My wife and I vacationed in Oregon and CA earlier this month and spent two days touring the wineries of the Willamette Valley.
This is part one of many reports, broken up into smaller sections to prevent reader fatigue of copious wine tasting notes. Unfortunately, no food tasting notes with these wines. Maybe later when we start drinking these wines.
Red Hawk Winery
2010 riesling, Eola-Amity Hills 12% abv $15/bottle
Pale straw color. Peaches and ripe lemon nose. Midpalate has mouth watering acidity with lemon and white peach fruit notes. Nice long acidic fruit finish. A hint of sweetness but quite dry. My wife likes this wine. Nice Germanic trocken style riesling. Bought 4 bottles.
Bethel Heights Winery
2009 Riesling 11.8% abv.
Light straw color. Melons and peaches on the nose. A rich midpalate of lemons and orange muskmelons with a solid acid backbone. Good medium long finish. Another dry riesling with less residual sugar than the Red Hawk riesling. Bought 2 bottles.
2008 Gewurztraminer 13.8% abv
Pale yellow color. Nose of earthy lychees. Luscious lychee fruit on the midpalate with some light peach notes. Medium finish of sweet fruit. Some residual sugar. Nice gewurz.