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Westrey Wines |
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We've always liked the Westrey wines. This past year has seen their quality go up while their prices went down. Westrey has four amazing, under $30 Pinot noirs including three from old-vine vineyards, arguably the best 08 Oregon Pinot gris, plus fantastic Chardonnay. Their dedication to the Oregon wine community and their commitment to honest wines at modest prices have earned them Avalon's Winery of the Year. Matt Kramer’s column in the Oregonian (8-9-09) praises Westrey’s 2008 Pinot gris $15.95/$14.35: “A really good pinot gris is dry, has a succulent, dense texture and delivers scents and tastes of honeydew, white peach and citrus notes. This 2008 bottling hits all the right notes. A blend of three Willamette Valley vineyards — Sheppard (63 percent); Oracle (22 percent) and Abbey Ridge (15 percent) — this is Oregon-grown pinot gris as it ought to be. Serve with all sorts of fish dishes (including salmon), as well as rich, spicy preparations such as Indian and Thai curries. It’s a standout deal at $15.95 a bottle.” - Matt Kramer Avalon sent the Westrey 2008 Pinot gris to our Wine Club in our June/July shipment. About Westrey WinesWestrey Wines is David Autry and Amy Wesselman, and their young twin sons. Theirs is a serious wine collector's winery, with Burgundian influences and an emphasis on ageable, classic wines made to pair with fine cuisine. The wines are approachable when released and are so well made, some continue to drink well for a decade. David and Amy are winemakers to the core. You might say that, as much as they chose wine, wine chose them. Their first harvests in Oregon were 1989 for David and 1991 for Amy, and both winemakers bring a deep understanding of the seasons, the soils, the terroir, and the unique grape growing and winemaking conditions of the Willamette Valley to their craft. They really love the whole thing - all aspects of grape growing and winemaking - they embrace the entire process. The end product is important, but it's not the be all end all. The beauty of their work is not necessarily any one bottle, but the stops along the road. Vintage after vintage, there's something told, something different - a subtle variation, a radical change in direction. Westrey's first vintage was in 1993, and they continue to operate out of a plain cement building down a gravel road in McMinnville. The scenery is of cell phone and powerline towers, with a bit of railroad added for even more industrial flavor. Out of such unlikely quarters come some quite superb wines.
Westrey owns Oracle Vineyard. Its white wine grapes show a pronounced minerality, inherent to the Draper Clone (with which it is planted). Its red wine grapes (Pinot noir) show floral rose petal in the nose, and crushed red fruit flavors on the palate. Oracle is a cooler site, higher up on the hill than other vineyards in the area, and is predominantly Jory soil. Maresh and Weber Vineyards are on the other side of the hill from Oracle, and Le Pavillon and Clos Electrique Vineyards are lower than Oracle. David & Amy's Wines
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