Willamette, Damn It!
All the details on our recent trip to Oregon wine country.
As big lovers of Pinot Noir, it only made sense that for our family vacation we visit Oregon wine country where arguably some of the best Pinot Noirs are made. In case you were ever wondering how to pronounce Willamette, just remember it rhymes with damn it, so - Will-Am-It, Damn-It. Our dear friend and travel aficionado Chappell helped us plan an incredible adventure filled with some R&R, a little history, and a lot of wine! We were in Oregon for about three full days, arriving on Wednesday afternoon and leaving on Sunday morning. This post is too long for email so you might have to click over on to the Substack web or app, and if you find something you like about this post please give it a heart! Here are all the details of our trip:
Where we stayed:
The Allison Inn and Spa
Willamette Valley is not large so options for somewhere to stay near the wineries are sort of limited. The Allison is a newer property with about 80 rooms, so still not terribly huge, but definitely one of the larger properties in the valley. I think one of the things we loved about it was the fact that although it had the amenities and staff of a large hotel, it still felt small and intimate in the way it was laid out.
One of our favorite things about this property was its walking trails. Every morning we would go out for a morning walk, and the trails were just beautiful. Part of the trails winds through the back of the property’s vineyard while another part called the “art walk” is sprinkled with beautiful sculptures and other art mediums created by different local artists. Eventually, we found ourselves at the Chef’s Garden which The Allison added as an event space in conjunction with its original purpose to supply the kitchen with a variety of herbs and veggies! A farm-to-table experience, if you will. If we timed it right in the mornings, we would catch the staff picking the day’s bounty for the kitchen.
The hotel’s restaurant, Jory, named after the red clay-ish soil found in these areas was pretty good! We loved the breakfast, I don’t know if I will ever have an eggs benedict like that again, life changing. And lunch and dinner were both good as well. I do want to just go ahead and put out there that the food scene in Willamette is pretty underwhelming. We tried a variety of places, and I swear every restaurant had the exact same menu.
What we did:
Wine tastings:
We had two full days of wine tastings which we did with a company called Grape Escapes. I love a punny name! Our guide, David, was AWESOME! We had him both days, and he was so knowledgable about everything from wine and how grapes are grown to soil differences and how those affect the taste of the wine, to broadway shows and old movies! I think it says a lot about a person when they start out a stranger and 48 hours later are someone you would invite over for dinner without thought. That was our experience with David! Highly recommend him if you decide to try out Willamette Valley! Many of the wineries we visited were smaller in size which was great because we were able to do our tastings and speak with the winemakers directly. We visited two larger/more corporate wineries where the tastings were more like something you would have in Napa. More details below and links to the websites are in the titles.
This was our first stop of the trip. JK Carriere is owned by Jim Prosser, and we had the privilege of meeting Jim during our tasting. What a character! He was fascinating to listen to. We loved MANY of the wines we tasted here, but our favorite was the 2015 Lola Cuvee Pinot Noir. Jim names only his best Pinot Noirs Lola, after his only daughter, and JK Carriere might not have one every year. Only the absolute best grapes that create the most exceptional wine get the Lola name. We absolutely loved this! Another marketing thing that I thought was unique here is that their symbol is a wasp. Jim Prosser is deathly allergic to wasps and decided to make that the symbol for his wine because “if it’s real enough to kill you, it’s real enough to earn a place on your label.” Badass.
This was an incredibly intimate tasting as it was at the winemakers home. Here, we had a one-on-one experience with the winemaker - Mo! His grapes are right in his backyard. We sat on a deck overlooking his vineyard, the scenery was great, as well as the wine. My mom and I are not huge Chardonnay drinkers but we really enjoyed this one as well as several of his Pinot Noirs.
Resonance is a much larger operation with A LOT of family history. You definitely got the more Napa-ish experience here. The views surrounding this winery were beautiful and well worth the visit. We got some great photos. The experience compared to our first two of the day though just didn’t compare. It was nice having this be our last stop of the day because we really did just sit and enjoy, and I felt like it was good to compare and contrast the difference in a larger more corporate winery vs. a smaller one.
Without a doubt our favorite visit of the trip. We all LOVE Carlton Hill. This was another situation where we had our tasting at the winemakers home, and we love David (not to be confused with our tour guide, they have the same name.) He is just the nicest, most welcoming older man who loves a good party. He has a croquet lawn at his house and alluded to several soirees he threw there, including an Alice and Wonderland themed one I was dying to hear more about. The Pinot Noirs we had at Carlton Hill were some of the best we had EVER. David was super fun to talk to, and he did a great job explaining his winemaking process to us. He only makes/ships 500 cases a year so we felt very lucky to get to try some of his wines. We really enjoyed our time here!
This was our second larger winery that we visited. Again, good wines, but the experience was a little less personal and a little more corporate-y. The name trisatum is an amalgam of the owners’ kids’ names - Tristan and Tatum, which we thought was unique. A husband and wife duo started the winery and the husband, James, also moonlights as an artist. One of the things I really enjoyed about this winery was learning that they do an artists series. Each year they do a limited bottling of a specific Pinot Noir and the label features one of James’ paintings. The tasting room also doubles as an art gallery and features art of all kinds of mediums, which we also really enjoyed.
Ever since I can remember really starting to enjoy drinking wine, I remember my mom talking about Dusky Goose. She LOVES Dusky Goose. We saved this one for our last stop of the trip, and it was so fun to watch my mom live out her bucket list of visiting the winery. Of course, the wines were superb, and we all left with merch. It was a big moment for the Maddux family.
Evergreen Aviation Museum:
Naturally, we had to break up the wine tastings with a dry day, and by dry I mean dry of wine - not all spirits. My dad really wanted to see the Spruce Goose. I am embarrassed to admit I didn’t know what this really was until our trip. The Spruce Goose is the world’s largest wooden airplane, in case you were wondering. It was designed by Howard Hughes during WWII, and actually did fly once, covering the distance of one mile at 70 feet. I have to also admit that it was magnificent to see in person. If you are a space and air fan, this was a cool museum to visit.
Where we ate:
Again, Willamette is not known for its food scene but these were the places that we really enjoyed during our visit!
Great American fare and fun cocktails. My sister and I had just finished watching Palm Royale and were on the hunt for a grasshopper drink and THEY HAD ONE! It was truly fate. The staff loved how hype we were about it and even sent us home with a handwritten recipe. We had a great experience here!
This is the restaurant in the Allison Inn so we ate here a good amount. The florals on the tables were GORG! Breakfast was always a 10/10 and dinner was good but very trendy, if that makes sense. Lots of flowers on the food, farm-to-table, etc, but still very good!
We stumbled upon this one for lunch one day and it ended up being my sister, my BIL, and my fiancé’s favorite of the trip. The Italian grinder sub was SO GOOD, honestly everything we ordered ended up being delicious. I do recommend this one for a casual lunch or brunch.
If you made it this far, I feel like you should get an award because this was a long one. I hope you found something inspiring here and maybe will consider going to Willamette on your next trip! We had such a great time!
Until next time! xo Liz
Awesome!! Fabulous memories ❤️