Report from the International Pinot Noir Celebration

From:   drwo@woteki.com
Subject: report from the Int’l Pinot Noir Celebration
Date: July 31, 2003 2:39:16 PM EDT
To:   aroundthekitchen@drwoonline.com
Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@drwoonline.com

Did someone suggest I’ve had nothing to say recently? Well then,  this is for the hard core among ya and will make up from my recent absence from the list. Enjoy:

We had the great good fortune to be able to attend the 17th annual International Pinot Nor Celebration held in McMinville, OR, the heart of the Oregon wine country, and that means Pinot noir country by and large. For 2 nights we stayed in a dormitory at Linfield College, on which campus the event is held. Our remaining time in OR, we stayed with our friends Jack and Irene Ball at their very lovely home overlooking Eugene, a delightful town at the southern end of the Willamette Valley. In addition to the wine event, we got to see a good bit of OR, again, and we did some hiking in the Jefferson Park, part of a national forest. But on to the good stuff…

This was a wonderful event: highly educational, very congenial and friendly, very delicious food and lots and lots and lots of delicious wine, mostly Pinot noir, in a very lovely setting. I highly recommend this long weekend event to anyone looking for a getaway weekend involving wine and food and their enjoyment.

Here is a run down of the events of the weekend:

Thursday:
Dinner hosted by various winemakers at their wineries. We missed this.

Friday:
• Opening ceremonies: Daniel Johnnes, wine director, Montrachet restaurant, NY, speaker. Very amusing. Winemakers from Oregon, California, Burgundy, New York, New Zealand, Italy and Australia were introduced. The rest of the weekend they poured their wine.
• Pre-lunch Pinot nero tasting: a guided tasting of 5 Pinot neros, the Italian version of Pinot noir. Some asked, “Why bother?” (I’m almost in agreement with them) But it was educational and entertaining and the assembled Italian winemakers were delightful. We met a winemaker from New Zealand.
• Lunch: Catered by chefs from around Oregon (more on food below). We sat with Dick and Nancy Ponzi of Ponzi Vineyards, and Korby Kummer, author of “Slow Food”. The Ponzi’s, who are one of Oregon’s originals, having bottled their first vintage back in the ‘70s, were warm and delightful people. Kummer was complete jerk.
• Post lunch “seminar”: I went to a seminar on slow food “led” by the jerk. Waste of time, nap quickly substituted. Others went to a Pinot gris tasting. More on slow food in another email.
• Evening alfresco tasting: 30 winemakers from around the world poured (and poured and poured) their 2000 Pinots. For 2 hours.
• Dinner: alfresco dinner catered by a small army of top flight chefs. More wine: Sommeliers walking around pouring Pinots from around the world. Winemakers offering their little surprises. People having a great deal of fun. We sat with the proprietors of Amity Vineyards. Very nice people. Two Texans were at our table. Oh well.

Saturday:
• Morning: 13 busses set out on a field trip. Our bus of about 25 people wound up at Lemelson Vineyards, a very new, state-of-the-art winery capitalized with a ton of family money. We spent 2-3 hours with Eric Lemelson, owner, in the Stemler vineyard. Got a fabulous lesson in the cultivation of grapes for wine. Also present, Adam Campbell, winemaker-owner at Elk Cove. Oh I forgot: before going into the vineyard we tasted some Lemelson Riesling and had a little tidbit, fresh Spring rolls.
• Midmorning: a tour of the winery itself, all gravity feed, and a tutorial on winemaking. Guided by Eric again.
• Pre lunch wine tasting: Having visited the Stemler vineyard, we proceed to taste 3 Pinots made from that very site, one by Eric, one from Ponzi and one from Elk Cove. The winemakers commented on their approach to making the wines and why they were interested in the grapes from that vineyard.
• Lunch: catered by chef Kaspar Donier from Kaspar’s in Seattle. Excellent, interesting and delicious food made with superlative ingredients from the Pac-NW.
• Afternoon blind tasting: a blind tasting of 3 Pinots hosted by a panel of experts including Eric Asimov of the NYTimes, and the aforementioned Daniel Johnnes. Each table of tasters, including the experts, attempted to guess the exact wines we were tasting. The wines were an old Burgundy, a middling CA Pinot and a new Oregon wine. The experts blew it totally mixing up the Old World wine with one of the New World wines. My table “won”. Our prize: deep personal satisfaction.
• Intermezzo: a Pinot noir snow cone. (Honest. Unlike garlic ice cream, this stuff was really good.)
• Evening alfresco tasting: 30 winemakers from around the world poured (and poured and poured) their 2001 Pinots. For 2 hours.
• Grand buffet banquet: Food and food and food including salmon baked over an open pit fire. Sommeliers walking around pouring Pinots from around the world. Winemakers offering their little surprises. People having a great deal of fun. Verging on debauchery. Certainly bacchanalian.

Sunday:
• Brunch: Food, food and, yes, more food. Oh, and sparkling Pinots. Some people call it Champagne.

Following Wednesday night:
• The festival ended Sunday, but on Wednesday night we were guests at a private tasting hosted by the largest retailer of Pinots in the state of OR, my “buddy” Bob Wolfe. We tasted 6 fabulous Pinots.

I’ve gone on far too long, so I’ll abbreviate the discussion of the food and offer one menu we tasted. All the food was excellently prepared and by and large featured pristine ingredients that showed off the Pac-NW and OR in particular. Here is the menu that chef Kaspar prepared for us. I think the consensus among our party of 4 was that this was the best all ‘round menu:

Organic Mixed Greens & Cucumber Slad with

Ginger Vinaigrette & Chilled Safood Trio

(Grilled Scallop, Smoked Sturgeon, Salmon and Baby Shrimp Salad)

Lemelson 2001 Pinot Gris

Hartman Lane 2001 Russian River Chardonnay

Rabbit Loin with NW Mushroom Ragout &

Rabbit Leg Stew with Saffron, Beans & Arugula

Lemelson 2001 Jerome Reserve Pinot

Hartman Lane 2001 Russian River Pinot

NW Berry & White Chocolate Mousse with

Hazelnut Biscotti Crust

(OR produces 99% of the hazelnuts grown in the US)

Here’s to Oregon, Pinot noir and other wonderful things.

Tom