2020 was a tough vintage for many West Coast winemakers. But for the two women in charge of growing grapes and making wine at the 80-acre biodynamic Johan Vineyards in Rickreall, Oregon, the twin challenges of COVID-19 and wildfire smoke played out against the...
It’s tough to beat wine country. Between the sweeping vistas of vine-lined hills, the feeling of departure from everyday life and the opportunity to entertain temporary country manor fantasies, what’s not to like? Well, the driving, for one thing. Anybody who’s...
Southeast Portland’s Scotch Lodge is all about the whisky. Its name should give you your first clue. If you miss that, there are other signals. Saunter down the dimly lit stairs and through the heavy velvet drapes into the romantic, vintage-cued dining room and...
Before he was a winemaker, Thomas Houseman was a professional modern dancer. While leaps, twists, and chasses are only rarely required in the cellar, his second career still gives him ample opportunities to practice that rarest of virtues: grace. Over the...
As the sun dips behind a neat row of Pinot Noir vines at Beckham Estate Vineyard, my dining companion turned to me. "Almost nobody grows Belgian endive in the United States," she says, scooping a tangle of endive and baby kale tossed in a creamy dressing onto her...
Chef Althea Potter sets a low-slung handmade ceramic bowl on the table, straightens and says in a tone of voice typically reserved for cats, puppies and new babies: “Aren’t those carrots just so adorable?” And they are. No thicker than a pencil yet perfectly...
It’s Valentine’s Day. Instead of awkwardly munching our way through an overpriced tasting menu of oysters, steak and molten chocolate cake, my husband and I are embroiled in a vigorous discussion about the finer points of grappa distillation with a local winemaker...
It’s Friday morning at 9 a.m. Instead of phoning into a meeting or hitting reply on my tenth email of the day, I’m sinking happily into a collarbone-deep, five-foot-long cast-iron bathtub in my room at Headlands Coastal Lodge & Spa. Out the window to my right,...
There’s a lot about making beverages that seems a little bit magical. Add a dash of yeast to humble ingredients like grain or fruit, wait a few weeks (or months, even years) and presto: you’ve created something with the potential to transport, inspire and astound....
Not every married 30-something likes to take trips with their mother, but I do. She’s an easygoing, seasoned traveler with a good sense of humor and a willingness to go with the flow, which means she’s the perfect on-the-road companion. But she tends to take things...
