As the Hood River Chamber of Commerce winds up its two-month Winter Getaway promotion, you still have a chance to win.
If you entered previously, you’re already in the running for this week’s prize – two nights at the Gorge B&B, and tastings for two at the Full Sail Brew Pub and Springhouse Cellar.
Interested? Just go to the Chamber web site to sign up. FYI, prize packages need not be taken in the winter.
Good luck!
If one of our guests has a hankering for a great glass of wine, they could almost fall out the front door of the Hood River Hotel and hit a tasting room.
One of our favorites is that of Springhouse Cellar. It’s the first winery in Oregon to promote use of refillable bottles by its regular, local customers (it may be the first to do this anywhere, but we haven’t checked). A one-liter refillable sells for the same price as one of its traditional 750 ml wine bottles. The first purchase includes the $5 cost of the bottle.
It’s no wonder the refillables have been a huge success: More wine, less money, no waste.
Winemaker Carey Kienitz fills one of Springhouse Cellar's reusable wine bottles.
Tucked two blocks from the front door of the Hood River Hotel, at the far east end of the parking lot that also serves the Mt. Hood Railroad, the tasting room fronts a large meeting space. Anchoring a lower level are the winery and an outdoor patio area surrounded by concrete walls. As lore has it, the walls were once the foundation of the Hood River Distillers.
It’s a great space for group events, sitting outside, sipping wine under the summer sky, sheltered from the prevailing westerly breezes.
And what wine. Winemaker Carey Kienitz crafts something for every palate. These days, the lineup includes a chardonnay and a sauvignon blanc on the white side, and five reds — a pinot noir, the Ruins Red blend (dominated by sangiovese), a syrah, cabernet sauvignon and petit sirah.
Wine lovers enjoy tables on the front patio of Springhouse Cellar.
“We can also do custom blends for weddings and other events,” says Trina Riemersma, marketing manager.
Kienitz says his goal is to celebrate the diversity of the grapes grown in the Columbia Gorge. He says this approach has led him to release wines reflective of the different climate zones north and south, east and west along the big river.
Cool climate wines would include German (Alsatian) styles and Oregon’s favorite Burgundian, pinot noir; moderate climate varietals such as sauvignon blanc and syrah; and warm climate wines such as viognier and cabernet.
The facility supports a busy event schedule, ranging from presentations by local nonprofits to family get-togethers and parties. Looking to booking? Contact events manager Angel Green.
We occasionally will hear people cop the disparaging attitude that you can’t find good wines in the Gorge. Huh? Have they … LOOKED? We disagree, strongly, but maybe that’s because we’ve actually tasted Gorge wines, instead of assuming that they couldn’t possibly compare with something bearing the Napa-Sonoma-Mendocino-Willamette Valley-Walla Walla stamps. To the snobs, we say, Get over yourselves — and have a glass.
When guests ask us about wine tasting in the Gorge, we like to suggest approaching it as a wine grower would … as clusters. For starters, there’s the ground zero cluster. Hood River now has seven wine tasting rooms downtown. Within walking distance of the Hood River Hotel, BTW.
Across Oak Avenue lies the Quenett tasting room. Turn left at 2nd Street and go one block to The Pines 1852 tasting room. Turn right at 2nd and go one block to the Naked Winery Tasting room. Continue west on Oak half a block to the Cascade Cliffs tasting room. Another block brings you to the Cerulean tasting room. Two more blocks west and a block south bring you to the Stoltz tasting room. Head a block north and walk east through the Mt. Hood Railroad parking lot, and you reach the Springhouse Cellar tasting room.
Did we miss anyone? Yikes, they’re like mushrooms — popping up all over the place.
But we’re not done. Grab the car keys and head south — to the valley cluster. (This is where we stop including individual links; get the full list at the web site of the Columbia Gorge Wine Growers Association). It includes Cathedral Ridge on the west side of town, Phelps Creek farther west, Marchesi Vineyards a bit south, Pheasant Valley farther south, and Wy’east, Mt. Hood and Viento out along Oregon 35 toward the east side of the valley.
Head across the Columbia River into Washington, and you have a whole different scene. The Underwood Mountain cluster includes AniChe, Ziegler and Gorge Crest. Head east and you first hit the Lyle cluster — a collaborative group that calls itself “the young guns of the old highway.” Yes, they’re young. Yes, they’re gunning for your tastebuds. They include James Mantone of Syncline, Luke Bradford of COR, Brian McCormick of Memaloose, and Alexis Pouillon of Domaine Pouillon. The Lyle area also includes the Bordeaux reds of Jacob Williams.
Jacob Williams is consolidating its facilities farther east, out near the Cascade Cliffs winery, and not quite as far out as Maryhill and Waving Tree.
That’s the list. Then you check out the wines. And the awards they’re winning. And what the stuff actually tastes like in the glass. And you wonder why anyone who purports to love wine wouldn’t just love living here, where the stuff is rockin’ the glass, brah. Just sayin’.
