Wine Tasting in Southern Oregon

View from Abacela Winery outside of Roseburg, Oregon

So this is a summer unlike any other for us. I've taken on this crazy idea of going to be a middle school principal of a school going through a federal school improvement process and G has started his Masters in Admin as well. That being said spending July gallivanting around, relaxing, exploring, and the such ...yeah, just not time for that this summer. We've only planned for 2 long weekend excursions this summer that we can fit in between everything else. Don't get me wrong we really are okay with this. But it has definitely made the small planned get aways even more needed and appreciated.

Our first summer get away over the 4th of July weekend was to the Southern Oregon Wine Country. We've done Washington state and the Willamette Valley of Oregon wine tasting experiences  extensively over the past 10 years. We've even done the obligatory trip to Napa and Sonoma once. But being Northwest wine lovers at heart we love to stick to and learn more about Northwest wines. That being said having 4 days only to explore after reading an article in Sunset Magazine about the emerging Southern Oregon wine region we thought ; let's give it a try. 

We found an Inn in the quaint town of Jacksonville that was dog friendly and close to the Applegate Wine Trail..once we found that ...booking this trip was pretty much a done deal. 

On our way down to Jacksonville we decided to stop at Abacela Winery in Roseburg. We've tried Abacela wines a time or two but didn't know much about it. We were pleasantly surprised with 1) the beautiful estate and vineyards and 2) the great Tempranillo and Granache wines. It's crazy, unlike the Willamette Valley known for it's pinot noir, Southern Oregon is very rocky and sunny making their wines taste similarly to many Spanish varietals that we love. 

We loved this quick stop on the way down to our destination and so did our bulldog girl. It definitely primed us for the great weekend of wine ahead of us. 

We arrived into the small, very cute town of Jacksonville tired and weary from our almost 5 hour drive and ultimately happy to have arrived to a great weekend away in a spot yet to be explored.

All settled in at the Wine Country Inn

After we settled into the Inn and enjoying sitting in the shade with a glass of crisp white wine we got the bully tucked in for the night and wandered into town for dinner. 

We luckily got in town early enough to hit the Quaty North tasting room while still open. It was fantastic find. So great we ended up walking away being wine club members. 

View from deck at Serra Vineyards

The next day was spent touring the Applegate Wine Trail and finding a few great wine gems along the way. We started at the end of trail and hit Serra  Vineyards with a beautiful tasting room and sweeping views.

Red Lily Vineyards

Next it was a visit to Red Lily Vineyards highly recommended to us by the Quaty North tasting room. Again they had such beautiful grounds situated on the river, a lovely patio and lunch.

Bottle tree at Red Lily ....need one of these in my backyard

We actually got comfortable here and had lunch with a great glass of their tempranillo, this gave us a little time to wander around and find this super cool bottle tree. Something about spirits being inside every bottle and never wanting to lose a spirit or something. But really cool :). 

Longsword Vineyards...look closely

Our next stop was probably most memorable from our Southern Oregon wine experience. We stopped by Longsword Vineyard. We pulled up and thought is this really it? There was a small house type structure surrounded by a few 5th wheel camping trailers and some sheep and chickens blocking the front door.

Sheep & chickens greeting us upon arrival

But yes, this was it. We entered the very full tasting room to an incredibly frazzled tasting room host who greeted us by saying, "you'll have to be outside, I'm really busy." Although it was 90 some degrees outside we were fine with being outside but it was an "odd" kind of welcome. We got used to the hosts' quirky, odd mannerisms and enjoyed our tasting there anyway.

We ended our day at Valley View Winery probably the largest producing winery we visited on the trail and some pretty tasty wines as well. It was a good first day exploring the Southern Oregon wineries.

We got our bully back to the Inn and out of the heat. Of course she made herself right at home. Sure hope they were not just a dog friendly establishment but also tolerant of spoiled rotten dogs. Since it was 4th of July we decided to venture into the next largest town, Central Point, to find the local fireworks show. We ended up camping out in a church parking lot engaging in some pretty interesting people watching and finding a fairly good fireworks show while our bully was safely away from loud booms and zooms back at the Inn. 

