Now is the time to plan a spring trip to Oregon. My bucket list had “visit vineyards in Italy” until I visited my first winery in Washington County Oregon. Oregon has great wine and beautiful vineyards. The North Willamette Vintner’s Association has an annual Wine Trail Weekend in April, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekend events so there are several key times to plan your visit around. The wineries work together to create opportunities for tasting, learning and more.
During the second weekend in April, with our son as the designated driver my husband and I visited 16 wineries over two days with an adventurous couple who were as excited as we were to say they’d visited every stop on the trail. At our first stop we got a lanyard and a glass. At each stop, we got a commemorative pin. We built memories along the way as well.
Since the adventure, anytime someone opens a bottle of sparkling wine, I recall our visit to Kramer Vineyards. Winemaker Kim was clearly passionate about her craft. She enthusiastically shared about the sparking wines she poured. The tasting room had coffee samples as well so we sipped the warm brew as we watched a team fill bottles and carefully put in corks. The calm, rhythmic precision of the team was mesmerizing. I’m not sure what kind of coffee paired so well with the dry white sparking wines but the combination was fabulous!
I read somewhere that opening a sparkling wine should sound like royalty passing gas with just a slight “poof” instead of a dramatic pop as I’ve seen on television. Watching the corks and wires go on certainly built a greater appreciation for when they come off.
I look forward to my next visit to Kramer Vineyards.
Great post 🙂
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