Penner Ash Review and Kason Vineyards Quickie

After seeing a photograph of the view from Penner-Ash on the news one evening, we decided to pay them a visit on Saturday. Our first stop, however, was the farmer’s market. We saw some beautiful fall flower arrangements, but we were on a mission: picking up some cheese, meat, and bread for a fall wine tasting outing.

Here’s a brief review of the tasting at Penner-Ash:

 

2013 Oregon Viognier: Wonderful aroma, pale color. White peach, pear, and honeydew melon. Slightly sweet for my taste. At the recommendation of the server, we took our tasting outside and settled into one of their comfy Adirondack chairs. 

 

2013 Oregon Roséo: Pretty pink color, nice aroma. Strawberry, spiced tea, hibiscus, raspberry. Overall very nice and well balanced. On this pour, I got the remainder of the bottle, so a bit extra, and I savored it slowly over the fantastic view.  

2012 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir: Beautiful color and great aroma. Cherry, bramble, green tea, vanilla. Soft palate, excellent balance, gentle sneak attack of dryness after swallowing, very nice complexity. My favorite in the tasting.  

2012 Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir: Nice color; plum, vanilla, blackberry, and rose petal. This pinot is more plummy and slightly sweeter than the Shea. Ever so slight hint of tobacco. Nice complexity.

2012 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir: Another one with good color and scent. Oak, dark cherries, Asian spice. Stronger tannins than the other two pinots, tasty, but less well balanced.

Since this visit put us in Yamhill County, we couldn’t go home without popping over to Kason. Steve was working the tractor, having just completed harvesting some chardonnay grapes. 

He had to run them over to Bald Peak, so we gave him a wave, and missed his charm while we sipped on pinot. Look at that winning smile!

We pulled out our Willamette Valley chive and pepper cheese, Olympic Provisions salami, and farmer’s market crusty wheat. Ah, a blissful Saturday indeed.

Ty's Red - in a word, Wow.

So the hubs and I were doing our annual Sonoma area trip a few weeks back, and we had a little time to kill before meeting friends. We pull the rental car into this nondescript strip mall because the hubs says he saw a sign for a tasting room. In an office-parky strip mall? Yep. If ever a place lived up to the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, this was it.

The tasting room was modest, but the host was friendly and knowledgeable. Two makers share the room – Muscardini and Ty Caton. Both had some phenomenal wines. Ty's are sustainable. What a score!

One of the less expensive options was this fabulous red, called simply, Ty’s Red. It doesn’t need a gimmicky name when it’s this good. It’s a red blend of syrah, merlot, cab and petite sirah.

The 2009 Ty’s Red has a beautiful deep plum color and red fruits on the nose. I picked up Bing cherry, grass, and minerals. It has a velvety texture with a rich mouth feel that slowly builds with tannins, dark fruits like blackberry and some spice. In a word, wow. Two words: buy some.  We also fell in love with the Tytanium that day, but you’ll have to wait for a special occasion for that review!

Madonna Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, 2002, Carneros Region

Madonna Estate is in the Napa Valley, with a friendly-staffed tasting room. The color of this cab is a deep plum-red. They’re reportedly organically grown with southern exposure. The aromas are bright and herbal. It has a structured mouth feel with medium to light tannins. If you like cabernets that aren’t overly fruity, this is a good choice. It’s very well balanced with red fruits, spice, clay and wood. The finish isn’t as long as some cabs, but it’s pleasantly mellow.