The next day we headed out of town and stopped by two wineries on our way back for our final night in Portland. 

We stopped in the town of Gold Hills and hit first Del Rio Vineyards. Another beautiful tasting room on great grounds. Sorry photo didn't do the vineyards or grounds much justice it was actually very pretty. At Del Rio they recommended while in Gold Hills we should really venture up to Folin. We took their advice and drove what felt like a bit of a long trek but it was worth it. 

Folin Cellars

We definitely saved the best for last. We pulled up to Folin Cellars which again had a stunning view and tasting room. But they also had delicious wine. We loved it. We decided to get comfy again on the patio and have a picnic lunch with the bully. It was great end to our inaugural visit to Southern Oregon. 

We loved experience, especially the quaint town of Jacksonville. And even had a great last night staying in Portland. 

The Ultimate Beef Stew

Wow, it's been awhile. Not sure I can clearly articulate what has kept me/us away: there's work, some challenges related with doing the VERY hardest work there is to do while being a principal. There is our focus on trying to eat Paleo 80% of the time and that takes so much planning & prep....by the time meals come around we are kind of just done. Those could be enough I suppose.

And then there is the good parts of life...

Views from our rental home on Red Mountain at the Corvus Vineyards house.

Like our annual, always looked forward to, trip to Washington Wine Country with good friends & this year my sister and her husband too.

There are so many great things that we love about these trips. Including things like wonderful breakfast mimosas to kick the day of before wine tasting. It was another fantastic year in the Prosser/Tri-Cities wine country.

View from our Iron Springs Resort Cabin

Or maybe it could of been my birthday weekend trip to the Washington coast, just a few miles down the road from where G proposed exactly 14 years prior that has kept me away.

It was a great weekend to romp on the beach with our beach loving bully.

In the end we'll just say life has been busy, good busy, work busy, not always fun busy...but busy and sitting down and reflecting on our wonderful meals has sadly slipped to the wayside.

Finally, Thanksgiving break is here and hopefully some time can be set aside to catch up on a few of our great meals & recipes.

Here's a recent Sunday meal that we splurged our 20% non-Paleo diet on. During late fall/winter weekends when the weather is cold and nippy comfort food seems to be a must.

This stew came about on one of those days. There was the first frost of the season, a cold brisk day and G was of course skiing most of the day and always enjoys a hearty meal for dinner after such a day.

I searched for a new stew recipe to make and came across Tyler's Ultimate Beef Stew. It had my favorite stew components; potatoes, mushrooms and red wine and a few new ones like orange zest and this fabulous horseradish cream. 

It was a fabulous stew recipe overall. Next time we make it we will leave out the orange zest, just because it became a bit overwhelming to the other flavors in the stew. But it was deliciously comforting and just as good day 1 and 2 like a good stew should be. 

RECIPE:

Tyler's Ultimate Beef Stew (from Food Network)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, for frying, plus more to drizzle

3 tablespoons butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 to 3 pounds beef chuck shoulder roast, cut into 2-inch pieces (this cut is also called chuck shoulder pot roast and chuck roast boneless)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 bottle good quality dry red wine (recommended: Burgundy)

8 fresh thyme sprigs

6 garlic cloves, smashed

1 orange, zest removed in 3 (1-inch) strips

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 bay leaves

2 1/2 cups beef stock

9 small new potatoes, scrubbed clean and cut in 1/2

1/2 pound carrots, peeled and sliced

2 cups frozen pearl onions, a large handful

1 pound white mushrooms, cut in 1/2

1/2 pound garden peas frozen or fresh

Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for garnish

Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for garnish

Horseradish Sour Cream, recipe follows, for garnish

Toasted Peasant Bread, recipe follows, for serving

Directions

Preheat a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat with the oil and butter.

While the pan is heating, arrange the flour on a large dish. Season the cubed beef with some salt and freshly ground black pepper and then toss in the flour to coat. Shake off the excess flour and add the beef chunks in a single layer to the hot pan, being careful not to over crowd the pan, you might have to work in batches. Thoroughly brown all of the cubes on all sides. Once all the meat has been browned remove it to a plate and reserve.

