Seven of Hearts - Part 3: "Estate Grown Pinot Noir" or "The Pinot Clone Wars"

In a late-coming third part conclusion (see part 1 and part 2) here are my final notes from our visit to the Seven of Hearts tasting room in Carlton. These last two wines are both estate-grown from Byron's Luminous Hills Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton District AVA. Pommard as well as clones 667, 777 and 115 are used...

Wait, wait, wait - what clones? Makes wine sound like some kind of science-fiction plot from Lucas Films, right? And just when you thought all you needed to know were some basic French (noir, blanc, gris) color words to get you through Pinot.

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WBW #65: Snow Day Wines - Bodegas El Nido 2003 Clio Jumilla

Clio (2003)
Bodegas El Nido
Monastrell 70% | Cabernet Sauvignon 30%
Jumilla DO, Spain

This month's Wine Blogging Wednesday topic (No. 65) hosted by Michelle Lentz was choosing a wine that you'd enjoy drinking during a full out precipitous attack of the white stuff. Thankfully, since moving to Oregon I've only had to "endure" the snow once, while I know back in Ohio and most of the Midwest in general they got pretty much slammed. Thanks Lake Erie!

That said, I think I had a pretty good idea as to what kind of wine I was in need of - big body, dried fruits, and a warmer level of alcohol. My first choice? Port of course - and I think a lot of people turned there at first. But then something shiny caught my attention. A bottle from El Nido (The Nest) winery in Spain. The pearlescent label was really familiar, and it turns out I sampled another of their wines in my Spanish Wine course last year.

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Spanish Wine Dinner at West Cafe

Tuesday night I headed out with some friends to Portland's West Cafe. There we enjoyed a six course dinner paired with different Spanish wines. Our group had two vegetarians (me included) and one vegan. So we really got the full gamut of offerings at our table. Overall the pairings were very well done, and so I'd like to share the menu with you and some of my comments.

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Twitter Cheap Wine Challenge

So this week Wine Ophelia (Raelinn Schmitt) proposed that a bunch of bloggers all post notes for one of their favorite under $10 bottles of wine. Then after everyone has posted, we should gather (locally) to do a big blind tasting via Twitter (à la Twitter Taste Live) to share these great buys with our friends and followers. So it took me a while, going through some of the notes that I have from the past year, and I was able to narrow my selection down to TWO bottles.

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Seven of Hearts - Part 2: Exploring Burgundy & Pinot noir

Hopefully you enjoyed the first part of this series of posts on Seven of Hearts.

Today we'll explore four different Pinot noirs which we tasted in their Carlton tasting room with owner and wine maker Byron Dooley. As mentioned, Byron's focus is to create wines that reflect the old-world French styles of Pinot noir from Burgundy. So let's start by briefly exploring this famous French region.

First and foremost, I love maps, and this is a useful one showing most of Burgundy.

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Seven of Hearts - Part 1: White Wines

We joined owner and wine maker Byron Dooley for a flight at the Seven of Hearts tasting room in Carlton, OR. With a proclivity for old-world style French wines, Byron and his wife Dana moved to the Willamette Valley after leaving their tech careers in Silicon Valley and establishing their passions in Napa. Dana is the owner of locally based Honest Chocolates with two locations and a candymaking kitchen in the same space as the tasting room.

Inspired by classical French wine labels, the wines at Seven of Hearts depict an old playing card embellished with a crest-like image of one of the couple's cats, Seven.

I'll be sharing my tasting notes for these wines in thee parts this week - our first tasting notes will cover the two whites that Byron shared with us.

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Quick Sip: 2003 Soléna Klipsun Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon - grapes from the other side of the Columbia

Soléna Klipsun Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (2003)
Soléna Estate
Cabernet Sauvignon
Red Mountain AVA, WA

The final warm weather varietal tasted at Soléna's Carlton tasting room with Lynnette.

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New publication in Willamette Valley

You'll know find my work published in Willamette Valley Life Magazine. This is a new quarterly publication that will be distributed throughout the Willamette Valley in Oregon. I'm very pleased to be working with Randy Hill, owner and publisher, and am looking forward to many issues to come.

If you're not in the area you can also read the online version of the magazine at their website in an easy to download pdf. You can access the first issue by clicking on it's image to the right.

Cheers!

Ryan

Quick Sip: 2005 Soléna Wooldridge Creek Zinfandel - another for the "dont like" Merlot crowd

Soléna Wooldridge Creek Vineyard Zinfandel (2005)
Soléna Estate
Zinfandel 96% | Merlot 4%
Applegate Valley AVA, OR

The third warm weather varietal tasted at the Carlton, OR tasting room with Lynnette.

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Quick Sip: 2005 Soléna Wooldridge Creek Merlot - for those that "don't like" Merlot

Soléna Wooldridge Creek Vineyard Merlot (2005)
Soléna Estate
Merlot 96% | Zinfandel 4%
Applegate Valley AVA, OR

The second of four warm weather varietals offered by Soléna. We tasted the Merlot at the tasting room in Carlton with Lynnette.

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Quick Sip: 2004 Soléna Del Rio Syrah - rich, inky, and delicious

Soléna Syrah Del Rio, Rogue Valley (2004)
Soléna Estate
Syrah
Rogue Valley AVA, OR

This is the first of the warm weather varietals produced by Soléna. The Syrah you can try at the Grand Cru Estate or you can sample it and the other WWVs at their tasting room in Carlton, OR where we joined Lynnette for a flight.

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Quick Sip: 2006 Soléna Domaine Danielle Laurent Pinot Noir - the vineyard that began it all

Soléna Pinot Noir Domaine Danielle Laurent Vineyard (2006)
Soléna Estate
Pinot Noir
Yamhill-Carlton AVA, OR

The last Pinot Noir tasted at Soléna Estate's Grand Cru tasting room. The grapes are sourced from a special vineyard.

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What?! Wine bloggers don't make any money?!

Well, for the most part it's true. Very few of us actually do what we love because it pays well. Sure, some have ad revenue, and some get sent samples... but really very little of the compensation in wine blogging is of the monetary sort. Many of us have regular jobs (in technology, marketing, healthcare, consulting, etc.) that pay our regular bills.

With those bills and such, I can tell you there isn't always a lot left over to go towards our hobby and passion, wine. Just last year I found myself in this very situation after learning about the 2nd Annual Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Rosa, and knowing that it would be a great event for me to attend to network, meet other wine bloggers, and to learn. Then, as if the clouds parted and a shining bottle of Pinot Noir (likely held out by friend and chairperson, Thea Dwelle) descended towards me, I found out that there was a special fund for bloggers just like me! A bloggership if you will aimed at helping Citizen Bloggers get to attend WBC.

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