Time is an amazing gift. How many times have you driven by some place and said, "I should stop there." Robin and I have been feeling that way about Left Coast Cellars for quite a while. We visited there seven years ago, and the winery had just opened for business. Several times as we've driven by Robin has said, "we should stop in there." And one of the great gifts of my sabbatical leave is that now we do have the time.There was so much we liked about the winery the first time we were there. The setting is so beautiful with the tasting room nestled into the top of the vineyard in the midst of a beautiful grove of oak trees. The landscaping is so well done and the drive up to the tasting room is sweeping and gorgeous. We love their logo and the idea of celebrating the West coast of the United States as the left coast. We loved everything, but we didn't really like the wines. Things have changed.
I especially loved their estate grown Pinot Noir called "Cali's Cuvee" which is only $24 a bottle, and I didn't taste a single wine I didn't enjoy enthusiastically. There are many there are several possibilities for the changes. Maybe it's just me--maybe my taste buds have matured and been enlightened a bit in the last seven years. Maybe I was having a bad day the first time around. Perhaps the vines are just producing better fruit now. Maybe the winemaker has figured out how to best coax a beautiful wine from the grapes in that place. There are a million different reasons, but the result is the same, this time around I loved their wines.
We were able to sit outside on the patio, and our server, Amy, graciously offered to bring us out our tastings. There is now a cafe inside the tasting room, so we ordered lunch, and it was beautiful. I had a club panini and Robin had a salad made from locally grown greens. This may become our new favorite place--just head out, sit in the beautiful tasting area, have a quick bite to eat and enjoy a beautiful wine. The tasting fee is only $5 and is waived if you purchase a bottle of wine.
There are beehives surrounding the tasting room and they sell that honey inside (you can't get much more local than that.) They have a Chardonnay that has seen a little bit of oak (for those of you who like that.) It's from the Truffle Hill section of the vineyard which is named after the experimental efforts to propagate the expensive fungus among the roots of nearby hazelnut trees.
There is a hard to describe vibe to Left Coast Cellars. Serving wonderful food in a beautiful location while trying to import some crops to along with them. They have a Pinot Noir that is in a keg which they will sell by the bottle, which you then return to have refilled! I have been looking for this for quite a while, a refillable wine bottle (I take a lot of bottles to the recycling center each month, and I'd love to be able to have one that I could just refill and use again and again. They are using magnum bottles (holds two regular bottles of wine). I wish they would just use growlers like they do at brew pubs. The winery is also sustainable and green. They have solar panels which are supplying most of their electricity, they drive efficient vehicles and have a gravity fed natural spring irrigation pond on the property. I would recommend taking an out of town friend to Left Coast for lunch. It's exactly the kind of Oregon wine experience I love to share with people. I'm thankful for the time to be able to stop in and enjoy the beautify of the place of the wines they are producing. It was also heartening to see how much color the grapes have added in just one week of warm weather. We may see a grape harvest before Halloween after all!