All language subtitles for V.is.for.Vino.S02E01.Oregon.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB

Welcome to Oregon.

Vince: People are flocking here in droves

and for good reason.

Mountains and rivers, bridges and gorges,

countrysides and city skylines.

If you want it, Oregon has it.

But what really sets Oregon
apart is it's commitment

to the environment and it's preservation.

That passion and dedication
bleeds into the people,

the food and of course, the wine.

Welcome to "V is for Vino".

Let's watch, learn and drink.

Welcome to season two.

Cheers.

The most well known wine region in Oregon

is Willamette Valley on the west side of the state.

So that's where we're starting.

I'm here in downtown McMinnville.

A town in the heart of the Willamette Valley

about an hour southwest of downtown Portland.

The Willamette Valley spans a
150 miles from north to south.

And it's actually home to about 70%

of Oregon's total population.

It includes Portland, Eugene and Salem.

This area of the country is so fertile

it was promised as the land of milk and honey

back in the 19th century.

It was the final destination
of the famed Oregon Trail.

You remember the Oregon Trail, don't ya'?

Nowadays the words Willamette Valley

are more synonymous with the wine growing region,

or Willamette Valley AVA,
than the geographical area.

And for good reason.

About 70% of Oregon's
vineyards are located within it.

Most of these are considered small.

About 5,000 cases per year or less

and Oregon as a whole produces

about two million cases a year.

To put that in perspective,

there are some wineries in California

that single-handedly produce more wine

than the entire state of Oregon.

But this is a good thing.

It means more attention, love and detail to wines,

the vineyards and the environment.

Oregon has a rep of being gloomy and rainy.

But in the growing season
from late spring to early fall,

it's actually pretty dry.

The surrounding mountain
ranges protect the region from rain

and because of it's northerly latitude,

there's about 15 hours of sunlight a day.

This long, cool dry growing season is perfect

for Pinot Noir.

As Pinot Noir's popularity rises

and land in California becomes
more and more expensive,

winemakers from all over the world are flocking

here to Oregon to take advantage

of these perfect conditions.

In 2000 there were only 139 wineries here

and now there are over 800.

Many of those are certified organic,

biodynamic or sustainable.

But what does that even mean?

Well, let's find out.

With responsible farming being so important

to the Oregon way of life,

let's break down exactly what that means.

I'm going to hit on a pretty controversial topic

in the wine world, vineyard practices.

Specifically the big three,

organic, biodynamic, and sustainable.

Why controversial?

Well, winemakers and
consumers don't necessarily agree

on which one of these
practices are the most practical

or beneficial for the end product.

But without taking sides,
let's try and break these down

one-by-one and learn a little more.

Organic.

Organic is the most regulated of all these terms.

And it's all about what the winemaker doesn't do

or what they leave out of the wine.

No synthetic pesticides, chemicals or additives,

but there is one small problem with this.

See most wines contain added sulfites,

something not necessarily
organic but is necessary

to allow the wine to age.

So unless you don't mind a
wine with a limited shelf life,

your best bet is to get a wine

that says farmed or made with organic grapes.

That way you know the fruit
that was going in is organic,

but minimal additives like sulfites are allowed.

Biodynamic.

If organic is all about what
the winemaker doesn't do,

biodynamic is what the winemaker does do.

It attempts to treat the entire vineyard

as one ecosystem, with the plants, the animals

and the people working together as one,

create a self-sustaining vineyard

that has little to no outside input.

Things like encouraging beehives,

re-using compost and natural
pest controls.

It also has some seemingly strange practices

involved with timing.

Timing vineyard activities with lunar cycles

and burying a cow horn full of manure

as part of the fertilization process.

Advocates will say it
leads to healthier vineyards

and better farms.

Critics will call it pseudoscience.

Regardless, some of the most
well respected winemakers

on the planet practice biodynamics

and the movement seems to be growing.

Sustainable.

Sustainable's all about minimizing

the winemaking's effect on the environment.

Things like water conservation

and wildlife conservation,

using solar panels and
green facilities and transport.

And while these vineyards may farm organically

or biodynamically, they
may not follow all the rules

depending on which
organization they're certified by.

Regardless the method, it's usually a good thing

when your winery practices
some form of responsible

farming to take better care of the environment

and your final product.

Check out the back label of the wine

or the winery's website to find out

what vineyard practices they're entailing.

