We finished up our vineyard small group this Sunday with a trip to Sunset Ridge Vineyard. The beautiful setting is the home or our hosts, Doug Drawbond and Joy Means. This gets a bit complex, because the vineyard located on their property is called Sunset Ridge, and their wine label is called Anthony Dell, which as you notice is not either of their names. The label is based on their middle names. They are opening a new tasting room in McMinnville right next to Thistle Restaurant, which is right on my regular walking route. I;m quite sure that I'll become a new regular there. I've been pouring wine all weekend. I started Saturday afternoon at a reception at Hillside Retirement Community. They are trying to find new folks to move in and are doing a reception complete with local food. I'm pretty sure we'll be moving down there at some point. It's such a lively, active place with so many folks who continue to volunteer, and remain active in the community. (You have to be 62 to move in, so it will be couple more years before they'll have me.) I'm pouring selections from our shop, Wednesday Wines. (By the way, check out the new design of our web sight. It was designed by our son and I think it looks great.)
I proceeded to the McMinnville Public Market for their new Saturday evening eventto set up to pour there. I also shared wine in communion on Sunday morning and then proceeded to the vineyard.
Doug and Joy showed us amazing hospitality. When Doug heard that I was an ordained minister he asked if I'd bless his vineyard. I've never done it before, but I think I'll be doing it again. That is the real me to the left complete with aspergillum, stole, shorts and my Wednesday Wines baseball cap! Blessing is the word of the day for me. Sunset Ridge is such a beautiful place. The view to the west seems to go on forever, and the coast range forms the top of the view as far as you can see from north to south. It is when I look at the view, and the white-columned, Spanish Colonial style house that I finally understand Anthony Dell's logo and bottle designs.
Doug and Joy showed us amazing hospitality. When Doug heard that I was an ordained minister he asked if I'd bless his vineyard. I've never done it before, but I think I'll be doing it again. That is the real me to the left complete with aspergillum, stole, shorts and my Wednesday Wines baseball cap! Blessing is the word of the day for me. Sunset Ridge is such a beautiful place. The view to the west seems to go on forever, and the coast range forms the top of the view as far as you can see from north to south. It is when I look at the view, and the white-columned, Spanish Colonial style house that I finally understand Anthony Dell's logo and bottle designs. But it hasn't always been this way. Doug and Linda purchased the property when it was overgrown with blackberries and poison oak. They started in a single wide trailer. As Joy tells it, "Doug told me we'd only be living in it for three years, then we'd build a house." Nine years later she was still waiting. Doug then jokes that he finally had to build the house because his wife was going to leave him if he didn't finally keep his promise. And keep it he did.
The house is an amazing edifice located a the very top of their property with a panoramic view of the Willamette Valley and coast range beyond.
We start our experience with a walking tour of the vineyard. The sight is unique. It is not only terraced down a steep slope it also rises and to the center of each row. The rows are the length of a football field and when you are standing on one end you can not see the other side. You can tell that this vineyard is a labor of love for Doug. He can't keep his hands off the vines and as we walk down each row he is constantly touching the plants, gently placing the new shoots back inside the two metal wires so that they won't get caught by the tractor and torn off. Pretty soon the whole group is adjusting the vines as we walk. He is also gently removing the shoots from the lower parts of the plant, what he calls the suckers which would not produce fruit.
I ask Doug how he came to own a vineyard. "I was working in Salem, and I kept driving past vineyards, and I thought, I'd like to own one of those." He also attended classes on vineyard management and wine making at the Chemeketa Viticulture Center. I think we don't realize how important that center is--how blessed we are that we can train new wine makers locally and have them produce such beautiful wines.
As we sit down to enjoy a pot luck feast (no red jello with carrots here). Joy has several wines open for us to try and I select the 2007 Sunset Ridge Pinot Noir. Wow! It is incredibly good. The aroma is so complex and beautiful. It has a deep, earthy tone to it, just how I feel a Pinot should be. I've been surprised lately at this vintage. It was almost universally panned by the wine critics at the time. In a word they were wrong. Three years later these wines are fantastic. Over dinner Doug says something that I have been sensing but haven't been able to put into words. The '07 vintage has been "putting on weight" in the bottle. In deference to the critics, it did seem a bit week after bottling, but it is getting better by the day. I'm kind of thankful they were down graded because it means there are still some great ones around. At $28 this is an amazing value for a single vineyard estate wine. I would suggest buying a few of the '07's to have with dinner this weekend, and then a case of the '08 to put in your cellar to age for a few years.
In my Bible study for this tour I focused on the concept of blessing. Vineyards are often used in Bible as a symbol of God's blessing. When you are sitting on the deck of Joy and Doug's home enjoying the wine harvested below and enjoying the sweeping views of the valley it is easy to see why the Biblical prophets (including Jesus) would have chosen this symbol. As my friends Steve says, "There is something healing about being in a vineyard." Steve, like Doug lived for many years in LA. As Doug put it, "I was born in LA and it took me 28 years to get out!" But all of this blessing is given to us with a challenge to take good care of the gifts we have been given. It strikes me as we are eating that wine is always an extravagance. If you are having a bottle of wine with dinner you are blessed beyond the point of subsistence. That is another gift of wine to us. It reminds us that we are deeply blessed. And, yes, as we reflect on our beautiful trip to Sunset Ridge and the wonderful wines we have been able to enjoy, we are blessed, we are loved and cared for. I believe that the key to life is not to deny ourselves these blessings, but to have them constantly remind us that we have more than we need, and to drive us to bless those around us.