Portland, Ho!

( Hand laid stone walkways at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, OR)

With a little under four months to go until the 2012 North American WineBloggers Conference (#WBC12) in Portland, Oregon I’ve only begun thinking about any expectations and my usual research into options for post-conference touring into wine country and beyond.

I’ve only been to Portland once and it was for all of about four hours. It was 2010 and my wife and I were on a post-WineMaker Magazine conference vacation to Seattle. The conference had been in Stevenson, WA and the trip to Seattle would take us through Portland so we planned a short side trip to take in a little of the city.

It was a cloudy, rainy day and while that wasn’t a positive facet of the jaunt, we made the best of it as we always do. We found a Sunday market and craft fair down the along the river and wandered through the stalls to get a sense of the place. With coffees in hand we powered our way through the business district which was justifiably quiet for a weekend day. What little of the city we saw was friendly, walkable and full of vendors offering all manner of food and drink that could keep gastro-explorers like us busy. Coming back has always been on the short list.

( Lan Su Chinese Garden )

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. Nestled in between blocks of commercial buildings the Lan Su garden is an incredible oasis from the bustle of the city. The high walls ringing the garden and tea house remove visitors from most of the city, although the taller buildings on the adjoining streets are visible and the sounds of traffic do creep in. Margot and I spent the remainder of our time in Portland taking in the flowers and ornate decorations of the garden, finishing our visit with tea and dim sum. By the time we left we had properly transitioned to vacation mode (from conference mode which feels like work sometimes) and were sporting big smiles with the expectations of a few days in Seattle at the fore.

I got thinking about Portland and Oregon wine this week from #winechat, hosted by Frank Morgan and Tamara Belgard, that was focussed on Oregon wines as a bit of pre-gaming for #WBC12. There was a diverse selection of wines being tasted from broadly known names like Sokol Blosser, Willamette Valley Vineyards and Domaine Serene to many smaller labels, R. Stuart, WillaKenzie and Helioterra to name a couple, that I and others had and have yet to experience firsthand.

I went with the Domaine Serene 2007 Yamhill Cuvee Pinot Noir. My experience with Oregon Pinot (only a little mind you) is that it typically straddles two worlds. The presentation of the fruit is soundly New World, but it is often restrained from what people may be used to in say Sonoma or Santa Barbara Pinot. For the earthy component, which is typically fully accessible, it channels more of the Old World. Is this experience legitimate? Until I taste through a few more labels and sub-regions I can only say that I’ve had confirmation of this offered by a few folks with more exposure to the wines, so I think I’ve got a decent context.

The Serene Yamhill Cuvee fit my experience well. Ruby red with no hints of purple or youthful color. The nose on the wine is moderate and a blend of fruit and earth. Dark red cherries and raspberries were my immediate fruit notes. I then picked up graphite (minerality in a specific form I think), some spices and a bit of dry earth, leaves and maybe even some tobacco. The oak was there, but not abundant. This wine is very smooth with cleansing acidity. This is definitely a Pinot that will shine on the dinner table and as yet I haven’t considered how I might pair it to better understand its character.

Beyond Pinot Noir most of my Oregon wine experience is with Pinot Gris. I reviewed a few wines from the state in a trip report from the2010 vacation. I didn’t make it into OR wine country on that trip so I have no visual context for what it might look like from any other wine-making area I’ve been.

So my limited experience and desire to better understand what I think I know about Oregon wine sets up a few expectations for the upcoming trip to Portland and the Willamette Valley.

• I need to taste many more wines, both Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris
• I need to explore the other styles that are made there that aren't on my radar
• I need to get a feel for the food and other local beverages including the beer and distilled spirits
• I need to get out into wine country and learn more about the geography, soil, climate, grape growing methods and winemaking practices
• And I need to have fun doing all of that so I will be sure to want to come back and delve even further

My wife and I have a couple extra days after the conference on the calendar and while we plan to hit wine country one of the days we are also hoping to go see the Oregon coast, visit the Rogue Brewery and go on a self-guided tour of Portland hitting some of the food and beverage hotspots like Distillery Row, Voodoo Donuts and the Urban Wine Trail.

