Last Saturday was a our One Year Anniversary and boy did we celebrate! Given our extremely busy schedules, we decided to celebrate at home in wine country instead of traveling out of town. We started the day with a couples massage at The Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg, and I will tell you that it was the perfect way to kick off the weekend.

For those of you who don’t know, The Allison is an upscale hotel that caters to wine lovers and the property is stunning!

If you ever get a chance to visit The Allison, be sure to take your time and explore the property. The Inn feels almost like a trendy art gallery that features artwork made exclusively by local northwest artists. So much eye candy everywhere!

The Spa at The Allison is divine…let’s all take a deep breath…so much relaxation happening here…

The Spa has all sorts of items you can pamper yourself with and I quickly spotted my favorite type of candles on the shelf. Voluspa Candles are the best! I had a hard time resisting the white Eden & Pear candle, it smelled like a pear scented fall day just after a fresh rain.

I also couldn’t help but spot this neat “honey soap” from Switzerland. Who wouldn’t want an Apiana Pure Honey bar of soap?

After our amazing hour long massage, I headed out to the courtyard while The Renaissance Man enjoyed some extra relaxation in the steam room.

My man loves the heat! I on the other hand can hardly last fives seconds in a steam room.

After the Spa, we decided to eat brunch at The Allison in their restaurant Jory, aptly named for our well known “Jory Soil.” It seemed like almost everything on the menu was either a seasonal item or locally sourced, just another perk of living in the Willamette Valley.

For brunch I couldn’t resist the House-Smoked Salmon, which was served with a bloody mary marmalade, picked onions, and capers. The herbed cream cheese was so flavorful, and at the end of my meal the only thing left standing was some extra cream cheese. I will actively be looking for an excuse to go back and have this dish again!

The Renaissance Man enjoyed the Wood-Grilled “Pinot” Burger, and I made a point to sneak a few french fries. The fries were freshly cut and seasoned with spices that made my mouth water. Good thing I ordered the salmon, otherwise I probably would have eaten this entire pile of fries.

From The Allison, we headed to Beckham Estate Vineyard. The Renaissance Man has a special personal connection to Beckham Estates (his college advisor was Dr. Stephen Dow Beckham), so it was neat to finally visit the family vineyard. We’ve been enjoying the Beckham Olivia’s Pinot Noir Rosé down at Red Hills Market all Spring and we both were looking forward to trying their Sophia’s Pinot Noir, Dow’s Pinot Noir, and Estate Pinot Noir. 

The Renaissance Man quickly started up a conversation with the winemaker’s wife Annedria and learned that they would be harvesting some of their fruit the following morning. Like I’ve mentioned recently in other posts, we’ve had a super hot summer and the grapes have ripened earlier than ever. I wouldn’t be surprised if almost everyone brings in their fruit before the end of September.

In addition to making wine, Annedria’s husband Andrew is also an accomplished artist who works with ceramics. The combination of his two passions has spurred a fascinating project that’s getting quite a bit of national attention. Andrew has been making homemade amphorae to ferment the grapes in during the wine making process. He was recently featured in Wine & Spirit’s February 2014 magazine pictured below, and his project has also received write ups from Forbes and Wine Searcher.

Since Annedria happened to have an open bottle, The Renaissance Man and I were lucky enough to taste the 2013 A.D. Beckham Amphora Pinot Noir. What a unique flavor and experience! The wine was light and airy, but with such wonderful earth flavors. I have a feeling this is going to turn out to be much more than “a project,” and I’m excited knowing that I had a chance to do a tasting at the very beginning!

Please excuse me, I just love taking pictures of grapes this time of year! They’re like amethyst gems on the vine.

Our last stop of the day was at Alexana Winery. Since I tend to like white wine, our neighbor recommended that we try out Alexana’s Riesling. And it certainly was worth the trip!

In addition to fantastic wine, Alexana has such a neat tasting room. On one side is the tasting bar, check out the layers of soil on the front of the bar. How cool is that?

And on the other side of the tasting room is a window into the working winery. You can see pallets of boxed wine, barrels, fermentation tanks, and all of the pieces were in motion! It felt like I had a window into the “wine hive.”

They were even pouring grapes into the de-stemmer while we were doing our tasting.

A few bottles of the Riesling were purchased during our visit to stow away and open on a rainy day.

The Renaissance Man and I both had a wonderful day celebrating our anniversary in wine country. It was such a beautiful day spent relaxing, eating wonderful food, meeting new people, and tasting some of the best wine around. We sure are lucky to live in the heart of Oregon Wine Country!

Our weekend of celebration was topped off on Sunday morning with quite the high flying adventure. Stay tuned for a recap in my next post. Cheers!