Cross-posted with the entry from March 6, 2013 on www.highlanderwine.com/blog.
SIDEWAYS OREGON STYLE
Our friendship was formed at coffee shops and pubs. Southern Ontario twenty three years ago was a sight different than the world we know today. In those days, Tim Hortons and pitchers of Labatts Blue went as unquestioned as a morning shower. Our youth and the lack of options thwarted any awareness of finer things.
With looming 40th birthdays but a month apart, we agreed upon Portland, Oregon over Vegas or Mexico for a guys’ weekend reunion. Portland is a coffee and craft beer destination, a perfect place to connect, albeit in a more evolved way over the liquids that solidified our friendship over two decades ago.
He is blond and blue-eyed, I brown and brown. He is of German-English descent. I am an Hungarian-Russian half-Jew. His father laid most of the residential bricks in the old part of our hometown. Mine laid a respectable portion of cancer research methodology. We are both of medium height and build and are naturally athletic, however he was always better at hockey, soccer, billiards and the like. And where his voice booms and carries, I must often repeat myself. His free spirit carries a certain self-awareness, yet he does not seem to suffer from as much introspection as I. We both have young children - he two girls, I two boys. He is a junior high teacher and I am a wine and spirits professional. Despite our opposing aspects, we share identical senses of humour and near carbon copy values. In this sense, no friends are as similar or connected as we.
We have few specific plans beyond exploring the upwards of 40 micro brew pubs and coffee shops. Though his beer preference tends toward the lighter, cleaner lagers and his coffee cravings run to drip cups, I go for the heavy and intense American IPA and cappuccino. Before checking into our hotel, we descended on Deschutes Brew Pub in the Pearl District with twenty hour appetites. Deschutes is notable for their ability to create outstanding examples across the spectrum of styles, while other breweries do well with one or two, then fall short on the scope. Jay's flight of six classics and my single Hop Henge satisfied us equally, and the service from the moment we stepped in the door to the moment we returned to buy some take-home bottles was outstanding. Deschutes is recently available in limited quantity in Alberta, and worth seeking out.
That same evening we hit Rogue's brewpub on NW 14th Ave where it was warm enough to sit oustide. It took awhile for our lively guy too get to us, but who is going to complain with a pint of Dead Guy at a Rogue brewpub? It's like golfing St. Andrews for beer lovers. Also outstanding, and recently arrived in Alberta, is the Chatoe Rougenbier Rye Ale (a play on Roggenbier, a German Rye beer) sourced from their own rye crop. Later in the weekend we tried various offerings from Full Sail, Lompoc, Widmer Brothers and Ninkasi.
On the coffee side of life, we made it to Coffeehouse Northwest on NW Burnside, as well as Barista on NW 13th Avenue, who source their beans from the famous Stumptown. Barista pulled a classic cappuccino with the perfect balance of rich coffee with creamy microfoam. I like to taste the bean over the bovine in my cappuccino, so tend to shy away from lattes. Northwest was beautifully presented if not a little thin for my liking.
The great irony of the weekend was the wine situation. The Willamette Valley extends south south- west from Portland, with access to wineries beginning within 25 to 30 minutes. And, like Santa Barbara in Sideways, is famous for their Pinot Noir. I have a decent familiarity with many of the wines including those from Cristom, Dobbes, Ken Wright, Purple Hands, Boedecker, Benton-Lane, Big Table Farm, Domaine Serene, Eyrie, King Estate, Evening Land, Four Graces, Patricia Green, Ponzi, Sineann and a dozen and half or so more. Tasting wine in situ can impart a deeper understanding of the expressions than in an export market. When you walk the vineyards and see the soils, observe the aspects, elevations and relative vine age, meet the proprietors then smell the barrel cellars with a glass in your hand, elements connect with each other, and then in you.
I did not have a drop of Pinot Noir the whole trip. We drove to White Rose up above Archery Summit and took in the panorama. I showed Jay the gnarled vines and we walked and talked red clay soil and planting density, pruning and yield control. Jay is a science teacher with a geography specialty (though is currently heading an art class), so appreciates the details and understands their implications. Jay enjoys wine but it is not his career or passion. When we ordered a bottle we opted for the fuller bodied styles that he likes versus the more delicate Pinot Noirs that I sought out. I did not want to force my obsession and expect him to keep up. Similarly, I had hoped to visit a Stumptown outlet as well as the highly recommended Coava coffee bar, but these didn't materialize.
Late mornings and afternoons took us into the Willamette Valley, up the Oregon coast through the dramatic forests, as well as east into the Columbia River Gorge, a world windsurfing destination. Jay, an avid windsurfer, missed out on surfing the Gorge as it was off-season and the wind wasn't worth the water temperature. Thus, we both missed out on personal passions in a mecca of potential.
But neither of us cared. We were there to spend time together, explore in our own ways, and combine kid conversations with reminiscences and new experiences. We both love the outdoors, exercise, coffee, beer and wine. Our later afternoon wander up Multnomah Falls as well as our drive through the forests went some way toward satisfying our nature cravings while creating gastronomic ones. Amazingly I learned new things about Jay, and the irreverent flavour of craft beer attitude suited our senses of humour such that our regular episodes of abdomen-aching laughter, tears of hilarity, observations of the local culture and our out-of-placeness in it made the whole thing, well, whole.
-Matt Browman