For our featured grapes today, let's start

with the second most planted
grape in Oregon, Pinot Gris.

What is Pinot Gris?

Well, it's a member of the Pinot Noir family.

Is the same thing as Pinot Grigio

the light easy drinking Italian grape?

Well, yes and no.

Technically yes, it is the same grape.

Stylistically though, it tends
to be completely opposite.

See Pinot Gris from Oregon
tends to be done in the style

of Pinot Gris from Alsace,

a wine region in the east side of France.

And opposed to light easy
drinking straight forward

like the Italian version, Pinot
Gris can be really complex.

And is a lot fuller, richer and
maybe more viscous and oily.

It has stone fruit flavors like white peach, pear

or apricot, ripe citrus notes, tropical notes.

You can get some honeysuckle or some floral notes

like orange blossom and
usually finishes with a spice note,

like ginger, clove or cinnamon.

I told you these wines are complex.

It's a really good in-between for people

that like that depth and richness of Chardonnay,

but the bright fruit character

that can come with lighter wines.

Let's talk Pinot Noir.

Specifically Oregon Pinot Noir.

Now, we've talked Pinot before,

but in case you need a refresher.

It tends to be light in body, high in acid,

low in tannin and red fruit
character is pretty common.

But what makes Pinot Noir the king of grapes

here in Oregon.

Well, the Willamette Valley specifically

is located on the same line of latitude,

the 45th parallel, as Burgundy France.

And Burgundy France makes some of the most famous

Pinot Noirs on the planet.

And just like Burgundy,
Willamette has a wide variety

of soil types and meso climates.

There are eight sub-AVA's within Willamette

and each one produces a different style of wine.

This is because there's no better grape,

and I can't stress this enough,

that takes terroir and soil
and transfers grape to the glass

and the final product.

It makes Pinot Noir a true expression

of the place it came from.

And it's why you'll see so many winemakers

have 8, 10 or even 12 single vineyard Pinot Noirs.

They want to compare and contrast

the different vineyard sites.

Today I am here in the Dundee Hills AVA,

where some of the most famous wines

and winemakers are located.

The soil here is mostly Jory, a type of volcanic soil

that's known for wines with red fruit character

great acidity and a little bit of spice.

The perfect embodiment of Oregon Pinot.

If you were to compare, California Pinots

tend to be a bit richer and
denser where Oregon Pinots

tend to be a bit lighter and more earthy.

But I feel like I'm gonna have to

figure this out for myself.

Let's go taste some wine.

Through winding roads and sweeping forests,

I had to meet one of my favorite producers

in the entire valley.

Welcome to Lange Estate.

♪ Summer's comin' ♪

♪ Summer's comin' ♪

♪ Summer's comin' baby ♪

♪ There's nothin' we can do ♪

Don: We had a real love of Pinot Noir.

But where do you do that in the New World?

That was the question that led us here.

Vince: Well what year was this?

Don: 1987.

Vince: What was the Oregon
wine scene like at that time?

Don: There wasn't much.

Wendy: Our friends said, "You're going where to do what?"

Don: Yeah, there was an open six acres behind,

just below the house over there.

It's cool, we'll just plant that.

So that's what we did.

The paradigm for Pinot Noir,
in the Old World is Burgundy,

you know where are they
growing Pinot Noir in Burgundy?

We'll it's roughly the 45th parallel.

Vince: Sure.

Don: Well that's where we are.

And where are the grand cru vineyards in Burgundy?

It's south, southeast slopes.

You probably noticed where we are here.

Vince: Yeah.

Don: South, southeast slope.

Vince: Yeah.

Don: I call this slope here in the Dundee Hills

the Cote-d'Or of the,

Vince: Of the New world. Don: You know of,

of the New World.

Vince: And the other grapes, especially Pinot Gris

became incredibly popular here.

Don: Right, yeah we got here,
there were only three producers

in the New World of Pinot Gris.

Wendy: In 1987, our neighbor knocked on our door,

offered us a few tons of Pinot Gris.

And we said heck yeah and
we became the fourth producer

of Pinot Gris in the New World.

Vince: Wow and I mean and now

it's the second most planted grape here.

Wendy: I mean when we got
here, it was a very tightly knit

community of dedicated growers, family farmers.

And that really hasn't changed.

We farm to organic standards.

We aren't organically certified,

but we are live certified and standard certified.

So anything that goes on the land, runs off the land

into rivers or streams, is clean, it won't pollute.

