As luck would have it, there was a
special tasting of wines from Et Fille, a small Willamette Valley boutique
winery owned and run by a father and daughter (thus the Et Fille, "and
daughter," name). Lucky for us, the
daughter, Jessica, was there and filled us in on the wine and the winery's
history.
The winery is now selling wines from its
tenth harvest, which had been preceded by 20 years of hobby wine making by the
father. Their focus, as is the case for
many Willamette Valley vintners, is on Pinot Noir, but we started out our
tasting with a very nice light and refreshing 2010 Viognier Deux Vert, named so
because the grapes came from the vineyard owned by the two Greens, Mike and
Patty.
Then Jessica returned and poured a 2009
WV (Willamette Valley) Pinot Noir, a blend from seven vineyards and very
"fruit forward," as Jessica said.
This was followed by a 2010 Heredity WV Pinot which we all loved--full
and elegant.
The two other wines we enjoyed on our
Oregon adventures were also from the Willamette Valley. One was Jose's Rose, from the "Wine by
Joe" line of the Joe Dobbes Wines.
It was light, refreshing, fruity, unpretentious, and inexpensive ($12
from the winery). Its label pegged it
perfectly--"muy bueno..." and "without attitude." Our kind of wine.
The other was a Pinot Noir from Twelve, a family winery near McMinnville,
known not only for its great estate grown Pinots, but also for its wine labels,
all revolving around the number 12. We
had their 2009 Pinot Noir with dinner and loved its full, deep garnet color and
full body. No wonder Twelve was selected
as one of 60-70 wineries to participate in the annual International Pinot Noir
Celebration held every July in McMinnville, Oregon.
It's so fun to travel, whether by van or
by being transported to another state or country by tasting a little of their
wine. Keep on traveling!
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