Sake and wine in the Tualatin Valley

Rain had subsided a bit this morning and we decided to explore Seaside a bit more before departing towards Portland. We had coffee first at Seaside Coffee Roasters, another of these cozy little cafés, which we will certainly miss in Germany - hanging out with a cup of coffee in a livingroom-like atmosphere. 

 

We walked along the beach, checked out the historic Aquarium and walked back on the Promenade, lined with many hotels. Downtown around Broadway is the "entertainment strip" with game arcades, the Seaside Carousel, souvenir shops and restaurants. 

On the way we also, passed by another brewery, Sisu, in a historic art-déco theater, the Times Theatre. Many art-déco buildings to be seen along Broadway in this famous vacation destination since the 1870s! 

We drove over the Oregon Coast Range then, on Hwy. 26, also called "Sunset Highway", through dense woods, along the Necanicum River. In about 1:15 hours we arrived to Forest Grove, about 25 mi/40 km west of Portland.  Originally a small farm town, it is now a commuter town for Portland, located in the Tualatin Valley, a wine-growing region.

 

But, Sake first. At "SakéOne" in Forest Grove we met with Steve, the President, who gave us a tour and a tasting. Established in 1992 as a premium Japanese sake importer, they started in 1997 to brew their own high-quality sake in the Willamette Valley with  exclusive rice grown in the  Sacramento Valley. Sake production reminds more of beer brewing than of wine making, but, after we had the tour through the production facility (photos below), we noticed, that it's much more complicated, more refined, more delicate than we thought. 

 

 

Sake's has four main ingredients only - rice, water, yeast and koji (a type of spore) -, but a lot depends on the polish/mill percentage of the rice, of how much of each grain of rice remains. There are many different types of sake, cloudy ones (Nigori), clear ones, chilled ones, infused ones, etc. If you are interested, check out their informative website: https://sakeone.com. Learned a lot today about this special drink!

David Hill Vineyards & Winery, our next stop, is one of not too many wineries in the newly designated Tualatin Hills AVA (wine growing region) in a northern most location within the Willamette Valley. West of Portland and just east from the Oregon Coast Range the climate is special and the soil unique. Also unique here are the old vines, planted in 1965 by a Frenchman, e.g. self-rooted Pinot Noir,  Pinot Blanc, Chasselas, Muscat, Sylvaner, Sémillon, Riesling and Gewürztraminer. More varietals were added later, and, nowadays David Hill probably carries the largest variety of different wines in Oregon, mostly white ones, many of them unusual.

Chad Stock, the winemaker we met, is working for David Hill since 2019 and is very much focused on sustainability and on "natural wines", uses different kinds of barrels and containers and produces unusual wines. No yeast added, only wild fermantation, orange wines, interesting blends - all of that makes this winery very unique! We had a wonderful tasting - including one of their delicious charcuterie plates - in the old farmhouse (photo above) followed by a tour, and stayed for almost two hours before we checked in in the McMenamins Grand Lodge.

McMenamins Grand Lodge is a stately manor with one-of-a-kind rooms and a very special atmosphere. It has a spa, soaking pool, theater, bars and restaurants nowadays, but originally it was a Masonic Rest Home, built in 1922 by the Oregon Masonic Lodge to house the widows, children, and family of their members who'd passed on. McMenamins is a family-owned company in the Pacific Northwest producing beer, wine and other produce and operating pubs and historic hotels of a unique kind.