Oregon's Cornucopia

On Sunday morning we left Hood River towards Mount Hood, over 11.000 ft./3.400 m high and the highest mountain in Oregon – actually, a volcano – - and drove up to the historic Timberline Lodge (building on the pic). Slopes were still snow-covered and skiers and snowboarders were happily playing in the snow.

Dark blue skies and temps up to 88 deg. (30 C) made ita beautiful drive through the Cascade Foothills into the Willamette Valley East. We stopped at a famous donut place (Joe's) and visited the End of the Trail Center in Oregon City. The historic Oregon Trail - a busy route for settlers in the middle of the 19th century - ended here.

The eastern part of the Wine Country is less known than its western part. We visited two wineries there, one - Forest Edge (left pic on top) - a teeny, tiny 2-person-operation, owned by an elderly couple. Ron, the co-owner, gave us a barrel tasting (pic) and we learned a lot in this very small winery, which had really exellent wines for a good price. Oregon is especially known for its Pinot Noirs (Spätburgunder), but there are several other vines now which produce great wines. Whiskey Hill Winery (right pic), our next stop, was a little more fancy and, also, a bit more expensive, but had equally good wines.

After these two tastings and tours, we drove on to Silverton, a quaint, picturesque little town east of Salem (the capital of Oregon). The B&B we were booked at (pic of the victorian house on the left), was a complete surprise. Assuming, it would be one of these old-fashioned, overstuffed places, we've had before, we were greatly surprised: Our "suite" in the McClaine House had two rooms and a large bathroom, was roomy, tastefully furnished and bright, and - best thing! - even had its own porch. Since it was so nice and warm outside, we sat there until dark and had our provisions from the Portland Farmers Market and the wineries for dinner. Haven't had such a beautiful B&B for a long time!

At the gourmet breakfast the next morning we were joined by two friends from tourism and enjoyed several courses: frittata, scones, fruit and granola. Boy, we hated to leave.

Silverton is famous for its gorgeous Oregon Garden and we enjoyed this botanical garden and the checked out the not so well-known house of Frank L. Wright (pic left side) close-by.

Afterwards we headed out to Salem and the Gilgamesh Brewery. There we met with the local rep and had another tour, tasting and lunch in the brewery. Amazing, how different the breweries are in regard to their concept, their philosophy, their mindset and their spectrum of beers. This one had great IPAs, but also sours and beers with fruit and tea mixed in.





Another two wineries (pics above) - this time in the busier western part of Willamette Valley - in the afternoon, contrary again: Cristom (middle-sized, rather fancy) and Keeler (bio-dynamic/organic wines). The German co-owner, Gabriele Keeler, greeted us and had set up a tasting in their beautiful gardens. We got a tour through the vineyards with her in an ATV and learned about bio-dynamic and holistic principles, and, about aging wine in concrete eggs and terracotta amphoras. Highly interesting, but we had to hurry at the end to get into McMinneville where we had dinner with Tori and Kittery in an Nick's Italian restaurant, the place, where the first winemakers of Oregon sat together in the 80ies and discussed how to grow vines and how to make wine. When we were doing research for a wine book in the 1990ies there were about 70 or 80 wineries in Oregon, now it's over 700!

Dinner was very good, conversation relaxed and pleasant and when we checked into the 3rd Street Flats, our accommodations for the night in McMinnville, we found a nicely equipped roomy apartment with two rooms and a kitchen in an old bank building. Again, wished we could have stayed for a week instead of a night.