Willamette Valley Vineyards Tasting
with Jim Bernau and Joe Ibrahim
5pm, Friday May 15
It's too late to receive a tasking kit,
but LVAWS MEMBERS are welcome to join us!
A link will be emailed to members registered for this event when available.
You are invited to join our LVAWS Chapter for a Willamette Valley Vineyard Tasting at 5pm on Friday, May 15. We'll be doing a mini-vertical of WVV's Bernau Block Pinot Noir, 2016 and 2017. Tasting kits for this special event include those two wines (a $130 value) PLUS two Riedel Vinum XL Oregon Pinot Noir glasses (a $30 value). Also you'll receive an Aroma Wheel, spec sheets, and an AWS wine tasting chart for just $137.27 delivered (this price includes taxes and shipping).
If you can't use any more high-end Pinot Noir glasses, the winery is making the wines available with a 25 percent industry discount and reduced shipping for a total of $107.50.
As you may know, Jim Bernau and Willamette Valley Vineyards has been a pioneer in the Pacific Northwest wine industry and beyond. In 2012, the AWS honored Jim with our Award of Merit for his contributions to wine and wine appreciation and his longstanding support of the AWS. Jim will be joined by WVV's winemaker Joe Ibrahim.
Interested? Here's what to do:
You must register by May 1 to ensure delivery. There are TWO steps for registering for this event:
STEP ONE:
Go to the LVAWS website, log in as a member, go to the Events tab and register for this event. (We need at least 30 members or our date/time may be changed to group us with another AWS Chapter.)
STEP TWO:
Detailed instructions will be sent to you in your confirmation email when you register for this event. Follow the instructions to finish registering and pay for the tasting kit.
Just like that -- Oregon wine will be on your porch and you will be part of a virtual wine tasting with our Lehigh Valley Chapter and the vineyard founder and owner!
About Jim....
The “budwood” of Willamette Valley Vineyards began long before its founding in 1983 by vintner Jim Bernau. His Dad, a Roseburg lawyer, was hired by a California winemaker to secure the first winery license in Oregon since Prohibition. Jim’s Dad allowed small tastes of Richard Sommer’s wine at the dinner table, lighting a path that led Jim from home winemaking to studies at UC Davis and eventually Beaune, France.
His early “winemaking” grew more from mischief when at the age of 10, he liberated his Mom’s frozen Concord grape juice from the freezer, following the description of fermentation he found in the family’s set of Encyclopedias!
In 1983, with the encouragement from winemakers making their move from California, Jim cleared away an old pioneer plum orchard in the Salem Hills, hidden underneath scotch broom and blackberry vines. Unable to afford drip irrigation, he watered them by hand using 17 lengths of 75’ garden hose to get the grapelings through their first summer.
Willamette Valley Vineyards has collaboratively grown its estate vineyards through partnerships like the merger with Oregon wine pioneer, Bill Fuller of Tualatin Vineyards (established in 1973), the O'Briens for Elton Vineyard (established in 1983) and Loeza Vineyard (planted in 2015). The winery sources all of its barrel-aged Pinot Noir from its estate-grown vineyards and meticulously farms by hand nearly 500 acres in the valley.
Jim believes that Pinot Noir made with consideration for the environment, employees, and community simply tastes better. With that purpose, Willamette Valley Vineyards and Jim Bernau have been recognized for environmentally responsible winegrowing by LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture and Enology) as well as receiving the Sustainable Standard-Setter award from the Rainforest Alliance for their use of FSC-certified cork. In 2014, Jim was honored with the Los Heroes de Salud! award for his contributions in providing healthcare to Oregon’s vineyard workers.
These accomplishments have led to Willamette Valley Vineyards being listed among the top 100 Wines in the World by Wine Spectator Magazine, named "One of America's Great Pinot Noir Producers" by Wine Enthusiast Magazine and "Winery of the Year" by Wine and Spirits Magazine.
