A perfect autumn day

After several days of horizontal rain, Black Friday produced blue skies, fluffy clouds, and cool autumnal sunshine.  We started the day with a dog walk around the block. The fallen leaves glowed in the early morning light, dotted with jewel-like drops.  It was clearly going to be a gorgeous day, and we had wine waiting for us at Torii Mor and David Hill wineries.  It took awhile to get our show on the road, but by 2 pm we were Yamhill County-bound to pick up our wine.

We decided to take the route via Champoeg, and we missed our turnoff.  So, we found ourselves in Salem, looking for 221 northbound.  Fortunately, it was still a lovely drive, with an empty winding road, pumpkin-filled fields, hazy multicolored hillsides, and reflective waters.

Torii Mor was having a Thanksgiving Weekend party, and they had erected a large tent behind the tasting room, complete with space heaters, music, tables, and cheese and crackers.  The wines were the usual high quality, and I had a fun conversation with the field enologist, a retired French military man in his late 40s.  He was born in the western Languedoc area, so we spent a lot of time comparing our impressions of French wines.  The wine-maker was also French, but they were very different.  He was short and grey, with male pattern baldness, while the enologist was taller than D, with a thick head of hair and a gift of gab.  But the wine-maker talked D into buying a discounted case of wine, so we have spent our food budget for next month.

Fortunately, we have plenty of food in the freezer.