Don: I think our vision is to create a product

that has a sense of place.

You know, wine has this concept of terroir

I mean people argue about
well does terroir exist, you know?

For the likes of us, it's some kind of a silly question.

It's like asking if poetry exists.

For years, we'd go to a place like Manhattan

and they couldn't pronounce Oregon.

You know, that's year to year, it's like, okay so we go.

Vince: Oregon.

Don: Yeah, exactly and we go back

and it's like we've got our wines, we're pouring

and say, "We're from Oregon".

And they say, "Oh where in Oregon?"

And then we say, "Well, the Willamette Valley".

"Well where in the Willamette Valley"?

"We're in the Dundee Hills".

And they so, "Oh, the Dundee Hills, oh yeah, absolutely".

And we look at each other and went ohh!

Wendy: Oh good.

This is good.

Vince: We're doin' something right.

Don: Exactly, yeah, we have turned the corner.

♪ There's nothing we can do ♪

♪ We got a world of right and wrong... ♪

Vince: It's time to taste some
wines of the next generation

of Lange winery, Don and Wendy's son, Jesse.

Jesse, what's going on?

Jesse: Hi, man how's it going?

Vince: Good to see you.

Jesse: Likewise.

Vince: Good, I'm excited to try these wines.

Jesse: This is our Pinot Gris Reserve.

My folks Don and Wendy were the first winemakers

in the United States to make
a barrel fermented Pinot Gris.

So as opposed to stainless
steel, French Oak fermentation's

going to give you rounder bandwidth on the palate,

more mouth feel.

An overall more, a sense of richness.

Vince: Great, let's try it.

Jesse: Yeah, man.

Vince: Cheers.

Jesse: Salud.

Vince: Super, super ripe fruit character on the nose.

Jesse: Yeah, I like how it dances

between sort of citrus and tropical fruit.

Vince: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jesse: That's something how we look for.

Vince: And a lot of times, it's one or the other

'cause those can be opposite ends of the spectrum

in a lot of wines. Jesse: Sure.

Yeah, we select for that so
all those different components

or every little vineyard block picks separately

and ferments it separately.

So literally this is a blend

of our top 25 French Oak barrels.

Vince: I get, there's almost a nuttiness, as well.

Jesse: A little bit of the
almond kind of toasted almond.

I find sort of a honeysuckle note too,

so it plays a little bit kind
of in a floral range as well.

Yeah, that white peach note is really, I think

a characteristic of Willamette Valley Pinot Gris.

You know bright Asian pears and apples

can be a component too.

Vince: Asian pear. Jesse: Asian pear, yeah.

Vince: That's a good one for this too.

You're talking the round white Asian pear.

Jesse: Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, they look like apples but they're Asian pears.

Vince: Yeah, that's a great one for this.

Jesse: This is our Pinot Noir Reserve,

so one of about 12 different Pinot Noirs

we craft every year.

Vince: 12.

Jesse: Yeah.

Vince: Now why, tell me why so many?

Jesse: Well, Pinot Noir has this like unique ability

to showcase site, the Reserve
is one of my favorite wines

we get to craft every year,

just because get to cherry
pick some of our favorite barrels

from all those, you know blue ribbon vineyard sites.

Vince: It's simultaneously bright and has depth.

I can dig there and I can find the dark fruit

but it still pops out of the glass

like something super fresh.

Jesse: It takes you a while to

understand it as the wine unfolds

and oxidizes and gets swirled in the glass.

That for me, is what makes me chase Pinot Noir

Vince: Yeah, I mean tremendous complexity

and I haven't even tasted it yet.

I get little of that like dark cherry cola.

Jesse: That brightness too, I get some fresh

kinda raspberry and strawberry components.

I find this particular reserve
to have a fair bit of spice

like a spice box note, cardamon, clove.

So we've been certified
sustainable for about 15 years now.

A lot of the bottles that we use are lower weight

so our carbon footprint's lessened a fair bit.

We use raptor poles on the property

for a natural pest control.

Vince: What is that?

Jesse: So raptor poles would be

like glorified telephone poles

with a crossbeam up there
so resident red tail hawks

can prey on voles and moles.

Our solar panels on the property,

so like 30% of our power's generated on our roof.

Vince: I think some people see it as, you know

a burden and a cost, rather than an opportunity

and a long term benefit.

Something that will help sustain

the vineyard's profitability and viability

for the long term.

