Image provided by: Upper Left Edge; Cannon Beach, OR
About The upper left edge. (Cannon Beach, Or.) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1994)
example of Oregon metrude c n **n .v s e fo r the most part the only place you can find Nehalem Bay wines are at the winery , which does make them more expensive than wine from other Oregon winer ies, » you ve got to go there to get them if you go at the right time you may find that the wine is almost secondary to the winery itself The specialty of the Nehalem Bay W inery is fun It is their Near the North Fork of the Nehalem River on the logging roed e l » known as H ig h *» / 5 3 between Nehalem and Wheeler is an anomaly in the Oregon wine raison d'etre Ray says, "We may not make the best wine In the state, but we hare more fun than any other winery ' No arguments there I wen, to one of their (p re tty much) monthly events, a barbecue and band weekend There were oysters and other munchies cooked outside on the g r ill, snacks inside, all the industry It is celled the Mehelem Bay W in e ry Why an anomaly9 Whet else would you cell a winery located 5 0 miles from the neorest other winery, that is set in an arae better known for tree cutting than wine tasting, has trades running through their backyard that allow a tram from Oar ibold! to pull up to the front duor, is visited by the former 'leader' of the M erry Pranksters and that throws parties featuring bonds like the Crackpots9 Anomaly City founded in 1973 as the sixth or seventh winery m thestete, depending on wines available to be sampled, three trash cans full of ice cold beer ,f you weren t e wine dr inker and lots of dancing If that duesn , sound like standard winery bashes (especially the Bokxeiser ) It s becasue it was not standard But whose opinion on the matter you care to regard. Nehalem Boy has survived a bumpy 20 years and Is in the process of continuing to become a more visible and visitable place If you think that winer íes are predominantly haunted by peté eeting, Lexus- driving, W ell 5 t r « t Jour n a l-reading yuppies, you hewent been reeding this column enough Another way to discover that wineries can be laid back is to visit the Nehalem Bay W inery Nehalem Boy has managed to leave schedule cell 3 5 5 - 8 10 8 ) . culminating in a big oW pig roast The Zen of Nehalem Bay struck me full force at this party I had recognized, just by chatting with Ray, that this p is e was different, bu, being there with the folks a, ,h,seven, mads me realize the, something special was taking place I realized this place could just be some bar on Highway 5 3 that served cheap beer, burgers and buffalo wings to a steady clientele and your occasional ambitious tourist The thing is, it s no, I, is a winery the, produces 6 ,0 0 0 the "ordinary" by the side of the road and is roar inQ away from it in a big, m ulti-colored school bus It is somehow appropr late that Ken Kesey. noted uregun r ecluse end author of just a few famed books, including Sometimes a Or eat Notion (a personal favorite), would pay an annual visit to this winery in his legendary bus "Furthur " (For those of you not fam iliar with 6 0 scounter - culture history i suggest pick mg up a copy of Tom Wolfe s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) Kesey came last year and he is "scheduled" to make an appearance again this summer For at least one generation Kesey represented the pinnacle of the anti ■ establishment way of life Kesey wasn't the writer everyone in the publishing world wanted him to be after achieving greet sucess with One f lew Over the Cuckoo a Nest Me was different, he was more than a writer or an acid taker. or an anti-establishment guru He was Kesey In a sm eller, but not Insignificant way. the people at Nehalem Bay are doing with their winery whet Kesey did with a portion of Amar icon thought The location itself is »m eting to behold From the steps of the winery you can see the massively scarred hllto in the background Not a tree on them If you ar e crazy enough to drive 5 3 to get to the winery you w ill go throm /i basically one continuous stretch of clear cuts hacked out oí the Coastal Range The scene on that rood is appalling Highway 5 3 is almost a distinct boundary North of 5 3 the towns are tourist and/or community or inn ted, culminating in Cannon Beech South of 5 3 the towns have obviously been timber and/or agricultural towns W hile towns like Manzanita hold promise for a bright economic future, towns such as Tillamook have uncertain prospects m the f a » of diminished timber supplies and land on which to cut Nehalem Bay W inery is appropriately placed, In the grand »hem e of things, on this boundary between two distinct pasts and futures Ray Shackleford and Carmen Qumtane now oversee the winery Nehalem Bay has been through a lot w e r the year s Ther e have been * imes, even as ear ly as the late 8 0 s , when tt was poorly tended and badly managed This has changed Ray and Car men are car vi ng a niche for this coastal winery that is going to allow it to prosper as a unique attraction, winery and community spot They d o it hove a vineyard