Yeaster

Whenever I go on a road-trip to the good ole USA, I have to try out the very latest flavor of Doritos. I look for something that will tantalize ever single one of my taste buds and this time I was not disappointed. I like the spark of buffalo wings and the sourness of ranch - putting them together in a chip is an excellent idea. The above bag was gone in seconds.
Can you believe it - six artificial colors!!! Thank you Frito-Lay for keeping North Americans nice and plump. We could not do it without you!

Phew what a rant!! I’m obviously bitter because I gained weight over the Yeaster weekend
although I have no-one but myself to blame.

We love the Willamette valley, land of some of the best Pinot Noirs known to man. In fact my break through Pinot Noir was made by Ken Wright who is known for putting Oregon Pinots on the map. I had high hopes to purchase another bottle from Ken Wright Cellars - that was not meant to be, but we did taste some lovely wines.

We spent Saturday afternoon with my cousin Tara and her husband Glen. We went to four wineries in all- starting in Dundee at the Ponzi wine Bar. We had the most delicious sandwiches, made at the adjoining Dundee Bistro, which is owned by the Ponzi family. The sandwiches are simple - freshly baked ciabatta breads with gorgeous meats and cheeses. Accompanied by a flight of Oregon Syrahs, there could be no better option for lunch. Adam and I enjoyed these sandwiches a year ago at the start of our Oregon/Californian vacation. We’ve talked about them a lot since then. It may seem odd that we would discuss sandwiches for a year, but we love food and they were memorable. As it turns out the cured meats came from somewhere in Vancouver BC.

Our next designation was Domaine Serene, a fairly new winery which is putting out stellar Pinot Noirs. The April 2007 edition of the Wine Spectator did an article on Ken and Grace Evenstand; a couple from Minnesota who came out west with the intention of making Pinot Noirs that would be in the same league as French Burgundies. The fact that they owned a pharmaceutical firm in Minnesota helped them to finance their Oregon Winery. Interestingly enough Ken Wright was their first wine maker. Their wines are now being made by Tony Rynders and can fetch up to $200.00 for a bottle - the most expensive price for a bottle of Oregon wine. We were not tasting wines of this caliber, but they were mighty good just the same. We did purchase a bottle of 2003 Rockblock Syrah for $48.00- this is going to be a smashing bottle of wine - in a year or two. Since 1998, Domaine Serene has produced over two dozen wines scoring 90 points or higher on Wine Spectator’s 100 point rating scale.

The tasting room at Domaine Serene is the best part of the winery. The huge room, complete with fireplace and big tables has massive beautiful wooden beams running across the ceilings - very cool. Unfortunately the rest of the mansion/winery is done in that faux - Italian look - so cheesy! If you had millions of dollars to buy vineyards and build a grand estate why go gaudy? All of us agreed that a beautifully designed west - coast cedar estate would have been a better choice. The canary-yellow castle stands out like an eyesore from several miles away, as it is at the top of the hill- it left a bad taste in my mouth- but the wines did not.

more on Yeaster weekend next time

25lbs lost- a gain of 3 lbs.. actually it was a gain of 5 lbs because before the weekend I was actually down 30lbs....GRRRRRR!!!!!