Blips for your sipping-season radar
WINE NOTES: A trio of topics are timely as the ritual of spring tasting tours gets revved up
The spring sipping season is heating up. Here are a few items for your radar as you plan your warmer-weather wine-country tours.
Memorial Day weekend in the wine country: The big annual Memorial Day weekend celebrations are coming up next month. If you're new to this ritual, it's a weekend when wineries -- even many that aren't normally open to the public -- offer tastings accompanied by nibbles and music. It's a good excuse for a scenic Saturday or Sunday drive through wine country.
For the lowdown on where to go, check out The Oregonian's Spring Guide to Oregon Wineries (which you'll find in your paper May 19). Wondering how to get there? We've got handy downloadable maps at www.oregonlive.com/wine.
My destination pick for this year is the gorgeous Columbia River Gorge, which is truly taking off. I'll highlight some gorge wines worth trying in next week's column.
Portland Indie Wine Festival: But why leave town when you can taste the hottest new Oregon labels right here in the city? The fifth-annual Portland Indie Wine Festival will take place at the Portland Wine Project -- the industrial-chic urban winery shared by Boedecker Cellars and Grochau Cellars -- this coming Friday and Saturday.
If you like to keep up on the latest labels, this is your chance to check out the best of them. The festivities kick off with a swanky Producers Dinner ($150/person) at Ten 01, but the main draw is the Grand Tasting Event from 2 to 6 p.m. at the aforementioned Portland Wine Project (2621 N.W. 30th Ave.).
What's the difference between this shindig and other graze-and-sip extravaganzas? First, the entries are selected via a blind judging, which means that the wines being poured have been singled out for their quality. (I served as a judge this year, so I can vouch for the integrity of the process.)
Second, the PIWF manages to avoid the cattle-call feel of those wine hoedowns held in convention halls and the like. The vibe is mellower and cooler; the food comes from hipster purveyors such as Biwa and The Country Cat.
Finally, in an homage to Oregon's quirky, small-scale wine scene, the PIWF is only open to players producing 2,500 cases or fewer annually, something like a film fest limited to movies made on a budget of $500,000 or less.
Topping my hit list of wines to taste: the pinot noir from Kelley Fox Wines, the syrah from Big Table Farm and the Oregon brut from Capitello Wines. I can't wait to retry the Rogue Valley grenache from Boedecker Cellars, which got my attention in the blind tasting. And I'm looking forward to getting to know the many new local labels that have evaded me thus far.
For tickets and more information, check out www.indiewinefestival.com.
Be a conscious consumer: As you visit wineries this spring and summer, don't simply take note of the aromas and flavors of the wines. Notice, too, how committed these bucolic businesses are to being green. Are the vineyard rows brown with bare dirt or are they verdant with cover crops? Does the winery use relatively lean and lightweight bottles or abnormally -- wastefully -- large and heavy ones with deep punts gouged out of the bottoms?
Speak up if you see something encouraging, like a solar panel on a winery roof, or discouraging, like Styrofoam-lined shipping boxes.
What gives you the right to say something? The fact that many of the more eco-sensitive choices a winery makes can translate to lower costs for the consumer.
For example: I've noticed an increasing number of locally produced wines lately in bottles that lack the usual colored-foil wrapper around the necks.
Foil capsules might look nice, but they're an added expense. They're a pain to remove and have been known to cause some nasty finger slices. And who takes the time to pull off every bit of foil from a bottle and recycle it separately?
I understand that capsules might be useful for wines that should be aged, since they protect the soft cork. But atop a bottle of casual wine, the elegantly simple look of a foil-free bottle is the way to go. It says, "Open me now and drink me immediately!"
If you're out and about in wine country this spring, raise a glass and toast the green features you may see at many wineries, such as these solar panels at Sokol Blosser in Dundee.