Jesse: Well that's the dream I mean, maybe Elon Musk

can go to Mars, but I'm pretty sure...

Vince: We're stuck here. Jesse: I'm pretty sure

we're stuck here.

We got one planet, you know so.

Vince: On all the bottles, there's a fishing lure.

Jesse: My family's big into preservation,

conservation for fresh water, and salt water too.

And my father and I are big fishermen.

So we tie our own flies and
we travel around the state

and go fishing when time allows.

Vince: Man that sounds like a blast.

Yeah, I'd love to get out

and go fishin' with you if I ever can.

Jesse: Well, maybe we can make that happen.

Vince: Yeah?

Jesse: Yeah, maybe later this week.

Vince: All right, we can do it?

Jesse: Yeah, let's see if we can make it happen.

Vince: All right, cool.

Jesse: Cheers. Vince: Cheers.

True to his word, Jesse rounded
up a motley crew and a ship.

And we head out for a day of sturgeon fishing

on the mighty Columbia River.

With Jesse, first mate Doug and Captain John.

♪ I've been watching ♪

♪ I've been listening ♪

♪ Oh to the wind and ♪

♪ Oh to the water ♪

♪ I am covered ♪

♪ In the salt and sun ♪

♪ Oh this dying dusk ♪

♪ Paints the water top ♪

All right so what do we doing?

What's the plan today?

Jesse: From the Columbia,
we put in at Chinook Landing

on the Oregon side.

We're here, just stop at
Washougal, catching some shad.

So some live bait in the bucket, good job.

Did well, and we're gonna
roll upriver, up the Columbia

about 10 miles to Rooster
Rock and go catch some sturgeon.

Vince: You're catching the small fish now

to get the big fish later right?

Jesse: Yep, catching the shad now

to catch the sturgeon later.

Vince: Nice.

Yeah, in Ohio we fish for that size.

Jesse: Oh, sure.

Vince: So we got what, five?

Jesse: Five shad.

Vince: That's five rolls of the dice.

Jesse: That's five, you up your odds that way.

Vince: With our bait fish ready to go, we head upriver

and cast our lines hoping for a 10-foot trophy.

And then we waited.

And waited.

And hit a new spot, and waited.

I'm gonna spoil the ending here.

Five fishing holes and eight hours later,

we didn't catch anything, but we ate well.

Elk burgers and wild boar
sausages that Captain John hunted.

More Lange wine.

And a beer.

And maybe a bit of moonshine.

We listened to Doug tell the story of an accident

that almost killed him.

And how Jesse helped save his life.

Listen to Captain John muse over his old job

as an airplane salesman and quote "Pulp Fiction"

without emitting a single swear word.

I even got the crew to forget
we were working for a bit.

I saw the appeal of this Oregon lifestyle

I'd heard so much about.

And for a few hours, pretended I lived that life too.

We can't talk Oregon without talking Portland.

Located just an hour from the Willamette Valley.

It's become a refuge for people who crave a big city

that's still close to nature.

And although as a reputation
for hipster lumberjack's,

gluten-free pizza and tandem bicycles, look deeper.

You'll find a young vibrant city

with more public park space per capita

than any other U.S. city.

An agricultural oasis, stunning architecture.

A people who always challenge the status quo,

bridges galore and an energy that makes you think,

I could pack up and live here.

Stumptown, Bridgetown, PDX, Rip City,

whatever you want to call it,

Portland is a town worth a second look.

♪ All I ask for ♪

♪ Golden sunbeams ♪

♪ Sweet silence ♪

♪ 'Cause it heals me ♪

♪ Hey, hey hasty world ♪

♪ Where's your reverence ♪

♪ For the presence of a rising star ♪

♪ These invisible lives ♪

♪ Are tanglin' ♪

♪ Standin' round me ♪

♪ And these slow growing weeds ♪

♪ Are keepin' me from seein' my sky ♪

♪ From seein' my sky ♪

♪ My sky ♪

When I think Portland, I think art.

And I wanted to get a local take on the city

and it's art scene.

I knew my friend and fellow wine lover, Elise

had a studio near downtown, so I took the evening

to go check it out.

Tell me how you got started, what this is,

what style this is, all of it.

Elise: It's called Encaustic painting

and it's an ancient medium

that combines beeswax, resin and pigment.

Vince: And is that, so that's how you get this texture.

Elise: Yeah.