Now that I’ve gotten started thinking about #WBC12 I have realized there is a healthy task list out in front of me. One of the first items is to put together my Twitter list of attendees so I can get to know some of the other folks who will be in town for the conference. I’m sure I will get plenty of recommendations from locals and folks with regional experience to fill in some of my “what to do” slots.

With this trip to look forward to getting through the circus at the office and the manual labor in the garden at home will be just that much easier. If you will be in Portland for #WBC12 I look forward to meeting you, seeing you again and spending some quality time getting to better know the wines or Oregon.

Cheers!

Jason

What In The World Was #WBC11?

The 2011 installment of the North American Wine Bloggers Conference (#WBC11) was held in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend. There are so many ways to describe the experience, some I can relate to, and some I can’t. Whatever any particular person did experience the following things were at least the general expectations from the event in the lead up to it:

• A chance to sample local Virginia wines and meet the winemakers and winery owners. This was to happen both at the conference center, at Monticello and at the wineries themselves.
• Socialization with other wine bloggers, product reps, wine & technology advocates, media personalities and all manner of other wine-obsessed people.
• A schedule of sessions on a range of topics of interest to wine bloggers and the broader community they participate in.
• Keynote addresses from Jancis Robinson & Eric Asimov
• The announcement of the 2011 Wine Blog Awards

So how do I think it measured up? Pretty well I’d say. I’ve been to conferences on non-wine topics before and across the boards they all bear similarities making general comparisons and conclusions fair.

I did get to sample Virginia wines. I likely could have sampled more, but other conference attendees might suggest that I did my share and anything more might have been a risk! I did also sample wines poured by sponsors, non-Virginia participants in the speed tastings and the kind folks from Ohio, Missouri, Texas, Indiana and Maryland who brought examples of their states’ wines to share.

The Virginia wines were new to me so I can’t comment on progress made in the region over time. Having now sampled a nice cross section of them and been able tohear from some of the winemakers I certainly can saw a few things of note.

The picture to the right is of the first tasting group at our Ducard Vineyards visit. The tasting room is decorated in reclaimed wood and evokes images of the tasting rooms I am used to in NH & VT. 

I heard it several times, Virginia does not have an ideal climate for grape growing but it offers a slice of opportunity and has some more optimal regions. As a result the grape growers and winemakers are working hard to manage where they find themselves. I hope hard work continues to pay off, and I look forward to going back in time and observing how the region has grown.

For whites I tasted Viognier, Chardonnay, Vermentino, Vidal and several white blends. For reds there were plenty of Carbernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot, Nebbiolo and Meritage or other style red blends.

In only a few cases did I find anything I would classify as a flaw so my overall impression was that there are lots of wineries producing well made wines in Virginia. I’ve already written an article on my observations of the two emerging styles of Virginia Viognier and I also have plans for a post specifically considering the reds and I why I think the blends are the key to future success in the state.

The the left is Scott Elliff from Ducard Vineyards talking about the challenges of grape growing in Virginia and his approach to vine management.

I had plenty of opportunity to interact with others while on the ground in VA, but there is no way it was ever going to be enough for someone who could potentially meet each and every participant as a new connection. I did as much as I could do, and the connections I did make are the highlight of my attendance and something I will be able to use to share and learn.

( Frantz Ventre, winemaker at Sweely, talking about their aging process. )

The session schedule for the conference was interesting and lighter in focused and impactful content than I am used to from the annual WineMaker Magazine conference. That said, there was enough to make something valuable of it. I will be making suggestions for next year and potentially show interest in moderating and/or presenting.

The best session for me was the one kicking around the Drink Local topic. The panel and the audience had a vibrant conversation about what it means to drink local, why it doesn’t happen as much as it could and what could be done about improving this. You can read my post session notes in Drink Local Wine. This is a conversation that needs to continue and spark action in regions all over the country. I for one am already working connections with New England bloggers I met to see if we can’t start thinking and acting more like the folks we met from Virginia!

A notable session was the Aromas of Wine with Winebow breakout. The reason it was notable for me is that is represents a concept I have yet to act on with my friends at home. Using your sense of smell to create solid sensory memories of fruits & vegetables whose aromas are typically found in wine.  We were presented with a tray with small cups of different aromatic food items and given the opportunity to profile 6 wines (blind, 3 red & 3 white) and relate them to the aromas from the food items. Sheri Sauter Morano, MW was our guide and she was both informative and engaging. I am hoping to get my hands on her presentation as motivation to recreate this at home for friends. The tray of aromas can be found in the picture below. Pretty neat!

