IPNC Northwest Salmon Bake Dinner

The second half of Day Two at IPNC followed a similar sequence to Day One, with several seminars, special pourings, alfresco tastings, and dinner.

Mid-afternoon, I dropped by a book signing featuring Tyler Colman, Ph.D., a.k.a. Dr. Vino, and several other authors. Tyler, whom I met earlier in the day, publishes a popular wine blog and has recently released a new book entitled, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. I am looking forward to reading Tyler's book, which combines two of my favorite topics.

Along with the book signing, there were several seminars taking place as well as a small tasting event featuring special bottlings from a select group of producers. All of this was followed by a larger, tasting event on the lawn featuring the second group of winemakers attending IPNC. These "alfresco tastings" provided a great opportunity to meet and chat with dozens of winemakers from around the world. Most were pouring recent releases, but there were a few that offered a taste of something under the table.

For me, tasting events are all about previewing a wine that I might consider purchasing at retail. You will not see me reviewing or rating wines from tasting events, as I don't think it offers a fair assessment of the wines being poured. It is really hard for a wine to show well when you're outside, blazing through dozens of pours, and tasting them without food.

My goal at tasting events is to identify those bottles that would be fun to serve during dinner. Those that make it my table you will eventually see written up in the What I Drank With Dinner (WIDWD) feature in the "Wine" section of BeyondtheBottle.com. I look forward to sharing these experiences with you, which will include stories when I met the winemaker at IPNC.

During the alfresco tasting event, I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Jamie Goode, a wine writer and blogger, who recently published, The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass, a book that is on my reading list. Jamie shares his experiences at the IPNC weekend and a variety of Oregon winery visits on his blog, which is worth checking out.

After the tasting, everyone headed over the Northwest Salmon Bake dinner event, which IPNC sells extra tickets for folks not attending the full weekend. As you approached the venue, the smell and sounds of burning Alder wood gave way to this amazing site of a long, flaming pit with wild king salmon fillets cooking on Alder stakes around the perimeter of the fire. It was an amazing site to see.

I had the privilege of celebrating dinner again with my newfound friend, Dustin, who I had met on Thursday night at Lemelson. This was Dustin's sixth IPNC in the last seven years. His knowledge of wine in general and pinot noir in particular was astounding. Dustin guided me through a lot of the wines we were drinking, which provided a ton of useful context. And it was a pleasure being introduced to the many folks Dustin knows at IPNC.

Dustin and I were joined by Andrew Turner, manager of the Ponzi Wine Bar in Dundee, who had dined with us the previous night. For the salmon bake, Andrew brought a magnum of the 1998 Ponzi Abetina Vineyard Pinot Noir. It was very generous of Andrew to share this special wine with us. That magnum clearly set the stage for much of what was to come. As we enjoyed our salmon and other dishes served buffet style, a constant flow of pinot noir bottles arrived at our table, with most being from Oregon producers.

After dinner, we walked around to some of the surrounding tables to exchange hellos and trade tastes. One of the best stops was at the Domain Drouhin Oregon (DDO) table, where I had the opportunity to chat again with Aaron Bell (cellarmaster) and David Millman (managing director). I had met both of these guys during Friday's vineyard tour and lunch at DDO. The generous hospitality they each showed then was on rich display again Saturday night, as they offered tastes of DDO vintages going back to the early 90's.

Like the night before, it was over the top in terms of the number of wines being poured. But similar to the previous evening, the wine brought us together around the table to celebrate a meal, but it was the people that made it truly special. The people of Oregon wine country are some of the finest I have ever met in the industry. I can't wait to come back to the Willamette Valley and hope you'll pay a visit soon.

P.S. Stay tuned in the coming week for a post script on my overall experience at IPNC.

Pre-IPNC Winery Dinner
IPNC: Day One, Part One
IPNC: Day One, Part Two
IPNC: Day Two, Part One