My son, Paul, works with web design for a living. Yesterday we went up to the Rooftop Bar to talk. I looked at his blog and realized how clean it was compared to my own. He gave me some simple suggestions and this is the new format. Thanks, Paul! (It is fun to now be learning so much from my children.) The photos in this post are from my continuing book delivery tour. Above is the road that leads to
Cristom and
Witness Tree Vineyards.
This is a shot of the fall colors at Witness Tree. When I was on sabbatical I interviewed Steven Westby, and also wanted to thank the Devines who own the vineyard. I mentioned the folks at
Bethel Heights, and their green, sustainable practices, so I delivered one there as well.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my wine professor, Bob Sogge, so I drove up to the Chemeketa Community College Northwest Wine Studies Center and left a book for him. If you haven't visited the campus, it is a beautiful setting. There is a nice little walking path out the back of the center with some well placed benches that are just perfect for mild fall days like these.
A number of the original winemakers from the Northern Willamette Valley have shared with me that this area looks almost identical to Napa Valley in 1966. If that is true, then the Chemeketa Wine Studies Center is the UC Davis of this burgeoning wine industry. To make good wine you need knowledgeable work force, and this center is fulfilling that need. It showed great foresight on the part of Chemeketa to have created this campus.
In my book I also incorporated a conversation I had with Mark Vlossak at
St. Innocent Winery, so I stop by their bucolic campus and leave a book for him. I have three favorite areas to visit, and you could identify them by their AVA (American Viticulture Area). The wineries in this post are all in the
Eola-Amity Hills AVA. These AVA's are how wine areas are organized. The AVA closest to my heart is the McMinnville AVA, of course, and I love the Dundee Hills, but so does everybody.
Taking photographs on country roads is dangerous business. The roads are slim, and the cars are zooming past with a force that hits you as they go past. That's a shot of my little truck by the side of the road being passed by a truck and trailer. I was parked just west of St. Innocent so I could capture the image above. I figure it's worth the risk to find a beautiful shot of a vineyard! But a nice quiet bench sure sounds nice. Let me know what you think about the new layout.
