We spent nearly a week in Oregon at the end of September, a trip motivated by the need to drop our son off at the U of O. We decided to add a couple of days to the trip and visit some wineries and wine regions we have not been to before. One of the benefits of writing a wine blog and having an active presence on Twitter (@topochinesvino) is the connection to new friends across the United States and around the world. Over the past six months or so, we have developed friendships in the Twittersphere with a number of winemakers and winery managers up and down the state of Oregon. We built our non-campus activities around in-person visits to their wineries to learn more about their wines and what led them to this often challenging way of life. We think we’ve made some lasting friendships from our visits in addition to tasting some of Oregon’s top-notch wines.
Over the course of our 6 days in Oregon, we had a wide range of adventures and experiences:
- We saw an Oregon football game (our first together) in the very impressive Autzen stadium in Eugene.
- We stayed at two very different but lovely B&B’s, both of which have vineyards and are producing their own wines.
- Despite having visited Oregon multiple times, we discovered a part of the Willamette Valley (the southern region) that was new to us.
- In between winery visits and campus activities, we were able to enjoy some superb restaurants.
- On the drive home, we encountered two wine regions that until recently we did not know existed: Umpqua Valley and Rogue Valley.
We will be posting about all of these experiences over the next several days, with of course lots of photos to accompany our stories. For now, we leave you with a few pictures to whet the appetite for what is to come.
John & Irene Ingersoll
October 3, 2016
