The 2023 Oregon Chardonnay Celebration

I was listening to a recent interview with an industry legend, and the topic of the Oregon Wine Community came up. More specifically, there was talk about how the community isn't what it was. Of course, with the community growing like crazy, there is no way for it to be precisely what it was, but there is a ton of community still out there and active.

I am calling in the positive police to show examples of the thriving community actively happening. First, an Indie Wine Mixer is occurring over Memorial Day Weekend. There will be over 20 wineries in attendance, pouring 65 wines. Some include Ricochet Wines, Approachment Wines, de la boue, Arabilis, Flip Turn Cellars, and many more I don't recognize from the picture. There will also be food trucks. Grab your tickets and have a blast!! I would say, "I'll meet you there," but I will be in Italy.

Here is another example of community in full force! Corollary, Arabalis, Prive, and Cho Wines gathered for dinner over the week and did a deep dive into Sparkling. Yes, I am thinking exactly what you are thinking, "But Prive doesn't have a Sparkling." Yup, they currently don't, and guess what? I am starting the rumor they are coming out with a Sparkling within the next 4-5 years.

You also need to check out the long list of wines they opened.

Keeping on the theme of Community, a new cookbook is dropping on Tuesday (May 2nd), and I was super fortunate to get an advanced copy. It is titled "Oregon Wine and Food Cookbook." Here is the blurb from Amazon:

Ilahe is celebrating its new tasting room.

Durant is collaborating with nine other wineries to showcase Pinot Gris.

So many cans of beer had to get crushed because the marketing team used the word Champagne.

I wanted to talk about James Suckling's Oregon report that dropped this week, but I needed more time this week. So stay tuned for more info next week!

May is just right around the corner, and I don't know if it's just me, but 2023 feels like it is slipping through my hands faster than grains of sand on a warm sunny day at the beach. So let's go back to February for the Oregon Chardonnay Celebration to slow time down.

If you are unaware, the crew that puts IPNC together also are in charge of OCC (Oregon Chardonnay Celebration). Quick side note, if you still need to purchase your tickets for IPNC, here is a link. It is a fun three-day event (Fri, Sat, and Sun). The food and wine are good, but most importantly, the people are out of this world! You can use IPNCRETOUR for $300 off until the end of April.

Getting back to OCC. It is a two-day event with a few different options for attending. This year there was a total of three events. The first was a Friday night sit down with Domaine Serene tasting through four of their Chardonnays (two from France and two from Oregon), followed by a nice handful of wineries to explore their wines. On Saturday, a Grand Seminar with a panel of four winemakers and eight wines to explore started a long day. After the seminar, a grand tasting of over 50 wineries to explore. Finishing up the day was something new called the Oregon Dungeness Crab Feast. Tickets were available for everything or Ala carte for Friday night, Saturday's seminar, the Grand Tasting, or the Crab Fest. I dove into all of it!

I bought tickets a few months ahead of time, and a group of us went in on a house at Stoller since that was where the Crab Feast was. Not too bad of a view if I do say so myself.

Friday night's events were supposed to be at Domaine Serene, but if you remember, the weather in February was something else. A "lovely" snow and ice storm was a few days before the event. So I was crossing my fingers the event wouldn't get canceled. Luckily, I am here writing about the weekend, meaning the show went on, but Friday night festivities got shifted to The Allison on Thursday that week.

Micheal Fay and Rachel Zasadni, winemakers at Domaine Serene, led us through their wines. If you have not met Rachel, she is absolutely spectacular. I had the opportunity to sit with her one on one in 2021 to taste through her Bubbles. Back in November 2021, I wrote all about it.

It's not very often you taste French and Oregon Chardonnay side by side. However, the ability to compare and contrast was fun, and Rachel knocked it out of the ballpark that night. She was on top of her game while having a great time!

Here are the wines that were available to explore after the seminar.

