SIRI VIK IN CONCERT at MarshAnne Landing Winery

Greg and Fran hope you can join them for a fabulous evening of Cabaret songs when the amazing voice of Siri Vik presents La Vie Boheme at MarshAnne Landing!!

LA VIE BOHEME!

SIRI VIK IN CONCERT

@

MarshAnne Landing Winery

Saturday August 9^th 7:30 PM

The incomparable voice and theater of Siri Vik returns with a revue of favorites from her one-woman cabaret concerts.   Joining Siri is pianist and arranger Dario LaPoma.  Early jazz, Piaf chanson, German theater music of Kurt Weil, timeless standards as well as modern pop covers will provide a multi-colored intimate evening full of atmosphere.  Siri’s stories will bridge the distance between us and music of other times and other places.

Come “Like” Siri in another wonderful concert at MarshAnne Landing!

Due to limited seating , advanced reservations are required. 

Admission $30 includes abundant appetizers.  541-459-7998

 

Terrific Article by Katherine Cole

 Katherine Cole  just wrote a great article about second acts in both life and wine:

Is there anything more tantalizing than a personal reinvention narrative? We can't resist tales of tarnished playboys polishing off their images. And we can't help but cheer (or leer?) when our favorite musician, actor, comedian, porn star or pro wrestler breaks into politics.
The wine industry is a stage cluttered with second acts. For aging TV stars and quarterbacks, a vanity wine label is de rigueur these days. As for hands-on winemakers, their backgrounds tend to run the gamut. I can think of vintners who came to Oregon wine from the forest service, modern dance, sculptor, ceramics and engineering, just off the top of my head.
And, of course, the Venn diagram between winery ownership and past careers in finance or medicine is awfully thick in the middle. Where in Portland, "Where did you move here from?" is standard-issue cocktail conversation, its wine-country equivalent is, "What did you used to do?" Read the entire article here

A La Main

 I had the honor of creating the label for A La Main, one of the wines she talks about along with Elizabeth Chambers Cellar, Silvan Ridge, Ghost Hill Cellars, and Gypsy Dancer.

IPNC Does it Again!

It was a very pleasant day at IPNC. Got to see lots of friends from the wine industry, Bethany Ford and Lowell Ford from Illahe Vineyards, Maria Czamanske Stuart of R. Stuart & Co. Winery and Wine Bar, Melissa Burr of Stoller Family Estate, Scott Wright of Scott Paul, Carol Girard of Benton-Lane Winery Sue and Terry Brandborg of Brandborg Winery and many many more. The tasting was again eye opening, proving what I have known from years of watching and tasting the wines of Oregon as they developed a very specific character of their own, laughingly referred to as Oregundian...The California wines, with the exception of couple of the higher elevation north coast wines, were all one note wines, blessed by the sun with bright fruit and little else. The German (Weingut Dr. Heger, Villa Wolf ), Argentine (Bodega Chacra), and Italian (J. Hofstatter) wines, while all VERY different, were a good measure of how this wonderful grape can play in all kind of fields and still win. So many great wines! I wish there were a way to decant prior to the tastings as I know that after a few more minutes in the air, given time to awake, these wine would put smiles on many more faces. All the food was wonderful and I was pleased to see the people from RYE there with cold soup and hand made chocolate treats. RYE is next to the Gallery at the Watershed where I am curator.
If you love Pinot Noir or just want to know more about it, IPNC is the place to go.

Tom Bergeron Brasil Band

Tom Bergeron Brasil Band

At

MarshAnne Landing Winery

7:30 PM Saturday July 19

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Come enjoy a summer evening of traditional and contemporary sambas, bossa novas, and original tunes.  The sextet consists of master saxophonist Tom Bergeron; singer and native of Rio de Janeiro Rosi Bergeron; pianist Cassion Vianna- also from Rio; guitarist Don Latarski; bassist Page Hundemer; and Portland based drummer Jason Palmer.

Brasil Band plays an eclectic range of Brazilian styles: the virtuosic instrumental choro that was popular in the early 20th Century, the romantic song-samb from the 30's and 40's, the sultry bossa nova, lively contemporary hits, original compostions, and the shake your booty style samba popular today in Rio's trendy Lapa district.  Bergeron's 40+ years of research and performance of Brazilian music promises a great evening from a different time and place!

The performance will take place on the deck overlooking the vineyard and the valley beyond.

Admission $25 includes abundant appetizers.  The audience is encouraged to arrive 30 minutes prior to the concert in order to sample wine, appetizers, and meet and greet other concert goers.