on sight to attend to Or owing wine grapes is tricky enough without the complexities of the Oregon ooastal waether patterns to wrangle with. » their vineyard is over the mountains in Rickreall Nehalem started out in the 70 s producing » le ly fru it wines They have since expandid their varieties, doing less fru it wine for the past several years They still do some of what Ray likes to cell hot tub wines." one of them being a pretty nice blackberry wine Their other wines are your standard Oregon far e Pinot n o ir. Chardonnay, Pinot blare, White Riesling and Dry Oevurt? They a l » dn a blended wine (Pinot noir, Marechel Foch and Cabernet Sauvignon) called Nehalem Rad ( "a good spaghetti wine") anda Sparkling Brut which is a fine C A N N O N B EA C H - T H E C IT Y T H A T M A D E M C T A R N A H A N ’ S ALE F A M O U S ! M ore m c T a r n a h a n ’ s A le is sold in C ann on B fach per c a p ita than ANY OTHER CITY IN THE W ORLD, ‘flay ' «K 1, was, without question, an excellent party Other events they do are a Mother s Day brunch with e string quartet. Father s Day Open House ( this month) and a weekend fu ll of events on July 4th including bar becues, bends, dancing, daily visits by the tram . The Fun Run E xp r«s ( for info on the trein cases of wine each year It’s certainly not Chateau t efite Rothschild, but Nehalem Bay may be per forming a task as difficult as producing fine wine They are, 1n thelr own way, attempting to create new attitudes From years of work with environmental and social justice groups I know that to be one of the moot difficult things to do The crowd at the winery the nigh, I was there consisted mostly of locals It was April Not a tie to be found People were dancing until they were really sweeting W hile standing outside to cool off Kathy and i overhearda conversation between a couple the, made me think "Whet kind of wine do vou rave." said one "I've got the White Reisling I think it's pretty good." replied the other The conversation wen, on br tefly from there No sophisticated wine terminology was used, and I, was clear the couples exper tence with wine was, at best, limited The thing was they could have been talking about anything They ware articulating their enjoyment of a (perhaps) new experience The, s what made the conversation » poignant An introduction was being made that C a n n o n llc a c h In C o a x ic r T h c a lc r C o u r t y a r d was significant An understanding that did not previously exist in this universe f vlablivhvd 1977 was born Maybe it wen, from there Maybe Ray or Carmen told them that crab meet would go moely with that wine and the couple derided to buy o bottle ,0 try that out Who knows9 If not these two people, most likely, especially having seen Ray work a crowd, two other people I have no doubt that someone there learned something that night This winery may be an an important cultural phenomenon as there is in Nehalem if only for this simple reason They offered people a greet ttm eet a good price, welcomed people in a way that made them feel like they belonged and at the seme time taught some people about some of the many I ealuring Nnuhwcxi, ( j li f o r n u A Impxwicd Wmcx Collector Wines From IH7J Through Current Vintage» I rjturing Over I (XX) Wine» Wine Kavkt, Glaxie» A Wme Related Item» positive aspects of wine dr ink inç If you ere on the co », or planning to go there I recommend stopping by the winery which is located less than a mile down Highway 53 off ,0 1 Buy a bottle Different Wme» fro m Around The World Each Week of wine for the bench or the hot tub or Jus, to have so you con show it to people who ha/e never heard of this place before Give them a cell at 3 6 8 - 9 4 6 3 and find o u t w h a n thair n e x t a v a n t is T a ll th e m y o u ru o ri s h o u t th e m in The too W in e T a s tin g Every Saturday Afternoon 1 5 PM Open 11 AM 5 I’M 436-1100 I 24 N l le m lo c k F O H ob M 2 . C a n n o n F U ach O M t 7 | 10 Recommended W in e Tour fo r Ju n e Kind of an off month being between Merna ial Day Weekend and the insanity that compr i« s July 4th A good be, (hough is A m lty V in e y a rd s ' Summer Solstice F estival on the 18th and 19th The bands Tall Jazz plays Saturday and M yrtle Brown s Destiny plays Sunday F a $7 you get the music, a glass of wine and you get to keep the glass Amity Vineyards is located in Amity jus, of, 99W atop a h ill that overlooks the entire Southern Yamhill Valley They have excellent wine, notably Pino, noir, including an Eco Wine, male entirely from ag an ically grown Pinot noir grapes, produced without sulfites and bottled in recycled bottles F a more infam ation cell them at 8 3 5 - 0 8 5 0 - s jg p s if T '. e ó 'fc I akc I line to 1 favcl til ( hegon’s Scenic Wine Country1 l.xperiem e the beauty, peace anil , fantastic nine of Oregon's nine regions a Laurel's Cannon Heai h ACCORDING TO CANNON BEACH R ESIDENT ‘ M A C ” M A C T ä R N A H A N , 1 he bcxl bed A breaklaxtx. ho(dx ind icxia iiisn lx ax well ax the most inletcxim g winery lours WHO EARNED A GOLD MEDAL WITH h is S cottish a le . 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