What's an AVA? It is an officially recognized geographical area that grows wine. They are administered by a federal bureaucracy, so the rules get a bit strange. First of all there are big AVA's and then they can be further divided in to sub zones of that larger one. All of the vineyards around where I live (and all the way south to Eugene) are in the Willamette Valley AVA. There is a very small sub AVA just west of here now called the McMinnville AVA, even though the city limits of McMinnville are not a part of it. They wanted to be called the McMinnville Foothills AVA, but the federal government did not feel that the word "foothills" was a legitimat descriptor of an AVA. Weird. So, now we have wineries in the city of McMinnville that are not a part of the McMinnville AVA. It gets confusing. Great wine comes from both the city and the AVA.Last weekend my mother was visiting us, so we went wine tasting. I really like the Eola-Amity Hills AVA for wine tasting. There is something special about the land and the climate that makes for some wonderful wines. The better known wineries are: St Innocent Winery, Bethel Heights, Witness Tree, and Cristom. If you'd like a nice day tour, these wineries have great selections, are open most weekdays and weekends and are fairly easy to find from the highway. Keeping in mind that I like to find value wines of good quality, my two favorites are St. Innocent and Witness Tree. Mark Vlossak, at St. Innocent, is one of my favorite wine makers. He crafts some of the best Pinot Noir in the world (not according to me, but according to a major french wine magazine) and you can buy a bottle for around $20! That's amazing to me.
On this particular weekend we visited some vineyards in the west Salem area. My favorite was Stangeland Vineyard. We got a chance to sit down and talk with owner/winemaker, Larry D. Miller. I love it when you visit a winery and a get a chance to talk to the people who actually own it and run it. Making wine is a labor intensive business and I understand how it is almost impossible to have the wine maker present to talk with folks when they drop by for a tasting. That's what makes it a treat to meet someone like Larry who runs the tasting room and loves to talk with folks about his wines.
He started his vineyard on the current sight while it still was owned by his parents. Larry had been running a wine shop in Salem and had been purchasing wine from David Lett. He asked Lett what he thought about planting a vineyard in west Salem. Lett thought it was a great idea and did what he often did--provided help to a struggling vineyard start up. He also provided cuttings from his vineyard to get Larry started. Those vines are now over 25 years old and they are producing beautiful, complex, lively Pinot Noir.
Larry is also one of the few winemakers/vineyard owners I've met who is willing to admit that the ecconomy is not doing well. He placed some of his reserve wines on sale this summer for almost half of what they would normally sell for. He also admits that 2007 was a difficult vintage. Instead of making several levels of wine in 2007 he simply blended them together in a cuvee. The '07 Pinot Noir features a beautiful photo of Mount Hood on the label. It sells for $17! That's an amazing value for wine this good. We now carry it in our shop. We love to find values like this. It's difficult to find an Oregon Pinot Noir for $20 or less, so we're excited when we find one, especially when the wine is as good as this is.
If you are planning a Thanksgiving trip to wine country you might want to consider this AVA for your trip. If you are traveling here from out of the area take my advice and stay in Salem. Avoid Dundee at all costs, as it has a tendency to turn into a giant parking lot. Better yet, avoid Thanksgiving all together and make a trip down some other weekend. These Eola-Amity Hills wineries would make a great day of wine tasting. If you are down for Thanksgiving weekend, stop by the shop and say hello. We'll be tasting wines from Sol et Soleil winery here in McMinnville at Wednesday Wines. We'd love to see you.