Reservations are required due to limited seating.  Information and tickets: 541-459-7998

Very FINE Wine

One of Oregon's best winemakers is still selling her '07 and '10 1789 Pinot noir. This wine is so amazingly good that I am very surprised there is any left but she is a one person operation and has no time for advertizing and PR.

Her own words: I have been a French woman winemaker for 28 years.
After studying winemaking for 5 years at the University of Bourgogne, France, I then worked for 12 years at Joseph Drouhin in Beaune Burgundy France.
In 1993 I started making wine in Oregon and commuted back and forth many times per year between Oregon and France.
I am currently the winemaker for De Ponte Cellars in the Dundee Hills, Oregon and have been since their first vintage in 2001.

1789 is my first label and 2007 the first release.
The name comes from the French Revolution.
The wine is the symbol of my personal revolution:
the move of my family from the South of France to the Oregon Wine Country.

I am really proud of this new child
and hope you will enjoy the wine as much as I enjoyed making it. Isabelle Dutartre 
WINEMAKER

Do yourself a huge favor and go to her site, read about the wines, and order at least one of the '07 Pinot noir. You will thank me. Click here for her site.

Gins I Have Discovered in Oregon

A few years ago I started paying attention to Gin, not drinking a lot of it but rather, tasting a lot of it. My wife never enjoyed any sort of hard liquor so wine was the choice at our house most of the time, then on a trip to Ashland all that changed. We were having lunch at Wren, a restaurants associated with Ashland Springs Hotel and saw they had a huge back bar with lots of different Gins. We came back later and the bartender gave us samples of each one to taste. They ranged from Hendricks to Boodles and from English to Oregonian.
At the time Organic Nation and Aviation were the only Oregon Gins they carried.
Here is a link to an article describing Aviation and other gins, and one more from Oregon, New Deal Portland Dry Gin: #4 Aviation Gin (84 proof) – From the moment you smell the nose of Aviation Gin, you know you’re in for something different. There’s definitely juniper and pine on the nose but it’s backed up with soft sweet orange, lush lavender, and earthy cardamom. The entry is soft and round, delivering a beautiful wide botanical medley of flavors. Juniper is there but cardamom is (More)
We have settled on one Gin as the constant house gin, Sapphire, but I bring home a new one every chance I get. Last night we tried a brand new one:Aria Portland Dry Gin. It is light and simply aromatic, that is to say that it is not complex but rather soft and subtle. Each botanical ads its own layer but none overpower. It is one of the best Gins I have ever tasted.
A friend had me taste a gin made by Ransom out of Sheridan and I was pleased with the taste and aroma though something about the mouthfeel struck me as odd. It has a tiny amount of stick to the mouth-ness that after I tasted it again I began to enjoy, Long finish!
They also make two other gins that are very different from the Portland dry gins but are amazing in their own way. I recommend tasting the Old Tom. They make a dry gin and it leans a bit to the Holland style (on purpose).
Here is a nice explanation of the styles of gin courtesy of Bend Distillery:
There are many styles of gin (almost endless), so let us slim down the field to three styles: English/London Dry style, American style, and Dutch/Holland Genever style.

English/London Dry-style Gin

English/London Dry-style gin is made using neutral grain spirits. The juniper and other botanicals (such as lemon, anise, almond, cinnamon, saffron, frankincense, coriander, cucumber, and cassia bark to name a very few) are introduced during re-distillation in a “gin basket”. This type of gin cannot contain added sweetening in order to retain its dry quality and is usually a high proof (from 80 to 95 proof).

American-style Gin

American-style gin is also made from neutral grain spirits, but the juniper and botanicals are added after distillation as an infusion. This type of gin has many names, such as compound gin, bathtub gin, and cowboy gin. American-style gins are also high-proof (from 80 to 95 proof). This is the style of Crater Lake Gin at 95 proof.

Dutch/Holland-style Genever

Dutch/Holland-style Genever is the earliest style of gin. It is distilled from barley malt and other grains, then the juniper and botanicals are added. Sometimes it is aged in wood barrels, which gives it a resemblance to whiskey. Genever usually has a lower proof (from 60 to 80 proof).

They make a Crater Lake Gin that has a really nice vanilla finish and is a great sipping gin as well as a mixer. 

For further reading about types of gin and some interesting reading jump here.

Another gin that has been around since '97 and is an old favorite is  Desert Juniper Hand Crafted American Gin.

This one is made in Bend with local ingredients and is a real winner. Read  the review done by Chris Carlsson  for more insite.

  Some I have yet to taste but look interesting:
Spruce Gin by Rogue
Pink Spruce Gin also by Rogue 
Cascade Mountain Gin (made by Bendistillery) 
New Deal Dry Gin 33 
Merrylegs Genever 
Vivacity's Native Gin and Banker's Gin
 Still more to follow!