 6 of the wineries on the tour that afternoon, we didn't linger.
Off we went for Girardet Wine Cellars (http://www.girardetwine.com/),
which should have been just a few miles up Highway 47 at the
intersection with Reston Road. We have actually bought wine from
this label in Portland and it's a big winery and well-established
so we thought it would be a nice contrast to the small, so-called
"boutique" wineries we expected to see. We drove what
felt like halfway to the coast and never did find Reston Road
so we turned around and set off again, this time for Melrose
Vineyards, which judging by our maps was 9 or 10 miles from Abacela.
We drove and drove through valleys and dales and over hills
and up and down small mountains. About every 15 minutes, we would
see a sign that said "Umpqua Valley Winery Tour" or
we'd pass a field of grapes  or
a road name that was on our map, so we persevered. And in fact
we only took one wrong turn, but it was a looooong ways to Melrose
and *much* less straightforward to find than the map implied.
It was fun when we got there, though. This vineyard mostly produces
grapes for other winemakers to use. And the wine bottles will
have their regular label, say, for example, Sokol Blosser Pinot
Gris with a small label under the main label that says "Made
with grapes from the Melrose Vineyard." Note that I don't
know if Sokol Blosser buys from them, so no one should assume
they do, just because I used this example. They might be very
sensitive about using only their own grapes, who knows? But several
of Oregon's northern wineries do, since the climate is much better
for certain grapes in the southern part of the state.
Melrose is a beautiful place, too; they've converted a 100
year old barn that they rent out for weddings and other celebrations
that looks out over 150 rolling acres of grapes. Very picturesque.
They make a little wine, just enough for those parties and for
the tasting room and have a nice gift shop. I bought a sun visor
that says "Got Wine?" and a bottle of red-wine stain
remover, which I expect to be very useful around our house and
couple of Christmas presents. Oh, and while we were there, Mrs.
Girardet came in and introduced herself to the gift shop help
(I suspect the owners already know her), but I didn't eavesdrop
well enough to learn what brought her there that day. And we
also didn't ask her how to find her winery because we were heading
the other direction.
Having learned our lesson, we asked at Melrose how to get
to the next vineyard AND how far it was. They directed us to
Henry Estate (http://www.henryestate.com/),
which doesn't have such a spectacular view, but does have a beautiful
garden and picnic area and a unique vertical trellis system,
which the vineyard founder invented and you can learn about under
the Viticulture section of their web site. This winery specializes
mostly in whites and the lighter reds. We did a little tasting,
collected our complimentary cork screw (an excellent one, a French
import) and bought a few bottles of a nice spicy, aromatic white
called Voignier. I had never heard of or tasted this wine before,
but later read an article that said many smaller growers were
beginning to replace their chardonnay vines with this grape.
So much chardonnay has flooded the market (because the wine is
so popular), that they're just not profitable for the small grower/vintner
any more. If this follows a classic pattern (small specialty
pressings, discovered by the "in" crowd and then popularized),
maybe Voignier will be the next hot thing and you heard it here
first!
We were kind of full of wine tastings (except the driver who
was *very* circumspect), so decided to by-pass the search for
other wineries and, with directions from the wine pourer at Henry
Estate, head instead for Ashland were we were to spend the next
two days having the cultural part of our vacation.
We had reservations at a little, old-fashioned motel (but
unfortunately with new-fangled prices -- still pretty good for
Ashland) called "The Palm" (http://www.palmcottages.com/).
I don't think I saw a palm tree, but they do have wonderful gardens
at each corner of the property and flower beds scattered about
with great drifts of cosmos and various flowering vines blooming.
Our room was comfortable and nicely decorated (no giant fish
pillows, though), the shower was good, the hosts pleasant and
unobtrusive and we were only a mile from the Shakespeare Festival
complex.
The only real drawback we found was that the free coffee wasn't
ready until 8:30 in the morning. Ashland, at least the theater,
downtown shopping and tourist facilities parts, is not really
an early-morning town (actually the public library didn't open
until at least 10:00 am either). But then again, it's not really
a late night town. Once we ended up eating turkey bologna and
Ritz crackers from the 7-11 and some slightly bruised fruit from
our cooler for supper because they were the only food sources
available when we got out of the theater.
But *this* night we had a wonderful meal at Omar's (http://ashlanddirectory.net/omars/).
Their fresh fish is wonderful, just like being at the beach,
something not so easy to find in a smaller valley community.
And, then, we went to bed early because Wednesday would be a
full theater and shopping day.
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