And that's how it's so luminous

Vince: Can I touch it? Elise: and very full of depth.

Yes, I always encourage touching.

Vince: Ah, encourage touching.

It's opposite most art. Elise: Yeah, opposite, yes.

Vince: I like this kind of art.

Elise: I start with a, this is the wax.

And then you add the pigment to it

and you make different, in this case wine colors.

And then you fuse it with
like a heat gun or a blow torch.

In ancient times, they used an open flame

and then that's what builds

this beautiful window of depth in the paintings.

Vince: Yeah, and depth is the word I would say

like you can see that it does, the painting

almost goes beyond the canvas behind it

which is really amazing.

You know when I think
Portland, I do tend to think artists.

Why do you think so many artists are just drawn here?

Elise: I think it's because it's an easy place to be.

The landscape and everything
has been so inspiring to me

for my work.

You've got the coast, you've got the desert.

You've got the mountains, you've got everything.

Vince: This is so cool, thank you so much.

Elise: So much fun.

Vince: Yeah, this is so much fun.

Welcome to the "V is for Vino" Nerd Lab.

We take complicated wine topics and make 'em simple.

Today we're talkin' about soil.

Soil.

It's one of the elements of terroir

and one of the most important
elements to great wine making.

That being said, vines
surprisingly aren't that picky

when it comes to soil.

In fact they're incredibly resilient

unlike your beloved succulent

that you just can't seem to keep alive.

Awe!

Vines find a way to survive
in even the poorest soils.

Soils that other crops simply couldn't survive in.

What does soil do for wine?

Most importantly, they regulate

the amount of water to the vines.

Each soil retains water at different rates.

And thus, produces different styles of wine.

The best soils work in
tandem with the other elements

of terroir, climate and the grape varietal,

to provide just the right amount of water

to ripen the grapes, while still forcing the roots

to dig in deep and stress to seek nutrients.

The right amount of stress on the vines

gives smaller berries with
more concentration of flavor.

If the opposite happens and
the grapes get too much water

you'll end up with dilution in the berries

and thus, diluted wine.

Soil also helps regulate temperature,

provides the vine with nutrients.

And though this is technically unproven,

most winos would agree,

soil helps pass flavor into the grapes.

It acts as sort of a coffee filter for the water

as it passes into the roots.

How many types of soil are there?

Well, hundreds of variations,

but some are more common than others.

Sand is a common soil found
in places like South Africa,

Chateauneuf du Pape and Piedmont.

It retains heat well and drains quickly.

This helps make light, soft wines in warm climates

and aromatic wines in cool climates.

Clay is another common soil type,

but does the opposite of sand.

It stays cool and retains moisture.

This helps in hot regions
like Australia's Barossa Valley

or Pomerol and Bordeaux and
tends to produce powerful wines.

Limestone soils are some of
the most famous on the planet

and are prominent in places
like Burgundy and Champagne.

These soils retain moisture well

and help contribute to the minerality

and acid character of the wine.

One of my favorite soil types is volcanic soil

found in places like Sicily, Napa, Santorini

and Willamette Valley.

Minerals from the ash in volcanic rock eruptions

make for fresh, aromatic
and super concentrated wines.

There's also loam, silt, slate, gravel, granite, flint

chalk and a whole slew of
other soils worth exploring.

So start digging.

I hope today's Nerd Lab
cleared up how soils affect wine

and as always keep geekin' out.

Being so close to wine country

and surrounded by such fertile farmland,

Portland has some of the
best restaurants in the country.

So I wanted to go to dinner somewhere

that was truly Oregon.

Local, sustainable, homey and comfortable.

I couldn't have found a better spot than Ned Ludd.

This place is cool.

Rob: Oh, thank you.

Yeah, it's definitely become
one of Portland's hidden gems

and we've actually been here for over 10 years now.

Vince: Tell me about this, the space is crazy.

I don't know if I'd describe it

as like colonial or lumberjack.

Rob: It's very Quaker.

This was an old pizza place with a wood oven,

center everything around that oven.

Instead of trying to game it

let's embrace that as the
ethos of the entire restaurant.

The most salient kind of influences

would be very classical
French and German, Alsatian.

And I think vegetable is our focus.

Treating every vegetable

the way that brings out the best in it.

Vince: The concept of the restaurant,

sustainability's a big part of it.

Rob: I think one of the most overlooked aspects

of sustainability is going
out and buying the products

and using the products that
your producers want you to use,

'cause they're so abundant.

