After we left the Bethel Heights winery we headed for our hotel in Dundee, the Inn at Red Hills. It was about 4:00 pm and we had not had lunch yet. We decided we should have something light since we were going to have a nice dinner later at the Joel Palmer House so we went to the Ponzi Wine Bar. From previous trips we knew we could get a light appetizer and a flight of wine.
I went for the Crostini and Nancy went for the Charcuterie, both were excellent. Along with it Nancy had a flight of five white wines from Ponzi including a Pinot Noir rose. While they were OK, Nancy did not feel any of the wines were anything to get excited about.
I had a flight of three Ponzi Pinot Noirs. The 2009 Tavola Pinot Noir, the 2008 Willamette Valley and the 2008 Willamette Valley Reserve. The Tavola is just what the name implies, a nice everyday drinking wine. The nosed was a little closed but there was plenty of brambly fruit and nice light tannins. The Willamette Valey Pinot Noir stepped it up a bit with a lot more flavor and tannis. It was a little light in the mid palate but had a moderate length finish. The Reserve lived up to it’s name with a nice nose of fruit and spice. The flavor was ripe fruit and spice. A complex wine with a long finish. It spent 20 months in 40% new oak while the previous wines spent 12 months in 30% new oak.
After our snack we went back to the hotel so Nancy could rest up a little for dinner. We went to the Joel Palmer House in Dayton. The chef, Chris Czarnecki and his father Jack, specialize in wild mushrooms. We started off with Joe’s Wild Mushroom soup that was really good. Great mushroom flavor but still a light soup. We both decided on the sautéed scallops with porcini duxelle rice and Creole-pinot gris cream sauce for the main course. To pair with them we had a split of the 2008 Penner Ash Willamette Valley Pinot Noir with them. Pinot always goes well with mushrooms. After that it was back to the hotel and to bed.
