I can't believe it but Uncruise let us down again. I had coffee in the lounge
until it was time to go to breakfast. We went down to the dining room and sat
with Karon amd Phil. They forgot about our table so when we inquired, Jessica
the Hotle Manager served us coffee but no one took our order. We were able to
flag down Emma who helped but then the food never came out. People who came
fter us were finished eating and had left lready. For breakfast I had the
omelet and bacon which was quite good. We got on the buses and headed out into
the Williamette Valley. Our first stop was at Archer Vineyards, a tiny family
owned high quality Pinot Grower. The entire staff gave us a warm welcome. The
owner spoke to us and then later wandered around with us as we enjoyed the
outdoor patio and the field of ripening Pinot Noir grapes. He poured us several
glasses of a wine he made in honor of his Mother. It was quite good. The
winery also provided trays of chacuterie with meats and cheese, dried fruit and
nuts. We then loaded up the bus and went out into the country to the fanciest
of them all, Domaine Serene. Wow, this was like a fine country club. The
tasting room was gorgeous. We took a tour first, down 4 floors to the barrel
storage then slowly made our way up to the pressing and fermenting operations
receiving a tasting along each step of the way. We ended up upstairs in their
large dining area where a lunch buffet of a delicious salad and a turkey
sandwich with lettuce and peach jam was the lunch. A small square of chocolate
blueberry bar was dessert. Of course we had this with a nice Pinot the servers
kept going around keeping our wine glass full in addition to the water glasses.
We took a look at the new tasting room which looked like a fine restaurant.
Tastings in their started at $40. Wow. We then headed back to Portland in
some pretty heavy traffic. We packed our suitcases and then at dinner time had
the final dinner together, named the Captains dinner. I had the short ribs in a
reduction sauce with some broccolini. It was quite good. A glass of Triple
threat which is a red blend accompanied dinner. They first poured a Cabernet
which was bad. It had the aroma of nail polish. Our wine host April then made
an announcement that this was a flawed batch. We stayed with the triple threat
blend. Dessert was supposed to be a Tiramisu but it was a chocolate layer cake.
We also had a glass of chocolate liquour apertif after dinner. This was glass
number 92 of the week. I skipped glass 93 which was champagne because I could
not drink anymore wine. The champagne did not taste like a good wine, it was a
little tart. The tartness combined with not wanting anymore wine was why i did
not drink it or count it in my pour count. After dinner Caltain Lyman played
his guitar. Atlanta sang 2 songs for us. her voice is beautiful. The captain
played some standard covers then played some original songs he wrote. We bought
the CD of his songs which was $15.