So many small independent farms.

In Oregon, they're like coming out of the woodwork.

They want you.

They come to the restaurant.

They want you to order from them.

If our farmer puts on their
list, like please order this.

Like please get it, it's so good right now.

It's so abundant right now and we have too much of it.

If you can, if you as a business can buy that

and create a demand for it,

that helps to alleviate waste all along the chain,

rather than just in your own restaurant,

but in the production of it as well.

Vince: Well I'm excited.

Can we walk through some of these dishes?

I'd love to taste them. Rob: Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

Vince: All right cool, let's do it.

Let's do it.

♪ Every time you move... ♪

Vince: I see a lot of fish.

Rob: So yeah, fish is going to be the theme of the day.

So the halibut season this year
has been amazing, abundant.

So first, we'll be doing a little ceviche.

So I'm just going to dice up
some thinner slices of halibut

and I have a little lime juice and grapefruit juice.

I'm just going to marinate it in.

Here's the fish.

So it's going to be kind of one component,

the other component's going to be what's called

the Leche de Tigre or the
liquid that's going to make up

the base of the ceviche and all the flavor.

Vince: So when you, are we doing

Peruvian style or Mexican style?

Rob: We're doing a, we're doing a...

Vince: Oregonian style. Rob: Oregonian style.

Vince: And what did you say
we're doing right now, the what?

Rob: The Leche de Tigre.

Vince: What does that mean?

Rob: That means tiger's milk.

Vince: Tiger's milk.

Rob: So I'm going to start with zest,

zest and juice of a bunch of citrus.

All right, so now I have the juice.

I'm going to take a little bit of green garlic.

So this is seasonal right now.

This is the very young garlic clove.

You can sort of see the cloves forming in there.

I also have a little shallot.

And so here's a little fresno chili.

Got a bunch of herbs here, so
cilantro, tarragon and chives.

Vince: You can probably use

whatever fresh herbs you have around.

Rob: Whatever you got.

And yet another weird kind of seasonal allium.

So this is a scape, this is a leek scape.

They shoot out of the underground bulbs of allium

so in the springtime.

Vince: If I can't find leek scape.

Rob: If you can't find it don't worry about it.

You can use fresh leek, you
can use red onion if you want.

And then I have a little bit of fennel, fresh fennel.

Vince: Get some crunch.

Rob: Crunchy, it's very aromatic and floral.

And then our last kinda
seasonal ingredient to go in here,

is going to be these green strawberries.

Vince: So literally, this is a normal strawberry

that are picked a little early
Rob: It's a normal strawberry.

It's not so much that it picked early.

They just pick the ones that didn't really ripen

because they have a lot of acidity

and a lot of good texture.

Here's our Leche de Tigre is virtually ready

and then I will go ahead and
incorporate the fish into here.

And then just to plate it.

Got a little bit of pickled red onion.

Last bit of the Oregon
seasonal ingredients, the fir tips.

These are the fresh Douglas Fir.

Vince: Oh wow.

Rob: It's citrusy, green, that's... Vince: that's cool.

Rob: Yup, it's the tender little offshoots

of all the new growth in the spring.

Vince: Wow, look at this.

Can we try it?

Rob: Absolutely.

Vince: All right, let's go for it.

Rob: Yeah, let's go for it.

Vince: The meatiness of the fish is amazing

and then the kind of crunch,

I love the crunch from the strawberry.

Something I never would have used personally.

That's really cool.

Rob: Yeah.

Vince: So yeah, we're pairing this with the Pinot Gris

and right off the bat,

like you get such ripe citrus from this, Rob: Yes.

Vince: I think it's going to go great with this.

Rob: I mean the first thing that pops in my mind

when I smell this is lemon zest

and especially that oiliness a little bit too.

The standout quality of this wine is the acidity.

Vince: All right, I'm just gonna leave, he's got it.

Rob:

Vince:: No, that's perfect.

I mean that's literally what I would say.

I mean all of that.

All that citrus in the dish,

goes great with the citrusy wine.

Plus, the acid from all that
citrus needs a high acid wine.

The hearty meaty halibut goes great

with the medium plus bodied wine.

And while I wouldn't describe the wine as sweet,

the over the top fruitiness of the Pinot Gris

is balanced by that little
bit of spice from the chili.

I notice we got an oven that we haven't used yet.

