Tasting traditions.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

MONROE - Inside Broadley Vineyards' concrete-floored fermentation room, Joan Renie swirled the pinot noir in her glass and inhaled lightly before sipping, then laughed.

"We're not connoisseurs, but we can fake it," she said.

Renie and her husband, Greg Watson, know the wine-tasting routine. The Portland couple have made a tradition of visiting winery open houses on the day after Thanksgiving for the past 15 years. They've done the wineries closer to home in Yamhill and Washington counties. So Friday, they drove down to see what the southern Willamette Valley has to offer.

"We like to get out of Portland and drive around the countryside," Renie said. "Our little tradition is that we always get lost."

But they found their way easily to Broadley Vineyards in Monroe. A small operation owned by Craig and Claudia Broadley and other family members, the winery has 30 acres and produces about 3,500 cases - mostly pinots - each year.

Renie and Watson limit themselves to tasting just a mouthful of one or two wines at each vineyard.

"We don't taste everything in each place," Renie said. "Otherwise, you're toast."

The number of people making the trek to winery tasting rooms the weekend after Thanksgiving is growing, said Craig Broadley. He estimates the number who stop by his winery has increased by 30 percent each year in the last several years. Broadley doesn't have a tasting room, but sets up right among the oak aging casks and larger fermentation casks in his brick building in the heart of tiny Monroe.

Oregon's wines are popular with Oregonians. While producers shipped 620,000 cases of wine out of state last year, 665,000 cases - about 52 percent - were purchased from within the state, according to the Oregon Wine Board .

Small wineries such as Broadley's aren't open to the public year-round, so the wine tours give them an opportunity to connect with customers, Broadley said.

Besides the traditional tasting, Broadley offers visitors a taste of wine in its barrels and the option to pay for them now at a discount and pick them up a year later, after they've had time to age.

The opportunity to purchase Broadley wine "futures" brought Elisabeth Cooper and Doug Couch down from Portland. While the couple doesn't often purchase futures, they know Broadley wines well enough to trust the outcome, Cooper said.

"It's always good," she said.

Southwest of Monroe at High Pass Road Vineyards, Conrad Pfeiffer, who was helping out owner Dieter Boehm, serenaded visitors with his accordion. In a tasting room so small that eight people made a crowd, Bruce Carlson enjoyed a flavorful pinot noir.

"This is the best we've had so far," said Carlson, a Eugene accountant.

Winery tours offer a much less stressful post-holiday outing than the typical Christmas shopping trip, he said.

"I just don't like any more stress than what I have in my life," he said. "Driving in the country, seeing parts of Lane County you don't usually see, and it's just a beautiful time to get out."

In the Junction City area the rain clouds parted to reveal sunshine and blue sky, but the weather was iffy farther south.

At Sylvan Ridge/Hinman Vineyards near Crow, the sky drizzled rain, but that didn't stop a steady stream of cars from coming up the long narrow drive through neat fields of vines.

Inside the cavernous tasting rooms - where 80 people didn't come close to filling the space - Richard and Monica Snyder introduced their kids to the joys of wine tasting.

While the Veneta couple often treat out-of-town visitors to a wine-tasting tour, this is the first year their two children were old enough to join them.

Chris and Elaina Snyder pronounced their first wine-tasting tour a success while sipping pinot noir at Sylvan Ridge. "I like it. It's an elegant and tasteful way to spend an afternoon," said Chris. "I'd rather do this than go into town. It's bad this time of year, too many people."

The open houses continue at area wineries through Sunday.

WINE-TASTING WEEKEND

Area wineries open today and Sunday.

Benton-Lane Winery, 23924 Territorial Highway, Monroe. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 847-5792.

Broadley Vineyards, 265 S. Fifth St., Monroe. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 847-5934.

Chateau Lorane, 27415 Siuslaw River Road, Lorane. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 942-8028.

High Pass Winery, 24757 Lavell Road, Junction City. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 998-1447.

Iris Hill Winery, 82110 Territorial Road (on Iris Hill Lane), Lorane. Noon to 5 p.m. 345-1617.

King Estate Winery, 80854 Territorial Road, southwest of Eugene. Noon to 5 p.m. 942-9874.

LaVelle Vineyards, 89697 Sheffler Road, Elmira. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 935-9406.

Pfeiffer Vineyards, 25040 Jaeg Road, Junction City. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 998-2828.

RainSong Winery, 92989 Templeton Road, out of Cheshire. Noon to 5 p.m. 998-1786.

Saginaw Vineyards, 80247 Delight Valley School Road, Cottage Grove. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 942-1364.

Secret House Vineyards Winery, 2 miles west of Veneta on Highway 126. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 935-3774.

Silvan Ridge/ Hinman Vineyards, 27012 Briggs Hill Road southwest of Eugene. Noon to 5 p.m. 345-1945.

Sweet Cheeks Winery, 27007 Briggs Hill Road, Eugene. Noon to 6 p.m. 349-9463.

Territorial Vineyards and Wine Co., 907 W. Third Ave. Eugene. 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. 684-9463.

CAPTION(S):

Bex Wankowicz of Sandy (left) gives one of the white wines from Broadley Vineyards a close inspection as she joins friends Doug Couch, Elisabeth Cooper, Tammy Turner and Jon Garber in the cask room during a tour Friday of Lane County wineries. Open houses continue through the weekend. Conrad Pfeiffer (left) takes a break from pouring wine to provide live music Friday for visitors to the small tasting room at High Pass Road Vineyards southwest of Monroe. Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard Wine-tasting brings visitors out onto the back roads, where a car approaches Silvan Ridge/Hinman Vineyards south of Veneta.