Add the wine to the pan and bring up to a simmer while you scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon being sure to loosen up all those tasty bits. Once the wine has gotten hot add the browned meat, thyme, smashed garlic, orange zest strip, ground cloves, freshly ground black pepper and salt, to taste, bay leaves and beef stock. Bring the mixture up to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook uncovered until the liquids start to thicken, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 1/2 hours.

After 2 hours add halved potatoes, sliced carrots, pearl onions and mushrooms, along with a pinch of sugar to balance out the acid from the red wine. Turn the heat up slightly and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes more, until the vegetables and meat are tender. Add the frozen peas during the last minute of cooking. Season with salt and pepper and remove the thyme sprigs.

To serve, place the stew in a soup bowl, garnish with parsley, drizzle with olive oil and add a dollop of Horseradish Sour Cream. Right before serving add a slice of Toasted Peasant Bread, half way submerged in the stew.

Horseradish Sour Cream:

1 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Chives, finely chopped, as garnish

Combine sour cream, prepared horseradish and a drizzle of olive oil in a small bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. Season with salt and pepper. Add a dollop of the mixture on top of the stew and garnish with chopped chives.

Toasted Peasant Bread:

1 loaf peasant bread, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces

Extra-virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, halved

Chopped parsley leaves

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Put a sheet pan in the oven so that it gets good and hot.

Place the bread slices on the hot sheet pan. Drizzle the bread with the extra-virgin olive oil bake for 5 minutes, until the bread is nicely toasted. Rub the bread slices with the garlic cloves, and discard garlic. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Wine Tasting: Willamette Valley, Oregon

Over Memorial Day weekend we took a long overdue 4 day weekend away with some friends wine tasting in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

This trip with these friends used to be a yearly tradition over Thanksgiving weekend but somehow that holiday has gotten more complicated the past few years and we just haven't been able to pull it off. So we were actually thrilled that given both of our busy couple lives we were actually able to pull it together for the 4 day Memorial day weekend. The 4 of us along with 3 dogs it was a real get away.

2009 Freezing in Glacier National Park

During our weekend we had some to time to remember some of our previous Memorial Day and other get aways from the past 15 years. Two especially memorable ones came to mind. One was Memorial day weekend 2006. We took our boat and their dog over for a 4 day Memorial Day camping weekend in Eastern Washington chasing the sun. It became memorable for two distinct reasons. 1) It poured, literally wind blowing, sideways rain poured most of the 4 days. 2) On day two I slipped and ended up enduring a spiral fracture of the left ankle. Good times! Then there was our 2009 Summer vacation to Glacier National Park in Montana. It rained every night we camped in tents, the days were nice but at night it poured. We spent 4 nights playing endless UNO and drinking some great red wines.

This Memorial Day weekend proved to bring our familiar rain curse along for the trip again. This time our friends hauled us all down in the "Cabin" their recently purchased cute pop-out RV. After we got settled at the Wine Country RV park we headed out to our first stop for wine tasting.

We started just outside of McMinnville at Maysara which ended up being my favorite new find in the Willamette Valley on this trip. Found on a beautiful property in a HUGE beautiful rock building. They actually ended up being closed on Friday to prepare for their big events on Saturday & Sunday. But the tasting room manager kindly opened the tasting room for us for a private tasting. Which worked out great because we met up with another couple there. It was very nice and wow, I love their wines and story of becoming Oregon wine makers as immigrants from Iran. 

Meadow, Mac & Sally Porkchop at Panther Creek Cellars

From here we headed to Yamhill Valley Vineyards where we picked up the steal of a deal for the trip. A case of Chenin Blanc for $60. We then hit town and went to Panther Creek Cellars which G & I had been to 13 years earlier while searching the Willamette for wines to serve at our wedding. They were as great as we remembered, they even let us bring in the pups. As you can see the pups took full advantage of their hospitality by getting a bit rough in their play. 

From here we hit a few other not as memorable tasting rooms (R. Stuart, Terra Vina) in downtown McMinnville and then had a yummy dinner at a great little Tapas restaurant La Rambla .