The keynote addresses were not a huge highlight for me. I was and am more interested in being inspired by what other people like me were doing in their own wine-focused lives. I am not particularly prone to idolatry and from the amount of tweets and posts using both of the presenters names I take it that a lot of people are, and are also using the name recognition to turn eyeballs their way. I actually has to ask who Eric Asimov was. That will tell you that I obviously focus elsewhere. Both Jancis Robinson & Eric Asimov did offer some useful tips but stayed in a safe and pretty obvious space with their thoughts. Two of the themes were to be original and to do your research, and I found that neither to be harnessed well by either. Eric’s word were a better fit for the audience, but could have been even more focused with some additional research into the group and its interests. Jancis seemed to flit from one topic to another and I couldn’t quite grasp what she was getting at. Take it for what you will.

The Wine Blog Awards ended up being a bust for me (for a lot of folks based on my reading of other posts) and is something that could easily be scrapped or completely re-jiggered for some actual benefit. Nothing about the judging process, criteria or what the merits of the winners were was shared. Useless! My very focused suggestion here is that the awards should be based on actual participation in the conference (you have to come and get involved) and be judged and voted on by attendees while we are there. This would be a huge incentive for folks to network with each other and learn what was really out there for wine blogs so the hidden gems and the folks with personality and interesting thoughts might see some recognition. It could be aggressive to do, but we are some of the most technologically savvy, fast moving people in the world so suck it up and figure it out I say!

The picture to the left is the massive grape press at Sweely Estate Winery. I could do some damage with that!

When I got home I collected my action items from all the inspiration I gathered from the weekend and posted them asking for my new community to hold me to it. I want to be a better wine blogger, you are all part of it and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to make what I learned stick. Check out what wrote in Taking Action with What I Learned From #WBC11.

I’ll bring this to a close on the high note that many of use shared. We partied at night. No, seriously, we did. And many of my best conversations were over the glasses of wine that were being consumed and not dumped. Nothing like a little juice to get the juices flowing! Wine is about people and when the day was done the strongest ties amongst the people that I met were because we had no other place to be and no better wine to drink. We dug in to what was in front of us and let it take us where it would. There is no finer testament to the conference being a success than that!

( Some of the crew I mixed it up with. Hanging with locals who asked us if we were wine bloggers! )

Cheers!

Jason

Taking Action with What I Learned From #WBC11

At home I am known as a man of action and someone who works with a swiftness of purpose. Whether it is in my IT job, raising money and awareness in the fight against cancer, my winemaking & home brewing or my blogging, people tell me I work and play equally hard.

It is with this in mind (that as I fly home from #WBC11) I am already thinking about what I learned and how I will apply it to my writing and networking. The lessons are motivating. The time to act is now so I can foster maximum potential. Here’s my plan.

• I am going to get inspired. How? I am going to read more of the writing being produced by you all and this community I am part of. Why? To find and reflect on more examples of others pursuing and sharing their passions, and to be more informed on what is going on in the community.
• I am going to keep my focus on the two topic areas I am most passionate about. Those are winemaking & home brewing and food & beverage pairing. Smatterings of straight-up product reviews and wine travel posts will continue to show up as well.
• I’m going to give my blog a facelift. As my content has evolved the look of my site hasn't. Improving the look of my site will be a positive change for both myself and my readers.
• I am going to get others involved. From the connections I made this weekend several peers emerged that will make great partners through our shared passions. I am expecting guest posts and both virtual and real life events to be the likely outcomes.
• I am going to get more local. I always have been an advocate of my local wine and food scene and I am going to increase my commitment to that. At the Saturday night conference dinner I was already networking with another local blogger about how we can emulate the obvious success of the Virginia wine bloggers in our own backyard.
• I am going to continue to challenge myself to be creative and project my passions in my writing and social interactions.

