Burton Speaks

My friend's birthday party was Sunday. Five of us hopped in the car and, to celebrate my friend, went on a wine tasting tour in the Dundee Hills area.

First on our tour was the Rex Hill vineyard. The wine there was all right; we sampled three white and three red wines which was a fun way to start the day. The sampling room is a pleasant cellar area with a lot of accessories sitting around; there's a nice ambiance.

Second stop? We went to Sokol Blosser. They also had a nice tasting area, though we opted to sit outside because it wasn't really raining. (Yes, we're all Oregonians.) The red wines produced by Sokol Blosser weren't remarkable, but the whites were awesome. The Evolution wine was particularly good, but the dessert riesling was unforgettable (and unaffordable!)


After that we ended up meeting my dad at Domaine Serene, which has an incredible tasting room. The wines we tasted were all right but not, in my mind, spectacular. The view, however, was beautiful as were the facilities so it was very much worth the visit. (Also, they had very good crackers.)


Finally, we went to the exquisite Archery Summit, where we tasted the finest wines of the day. The 2003 Red Hills Estate Pinot Noir was absolutely fantastic and was my personal favorite wine of the day. Sadly, my current student budget doesn't allow me to enjoy such wines outside of a simple tasting fee. Nonetheless, anyone touring Oregon wine country should definitely make Archery Summit a stop on their list so as to enjoy the incredible wine and gorgeous site.

My friends birthday was wonderful because we were a bunch of good friends tasting a bunch of good wine; the situation couldn't have been better. I had a great time and I suspect everyone else did, too... though car sickness was starting to get the best of us by the end of the afternoon!