Day two started with a favorite that the 4 of us had visited  together during our last trip down to Willamette; Sole'na Cellars. Sole'na just plain makes great wine and they have a beautiful new facility outside of the town of Carlton. 

Solena Winery

The wine maker was doing a great futures thieve tasting in the cellar. So our experience was pretty cool. So much so that G decided we needed to join yet another wine club.

From there we went to one of my favorite little Oregon wine towns Carlton. 

Meadow & Mac outside of Tyrus Evan Tasting Room

We walked town with the pups bringing them in to the places that allowed it and hung outside at places that didn't. 

A private, unexpected wine making tour at Laurelridge Winery

We visited K&M Cellars, Troon and Scott Paul along the way. 

It was a great kind of leisurely wine tasting day that ended with some tasty pulled pork sandwiches that we picked up at a food truck in Dundee.

The view from the Sineann wine tasting room

On Sunday, our last day of tasting we started at Sineann which was super crowded and almost claustrophobic feeling. But had some great BIG reds. 

From here we went to August Cellars which had several guest wineries tasting and a fantastic chocolatier with some scrumptious chocolates.

Up next was another favorite winery of ours that G&I first found on our wedding wine hunt weekend to Willamette Valley, Sokol Blosser. 

They have a beautiful property and were having a big shin-dig as well. 

And Sally P loved the smell of the farm.

Our last stop of the trip was to Zerba who also make some phenomenal wines. It was a great trip. We woke up Monday to a torrential downpour of course but it didn't dampen our experience, we had a good time doing what we love to do in a beautiful valley. 

Even the pup had a great weekend in wine country.

If haven't been wine tasting in the Willamette Valley it's a recommended trip. We couldn't get over how many more wineries are there now just since the few year hiatus that we'd been away. It's not Napa or even Sonoma but it's a wine lovers must visit just the same.

Mexican Sopes

We are somewhat sadly home after our week in paradise via Cabo San Lucas Mexico. We figured out this was our 10th visit to this exact spot. Yeah, we are not very adventurous evidently. But 1) that's not what we desire for our Spring Break, we want relaxation and rejuvenation. 2) We were determined when we got sucked into the time-share thing that we would use to just relax each year and we are glad that we are putting it to good use.

After our first few visits we figured out we needed to eat as many breakfasts and lunches not at the resort as possible otherwise it is a really expensive week. Those stories about Mexico being inexpensive have never made sense to us.

Sopes have become one of our favorite Cabo lunches. Really pretty simple and quick to throw together but absolutely wonderful.

We buy pre-made sope formed shells in the Mexican Mercado in town which helps make them super quick and easy to make. 

A sope is a traditional Mexican dish made with thick masa, think=thick homemade tortilla. 

Traditionally the masa is fried. We skip that part and just heat them up in a pan on the stove top.

We fill them with heated refried beans, topped with shredded chicken mixed with onion, cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice. When then add a little drizzle of salsa, shredded cheese and heat them in the microwave before adding homemade guacamole, sour cream, cilantro and sliced jalapeño. 

The great thing about sopes is that really you could fill them with any toppings you like. Traditionally they always include beans and often some sort of meat as well. They are truly are favorite while we are there. We've tried to find pre-made sope shells at home in Mexican markets but have had no luck. We did make our own masa once and made them for a dinner party but it was ton of work and for some reason nothing tastes as good as it does in Mexico.

And they are so quick to throw together that you can right back out to paradise in no time at all.

Recipe

Mexican Sopes (makes 4 sopes)

4 premade sope masa shells

1/2 cup heated refried beans

1 cup mixture of cooked, shredded chicken mixed with chopped onion, cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice

Handfull of shredded cheese

4 Tblspns homemade guacamole

2 Tblspns sour cream

chopped cilantro

Sliced jalapeño 

Heat sope shells on stove top until warm &  browned slightly. Divide refried beans, chicken and shredded cheese amongst 4 shells. Place sopes in microwave to melt cheese (approximately 1 minute depending on your microwave.)

Top with guacamole, sour cream, cilantro and sliced jalapeños. Enjoy!