And to make this all work I expect to be held accountable for these actions by you. I write for myself (screw all of you!) but I highly respect the experience and diverse opinions of the community of readers I have developed. I know that your opinions and questions will drive me to do what I say I am going to do.

Game on!

Jason

CANCER SUCKS SO FIGHT BACK!

Some of you may already know that I am a cancer survivor and participate in a Relay For Life each year in June. My team is gearing up to walk a track all night again this year and need your support to raise critical funds to keep the programs and services of the American Cancer Society available for the over 1.4 million new cancer survivors each year.

I am also participating in Frosting For A Cause (@Frosting4Cause) to help further raise awareness about the fight against cancer. June 5th is National Cancer Survivor Day and I will be posting my Frosting For A Cause entry that day in honor.

 I’m not sure what I am going to make yet so you will have to check back then to find out what pink frosted treats I make to celebrate cancer survivors everywhere and remember those brave souls we have lost to this terrible disease.

I do know how I am going to fulfill my obligations in participating in the event though, and that’s where you can help. One of the requirements is to donate my creation to a local organization that cares for cancer survivors and patients. I am going to put a twist on this and donate them to be served at the survivor celebration lunch at the Relay For Life my parents are participating in on June 4th.

My second commitment is donate money to the American Cancer Society, which is something I already do and am doing again this year. I can multiply that donation and its impact with your help.

My team is named Survivors Rule! and we are a potent example of what family and friends can do when we band together to fight.

Since 2003 we have

• Raised over $72,000 for The American Cancer Society and the Lance Armstrong Foundation!
• Walked hundreds and hundreds of miles proudly showing we are strong and can beat cancer
• Volunteered to help organize, setup, cleanup and host event activities for 750+ people nearly every year
• Placed as the top fund-raising team at our event 4 of the last 5 years, raising over $10,000 each of those years
• Involved dozens of cancer survivors in a celebration of their brave fight
• Educated hundreds of people of how and how much cancer affects all of us
• Had team members been recognized as individual fund-raising leaders, distance challengers and spirit makers
• Represented our cause to local politicians and business leaders who can see how their support helps from our first hand accounts of living with cancer and giving back
• Also participated in the annual Making Strides Against Cancer one-day events in 3 different locations
• Fought cancer like we meant it!

But we still need your help. Any sized donation is welcome and will do so much to contribute to the fight. Your support comes with a simple guarantee, my team and I will make it count as we come out again this year to give cancer an example of how hard we are going to FIGHT BACK!

Please use the link below to donate on-line.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY11NE?px=1344507&pg=personal&fr_id=31248

I am going to enjoy my pink frosting challenge and can’t wait to share my creation with you all here and in person with a group of cancer survivors, the honored guests at the Relay For Life. Be sure and come back on or after June 5th to see more of the story.

Thank You

Jason

Wise Words Woven by Women Winemakers

Last Tuesday I attended the Red White Boston (RWB) event “Putting the I in Team: Women Winemakers.” The theme for evening went back to an interview Cathy (found of RWB) had done with Janet Myers, director of winemaking at Franciscan Winery, a few years prior. During the interview Janet had shared her team approach to winemaking and her actions to give each individual on the team meaning for their contributions. This message stuck with Cathy and recent considerations of the ideas resulted in the genesis of another great RWB event.

The special guests for the evening were Janet Myers of Franciscan Estates and Maureen Martin of Clos du Bois, both of were interested in sharing messages about empowering people to understand their work and be successful in a team environment. This topic is of particular interest to me right now as I find myself in the midst of several staffing transitions at work, including a retirement that resulted in my taking over the leadership role. I am just now setting about to augment and re-shape a team of energetic and knowledgeable software engineers, so I have much to gain from new ideas about teamwork and helping individuals be successful working on a team.

Sandrine’s Bistro in Harvard Square was the location for this event. I don’t get to many Boston-area restaurants so to say I didn’t know this one might infer I knew many others. But I digress. I arrived a little early and was able to catch one of the chefs preparing flammekueche for the evening. The bar area at the front of the restaurant has a large pizza oven and prep area adjacent to it, making for a great vantage point for the action. While I waited I met Rich Huhm, another event attendee, and we got off talking about wine, food, my part time wine & food writing and our expectations for the evening.

