We are lucky to live within a half hour’s drive of Oregon wine country. Last Sunday, after a long week of business travel, we decided to head out to wine country to pick up our fall wine shipments from a couple of the wineries to whose wine clubs we belong.
Visiting Kramer Vineyards
Our first stop was at Kramer Vineyards. It was great to see the Kramer girls and the Kramer wine dogs. The harvest starts this week. I sure hope the weather holds out for them. It’s been a rainy, wet year, which isn’t good for wine makers.
If I remember right, these are Muller-Thurgau grapes just about ready for harvest.
Our next stop was at Elk Cove Vineyards just down the road from Kramer Vineyards. We’d never stopped there before. We didn’t have any wine to pick up here, but that didn’t stop us from doing a little tasting and taking some pictures. They make a great Pinot Noir that is available in most states.
Elk Cove Vineyards
They have a great deck that overlooks the vineyards, and it’s dog friendly.
I just loved these purple flowers. It was like a breath of spring in the middle of fall. I found out that they’re called Naked Ladies and they’re part of the crocus family. Their leaves come up in the spring like most crocuses, but they die back during the summer. Then, in the fall, these beautiful purple flowers emerge.
Naked Lady crocuses at Elk Cove Vineyard
As we made our way down Oregon 47 through Yamhill and Carlton, we stopped at another new place for us, Cana’s Feast Winery. I’ve always been intrigued by all of the outdoor seating. Turns out that this place is a bit different from many of the others in area. They get most of their grapes from Eastern Washington and most of the wines they produce are big, bold reds. We did some tasting while Kendall hung out in the car. There’s a restaurant there and the outdoor dining area is dog friendly.
Bold reds at the Cana's Feast Winery in Carlton, OR
Bocce courts at Cana's Feast Winery
Outdoor dining at Cana's Feast Winery
From there, we headed down to Sokol Blosser Winery. It was much more crowded there, but we were able to get a seat on the deck where we enjoyed a nice glass of pinot noir. We picked up our wine shipment and a few extra bottles and headed home.
As you can see from the pictures, fall hasn’t really arrived here in the Pacific Northwest. The leaves are just starting to turn color. We hope to get back out there in a couple of weeks for more fall wine pictures and to see some of the harvesting going on.