Oregon

2019 Domaine Serene 'Evanstad Reserve' Chardonnay, Dundee Hills, OR

2020 Irvine & Roberts Convergence Chardonnay, Rogue Valley, OR

2019 Résonance Decouverte Vineyard Chardonnay, Dundee Hills, OR

2020 Audeant Seven Springs Vineyard Chardonnay, Eola-Amity Hills, OR

2021 big table farm Wild Bee Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, OR

2017 Lytle-Barnett Blanc de Blancs, Willamette Valley, OR

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California

2019 Ramey Wine Cellars Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, CA

2020 Failla Olivet Vineyard Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, CA

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France

NV Laurent-Perrier Blanc de Blancs, Champagne, FR

NV Gaston Chiquet Blanc de Blancs, Champagne, FR

NV Pierre Gimmonet & Fils Cuis 1er Cru Brut, Champagne, FR

NV Diebolt-Vallois Blanc de Blancs Brut, Champagne, FR

2020 Maison Louis Jadot Beaune Grèves 1er Cru Le Clos Blanc, Burgundy, FR

2020 Domaine du Roc des Boutires Bourgogne Blanc, Pouilly-Fuisse, Burgundy, FR

2020 Savary Chablis 1er Cru, Vaillons, Burgundy, FR

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Italy

2020 Alois Lageder 'Gaun' Chardonnay, Vigneti Delle Dolomiti IGT, IT

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New Zealand

2019 Milton Vineyards Chardonnay Opou Vineyard, Gisborne, NZ

2021 Kumeu River Chardonnay Coddington Vineyard, Auckland, NZ

I ended up talking more than exploring wines, but there were two standouts for me. I might be playing favorites a LOT, but my two favorite wines of the evening were Lytle-Barnett and Audeant.

When waking up in Wine Country, what does one do to prep for a full day of wine tasting? First, you start with the biggest smiles, taking in the sunrise and a little hike through the vineyards, followed by a hearty brunch accompanied by Champagne.

After Brunch was the Grand Seminar, the panelists were Ian Burch from Archery Summit, Daniel Estrin from Cristom Vineyards, Olive Hamilton Russell from Hamilton Russell Oregon, and Stephanie Pao from Foris Vineyards. The moderator was Chevonne Bell from Dirty Radish.

While we were waiting for everything to start, this is when I first heard about the Indie Winemakers Mixer I mentioned earlier. I was fortunate to get a first-hand glimpse of the wineries participating in February.

I am going to let you in a little secret. I only remember a little about the Grand Seminar. During brunch, I had just the right about of protein, carbs, and wine to create the perfect competition between myself and what I call a food coma nap. There was a real struggle between curling up on the floor to sleep and staying awake to listen to the panelists while exploring their wine. Ultimately, I stayed off the floor, listened as best I could, and enjoyed some great wine!

My favorite of the group was the 2020 Cristom Louise Vineyard.

Now we are on to my favorite part of the day, exploring many different wines in one setting while talking with everyone possible at the Grand Tasting. I counted 56 wineries, and I got around to 22 of them.

Standouts for me, in alphabetical order, are Archery Summit, Audeant, Brittan Vineyards, Compris, Cristom, de Lancellotti, Domaine Divio, Dusky Goose, Goodfellow, Gran Moraine, Holloran, Irvine and Roberts, Left Coast, Lingua Franca, Lytle-Barnett, Maison Jussiaume, Potcake Cellars, and Soter.

Something new for this year's event was the Dungeness Crab Feast Dinner at Stoller. I didn't realize earlier in the day when the newsletter went out for the podcast interview with Kate Payne Brown (YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify), that I would be seeing her later that evening.

Other winemakers in attendance included Tomas from Lingua Franca, Luisa Ponzi from Ponzi, and Jean-Nicolas from Nicholas Jay. They all got up and shared some stories. Poor Jean-Nicolas had been on the ground for less than a few hours. He was tired, jet-lagged, and did an outstanding job telling stories.

There was plenty of good food and wine before and during dinner. I wish I had known Andrew Riechers's trick to eat crab before sitting down to pretty much all-you-can-eat crab. Our table would finish a bowl, and another would arrive. Let me know if anyone has any tips on how to drink wine with messy crab hands without getting the glass all gnarly looking. Maybe Andrew's trick would solve this also.

If the Oregon Chardonnay Celebration isn't on your calendar for next February, it should at least be on your radar. Of course, the easiest way to stay in the know is to visit the OCC website and sign up for their newsletter I promise you the choices for food and wine are spectacular! When you attend next year, please say, "A.J. sent me" during registration to get either a weird look or a bog ole smile because you just ran into another newsletter reader!

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With Gratitude,

A.J.

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PS - Did the newsletter feel disjointed to you this week?