Summertime in Oregon…
… is one of the most beautiful things on the planet. I hear we might even get something resembling summer this year. Perhaps in August, they tell me. Yikes! Where is the sun? Longtime Oregon residents swear that summer starts here on the 4th of July. I hope they’re right – we need all the summer we can get. The vines are still a couple of weeks behind, with no serious problems or worries at this point – at least nothing that some sunlight and heat can’t cure…
Dundee Hills, sans-sunshine...
In the meantime, we’re going to pretend it’s summer anyway and get this party started. We’ve just added a few events to the schedule, kicking off with a special flight of our favorite “Value Summer Whites” on Saturday July 3rd in Carlton. This’ll be a great time to taste and stock up on some of the best-value white Burgundies around, including some crisp and mineral-ly offerings from Chablis and rich full-throttle bottlings from St. Véran and Pouilly-Fuissé. Plan to join us if you’re headed to or through wine country on the 4th of July weekend (we will be closed on the 4th to celebrate the holiday with our families.)
Limestone in the vineyards of Chablis
Then the following weekend, on Saturday July 10th, for the first time ever we will feature wines from the Burgundian village of Nuits-St. Georges. We’ll have a special flight of killer juice from Frédéric Mugnier, J-J Confuron, Benjamin Leroux & Taupenot-Merme – four of Burgundy’s absolute best and brightest. (If you missed the Mugnier & Leroux tasting two weeks ago – this is a great chance to check out these two rockstars.) Watch your email and this blog for more info shortly…
Hard as it is to believe, IPNC is just weeks away, kicking off with our sold-out dinner in the winery on July 22nd. I’m so excited to welcome Allen Meadows (Burghound), Ray Isle (Food & Wine), Greg LaFollette (LaFollette Wines) and Paul & Louis Meunier of Domaine J-J Confuron for what is sure to be a great dinner – with master chef Vitaly Paley of Paley’s Place at the helm. In the tasting room, we’ll be featuring the wines of J-J Confuron Friday-Sunday that weekend – July 23-25 – including goodies from Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St. Georges, and their legendary Grand Cru Romanée-St. Vivant. This is a definite don’t-miss tasting – please plan to join us that weekend if you can… There remain a handful of tickets available for the IPNC festivities as of this writing – it is always the best wine event of the year in the U.S. bar none, so get yourself booked before it’s too late…
Thiébault Huber of Domaine Huber-Verdereau in Volnay is planning to come over in mid-August, and we’ll be planning some special events around his visit. Check in here for the details as this all starts to come together…
In the meantime – it’s do or die for the USA in the World Cup tomorrow. If we beat Algeria we’re in control of our destiny and move on, or if not it will depend on what happens in the England-Slovenia match. It could actually come down to a coin-toss to determine if we make the next round, so here’s hoping that we just beat Algeria and get it over with. I’ll be running at 5:30 tomorrow morning so I can be back in time for the 7am match. (Now that’s either dedication, addiction, or a bit of both…)
