So once upon a time I did study culinary arts here in Portland. I reside on the west side of town and not far from Wine Country. In fact, I'm literally just a few minutes away from the nearest winery at the North and of the Willamette Valley here and then you can spend the entire summer driving South and hitting wineries. But you know in terms of the Oregon wine industry, it's a long one. Yeah, I think like many wine producing regions in the United States the wine industry here dates back to the mid 1800s with the early settlers, you know on the west coast and but it wasn't until The late 1960s early 1970s when the I'd say the roots pun intended. Okay, the roots of today's wine industry were planted and you know, it was in 1979. This is a fun story. 1979 an Oregon wine maker named David let who founded irie Vineyards and I believe I think they're in Dundee just down about 45 minutes away from here traffic depending he entered a Pinot Noir into a wine competition in France anyone first place beating out other French pinot noirs. And so that very quickly placed Oregon on the map. So to speak of a region that produces or has the potential to produce quality wine, and it was shortly after that. And I think this is back in the early 80s. I can remember a commercial a TV commercial Where there were a couple of French winemakers looking at a map of the United States and this is all about Oregon wines. Okay, and they found Oregon on the map and between the two of them. They were saying oh, well, this looks like a suburb of California California wines having already been established at that point and in notable and you know, Oregon wines and Oregon itself was really an unknown sort of a place but thanks to David let and Pinot Noir that was really the beginning. I think of more notoriety around the world for Oregon wines now. um, I think currently Oregon Has 18 avas so American viticultural areas. These officially designated want a grape growing regions, you know, depending the climate and depending on the terror War right which is the the flavor that the wine picks up from all of the natural elements, whether it's the the soil composition or the the rain quantity the sunlight quantity the temperature the cloudiness all those sort of elements all rolled into one are referred to as the terroir and so generally speaking from about Portland right where I am. Self through the Willamette Valley is a relatively cool part of the world and you know, hence, you know, a wine like Pinot Noir grows very well here has been compared in quality to Burgundian. You know Pinot noir's which have been the standard Bearer right of quality for a very very long time. But if we get outside of the lamet valley a first of all east of the Cascade mountain range into Central and Eastern, Oregon, but in this case along the Columbia river, which separates Oregon from Washington, we get into much warmer or even hotter climates and so there's a whole different set of avias and style of wines. So namely bigger red wines and overall wines that really Even hotter conditions and this is also true of the avas that are located in southern Oregon. So basically from Eugene which is at the southern end of the lament Valley from Eugene down to the California border. That's a relatively hot or you know warm or hot region of the state. And so there's a whole different set or menu of wines that are produced down there, but they're very the many many different styles. From True what I described as more traditional profiles European sort of flavor profiled wines where the the soil flavor the the minerals for example are much more prominent to more modern styles of wine where the fruitiness is forward. And for a lot of Americans. Those are easier to drink for example, okay, but the quality here, you know is some of it is Top Notch, you know and the depends on how much you know, your budget is like so many other food products, but certainly to spend time in the wine regions of Oregon is a popular summertime, you know past time for a lot of tourists and I think a lot of fun make arrangements ahead of time because it can get Crowded. All right, there's also bicycle tours of wineries during the summertime which can be a very fun. Okay, but do keep in mind right that drinking and driving a bicycle will also get you in trouble around here. just saying