Oregon’s Willamette Valley has some of the best wine country on Earth, especially if you’re into the Pinot Noir variety that Rex Pickett made famous with his novels Sideways and Vertical, the latter of which is set in Oregon. For those who live in Portland or are just visiting, most of the wineries are within an hour’s drive southwest of the city on Highway 99 West. One of the wineries that I visited a couple of weeks ago, Penner-Ash in Newburg, was gracious enough to offer a complimentary tour of the facility, during which they provided a few samples beyond the regular tasting flight. Lots of Pinots there, and they are of good enough quality to where one can begin to understand the spell that the variety cast on Pickett. Word to the wise, though: bring a fat wallet with you if plan on serious exploration of the region. Virtually all of the tasting rooms charge $15 for a standard flight of wines, and if you’re eager to purchase, prices per bottle run into the $20s for Rieslings and $50 and up for Pinots. There are plenty of oenophiles out there willing to pay up, though, so if you venture out on a weekend, plan to arrive at your first tasting around 11 am before the crowds show up in force, and leave plenty of time when returning to Portland—eastbound traffic on 99W in the afternoon is slow enough to be reminiscent of the bumper-to-bumper experience for which the Napa Valley has become infamous.
– Chuck Strom
