Day Trip

One of my first real wine tasting “Ah Ha” moments came about 5 years ago at a work dinner with some of our sales team in the Portland area. We ordered some wine based upon the recommendation of our top sales person. She ordered a bottle of Owen Roe Sharecropper pinot noir.

This was like the best first date, the best steak you ever ate, the very best piece of chocolate, the best movie. It made me cry when the bottle was empty. We just couldn’t order more due to work ,but I was convinced I found the Holy Grail. I did and a lot more where that came from.

This is the wine that started it all for me. While Alyse and I had been to many wineries for tasting, I kept thinking of that experience and how memorable it was. The wine was great and, above all, the experience of sharing the wine and conversation with friends was even better. I remember writing the name and texting it to Alyse saying: “This is the one.”

Periodically we were able to find Sharecropper and another great one from Owen Roe named O’neill. More about that in a few.

Fast forward a few years, I was reading the Winepress Magazine I got at Market of Choice and found that Owen Roe had just opened a tasting room in Newburg, Oregon.

Boom, we were there a few weeks later. The tasting room was in an industrial area and had wine barrels stacked and waiting for their new tenants. We sampled the wines and found out that O’neill wasn’t made every year. That did put my mind to rest knowing I wasn’t missing something, although I was.

Our experience at Owen Roe brought back those great memories from the best first wine tasting experience. The staff was great, they even took us on a tour of the facility. They had just gotten their grapes in the big white bins ready for fermentation.