YumPDX - A Portland Based Food and Wine Blog

Last weekend we had beautiful weather (in March in PDX, no less!) and so took advantage by driving out to a few of the many fantastic vineyards within an hour of our abode. As always, included in our visits was a favorite: Cliff Creek Vineyards tasting room in Carlton, OR.

Just over a year ago Cliff Creek wowed us with their Claret, (pronounced “clarette” not “claray”), which continues to be one of our favorite wines. In fact, it wasn’t on their flight list this time and we had to request a special taste, after which we of course bought a supply for home. It was surprisingly less expensive than we remembered at $22.50/bottle (club price).  And well worth it!

A new surprise from Cliff Creek in this recent flight were their Syrahs. They featured a 2005 and 2004, and while the 2005 was tasty, the 2004 blew it (and our taste … Read more…

A pleasant surprise during our trip to the Willamette Valley was Troon’s tasting room in Carlton, Oregon.

The highlight of the wines we tasted was the “Kubli Bench Cabernet Sauvingnon” (2006). This wine was superb, light yet full bodied, all in all a very well-rounded cab. Yes, we know, that’s not very descriptive–you’ll just have to trust us, it was awesome! We definitely brought some home.

In general, while last year their “high-end” wines seemed overpriced and didn’t quite deliver, this year they were excellent and you could tell they had put lots of care into developing them.

One disappointment, however, was that one of the best $10 table wines we’ve ever tasted, Druid’s Fluid, really went down hill with this year’s release. The 2007, which we tasted last year,  was delicious and full-bodied like a nice, dark cab. However, this year our Troon ‘guide’ told us that they had changed the … Read more…