Domaine Drouhin Oregon

The vineyards at Domaine Drouhin Oregon.


The view from the porch just off the tasting room.


At long last I finally got to visit my first West Coast winery, Domaine Drouhin Oregon, on Saturday. The state has more than 400 wineries, so it was tough to choose which one to visit -- if I had been traveling on my own, I could have spent a few weeks wandering from tasting room to tasting room. But we only had time for one. Drouhin was a name I recognized from wine class last year, and their French wines have been reliably good, so I figured I couldn't go wrong.
The winery sits on a 200-acre farm (about 120 are vineyards) in Dayton, Ore., and it was a crisp, sunny day for a drive through the rolling hills. The tasting room was pouring three wines for $10, so I bellied up to the bar. The 2008 Chardonnay Arthur was buttery, not too woody, and refreshing, with pleasant acidity. Half the wine is aged in oak, half in steel before it's blended, so it has classic Chardonnay notes without belting you in the face. A bottle is $30.
Next was the 2008 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley ($20), which had a slightly skunky aroma. It was tannic and loamy -- it could use a little age to take the edge off.
Last was the 2006 Pinot Noir Laurene Cuvee, the definite champion of the day, and why not, at $65 a bottle? (Bought one; wanted a case.) It spent 14 months mellowing in the barrel, and the result is a balanced, silky wine with notes of rainwater and a distinct earthiness. Drouhin made 2,500 cases of the Laurene, and the bartender told me they expect to sell out within a month. That's one aspect of wine that I love: here today, gone tomorrow. Enjoy it, because you might never experience that wine again.