Rob: Right now, we're gonna do salmon,

and then we're gonna roast some turnips

and porcini mushrooms.

So we got some Coho Salmon,

take your sharpest knife that you have

and you're just gonna make very shallow incisions

on the skin.

Vince: And why are we scoring?

Rob: We're scoring to allow that subcutaneous fat

to escape so that we can actually get a crispy skin.

Give it a liberal seasoning with kosher salts.

So season that and like let it sit for a minute or two.

So in the meantime we'll
start roasting our vegetables.

So here we have some hakari turnips

and then we have some porcini mushrooms.

Again this is a spray of seasonal treats.

And then this is just gonna go straight back

to the hottest part of our oven.

Vince: Nice slide, nice technique.

Rob: So in here I've got some,
just some wild spring onion.

I've got some ramps and then some more leek scapes.

So for the sauce, I've started with some Pinot Noir,

some fresh herbs.

I've got thyme in here, I've got Douglas Fir.

I've got some of the green garlic in there

and I've got some really overripe strawberries.

We're gonna reduce this

and then we're gonna add some stock to it

and that's gonna form our sauce.

So this is kind of a play on a classic matelote,

which is a red wine fish stew with mushrooms

and glazed pearl onions.

The salmon is not going to
take long to cook in here at all.

Lay the fish on gently, skin skid down.

Vince: And what's your trick to making

sure you don't overcook,

'cause that's a big thing with salmon and it's tough.

Rob: I think the most important part

when you're cooking any
fish and you're doing it skin on.

Cook it on the skin 90% of the way.

You'll be able, Vince: 90%.

Rob: 90%. Vince: Wow.

Rob: You're gonna just kiss it on the other side.

So our vegetables look like their nice

and caramelized and perfect.

Vince: Right.

Rob: Onions, lightly caramelized, getting soft.

Again we want to retain texture here.

We don't want these to be mush.

Add a little bit of sherry vinegar here.

Vince: And this is, we're just gonna give it that kiss.

Rob: Just a kiss.

This fish is done.

Vince: Yeah, that skin, that crisp

and that char on the skin looks great.

Rob: Let's put our turnips and porcinis around.

Our nice glazed onions.

Got some of the flowers from those onions.

Vince: Beautiful.

This looks like a garden.

Let's give it a try.

Rob: Right, yeah.

Vince: The sweetness from the strawberry

mixed with that savory and then the salt,

feels like a dish that was crafted for this wine

as opposed to we're trying to match,

obviously using the wine but the meatiness

of the preparation with the root vegetables.

Rob: The herbs, and you always want an earthy quality

with Pinot too, so the porcinis in there.

Vince: Salmon and Pinot is a classic pairing.

The strawberries in the sauce go great

with the red fruit flavors in the wine.

And the hearty roasted root vegetables

match the earthy Pinot Noir.

Also hearty, oily fish like salmon love the acid

the Pinot Noir brings to balance it out.

Cheers, man.

Rob: Cheers.

Vince: This has been so fun. Rob: Thanks Vince.

Vince: Thank you so much for having us.

Rob: Ah yeah, it was my pleasure.

Vince: Thanks again.

Vince: What a trip.

What a place.

To be so close to so much wonder and feel so far

from the cares of normal routine.

Before we left, we knew we had to take a trip

to the Columbia Gorge, both an impressive valley

and one of Oregon's most diverse AVAs.

There's still a whole lot of land in Oregon

yet to be claimed and developed for wine growing.

A new land of opportunity

for people to hitch their wagons to.

I hope you enjoyed Oregon and we'll see you next time

on "V is for Vino".

♪ I'm sittin' here wishin' ♪

♪ I could feel something at all ♪

♪ Like there's something I lost ♪

♪ Like there's someone that's gone ♪

♪ All this wishin' ♪

♪ Ain't doin' a thing ♪

♪ It's a robot's game ♪

Gio: I painted this one.

I painted that one and I painted this one.

Welcome Vince.

Vince: Oh wow, you're so talented.

Gio: Yeah.

♪ Woo oo hoo oo ♪

♪ It's a false sense ♪

♪ That we livin' ♪

♪ Woo oo hoo oo ♪

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

♪ It's a false sense ♪

♪ Right of front of you ♪

♪ Woo oo hoo oo ♪

♪ Woo oo hoo ♪

♪ Woo oo hoo ♪

♪ Woo oo hoo ♪