As the flammekueche was passed around we sipped on the Franciscan 2008 Sauvignon Blanc. The best way to describe this wine, and it is all positive, is acidity wrapped lime and greens. The aromas of lime & greens were a hint to me that I was going to enjoy this crisp refreshing wine, and the taste didn’t disappoint.

( I asked if I could take photos and got a slanted eye. Yes, it's going online! )

( The bacon on this one was some of the best I had ever had! )

We took our seats and continued socializing. I am bad with names so I am mildly proud that I can recall meeting, Rich, Julia, Meghan, Eric, Dan, Maureen and Elina. I didn’t meet Janet and saw return faces in Justin and Cathy. Let’s just hope I recognize them all when I see them again! Our table was honored to host Maureen who was visiting Boston for the first time. Lots of ideas for things to do while in Boston were bandied about. At first it looked like our guests would roam from table to table sharing their team winemaking approaches and so Maureen got started with us. It turns out each presenter did address the whole group so we got to enjoy Maureen’s insights twice!

Our first course was a Spring Pea Soup with smoked mussels. It was served with the Clos du Bois Calcaire Russian River Valley 2007 and the Franciscan Cuvee Sauvage 2007 Chardonnays. The Clos du Bois presented green apples and an unexpected minerality. I detected the oak, but a very restrained amount. This wine is very crisp and lighter than many California Chardonnays. I was fascinated by this balance and elegance in a Chardonnay. The Franciscan Cuvee Sauvage presented the oak up front with hints of pear and apple, a medium body, and crisp clean finish with some citrus on the way out. I found it to the better pairing with the soup, especially where the smoked mussels and oak aromas and flavors in the wine mixed.

Both Janet & Maureen demonstrated their leadership qualities as they presented during our meal. Maureen has presence. I took this from a combination of factors including the passionately driven words about having context for your role, the powerful example she gave in having growers come in to sample the newly tasted and categorized wines, as well as her comfort when she captained the room. Janet takes a different approach. She comes to you, sits down and appeals to you with considerations like “the grapes don’t know if you are a man or woman” when asked if being a female winemaker is an advantage. Janet is also very passionate and broke her approach down into considerable detail. She owned the problem AND the solution in the way she described it, and that has got to be a winning play!

Dinner was a sizable piece of medium-rare beef with a black pepper & Cabernet reduction alongside a spinach and mushroom ragout. It was so tasty on its own that I nearly ate way more than was going to be healthy! The wines with the beef were the Magnificat 2006 and Mt. Veeder 2005 reds from Franciscan. I drank the Magnificat way too fast. It was so full of fruit, spice, wood and a little earth, it was hard not to. It is a Meritage blend so I shouldn’t be surprised that I liked it.

The Mt. Veeder Reserve Cabernet was super rich with a healthy blend of fruit and greens, and all sorts of finesse. The tannins were already softening which added the right amount of structure.

A transitional course of a Pear and Gorgzonla was a change of pace for me, and while I found the wine paired with the salad fantastic on its own I wasn’t sure I thought the salad was a good match for it. Except the Gorgonzola cheese! The Clos du Bois Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Reserve 2006 was a great wine to finish the meal with, and one I look forward to trying again. My tweet on this wine was “Great ruby color, hearty combo of fruit and earth.”

We finished with a Lavender Crème Brulee which deserved to be eaten in full. I have had crème brulee many times, but never flavored with lavender. I’d expect to make this sometime next month, maybe my anniversary!

New friends said their goodbyes and a group of us headed back toward South Station, actually to drop me off for my bus. I have to thank Meghan and Eric for the kind offer of the ride, which gave us more time to talk. Elina made merry with us as well. I couldn’t have asked for more good vibes in an evening. Much thanks go out to Cathy, Janet and Maureen for sharing and bringing together a great group enjoy their wines and their company.

Cheers!

Jason


{ Other Posts About This Event }

Cathy at RedWhiteBoston - http://www.theredwhiteboston.com/blog/bid/61399/Lessons-in-Social-Media-and-Leadership-Plus-Wine

Meghan from Travel, Wine & Dine - http://traveleatlove.com/2011/05/women-winemakers/

Justin from F2%! - http://f2percent.com/2011/05/04/red-white-boston-wine-dinner/