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Fruit is king at Honeywood Winery
By Ed Malles
from Salem Monthly, Section
Posted on Thu Jan 31, 2008 at 11:22:12 PM PDT

In the Mid-Willamette Valley, we have a certain expectation of a tasting room. Pinot is king, and subtle, dry reds rule. In the last few decades, this is what we have become known for, what people have come to associate our region with.
But there is another fork in the wine road that is less explored, one of fruit tastes and summertime, lesser-known varietals and yes, Pinots, of course. This road leads to Honeywood Winery, located in downtown Salem. Step into their tasting room and the flavors and essences of summer reign supreme.
Oregon's oldest winery, dating back to the 1930s, Honeywood began before the Pinot revolution, and this tradition remains strong in their wonderfully diverse offerings of fruit wine. Their mainstays have always been based on the native fruit of the valley: loganberries, marionberries and blackberries. Many wine drinkers have never stopped to smell the roses, so to speak, and have never given fruit a chance. Honeywood makes a strong case for doing just that.

There are three main divisions in Honeywood's tasting room, varietal/grape wines, fruit wines, and specialty wines. The varietal/grape wines include most of the usual suspects -- Merlot, Pinot, Chardonnay -- but also some you may not have tried, such as Marechal Foch, a lovely red with a rich bold flavor that is sure to become more of a star in its own right in our region (it really only began to be cultivated here in the last few decades).

The fruit wines run the gamut from old standards, such as blackberry and marionberry, to new visions that demand a taste -- pear wine is delectable, and our state fruit to boot.

The specialty challenges any preconceptions you might have. Blackjack, a hard apple cider married to a lovely hint of blackberry, stands out as not only delicious in the full sense of the word, but also up and coming as far as demand goes with the renewed interest in cider in recent years.
But the proof is in the tasting. It's one thing to know of fruit wines, and it's another to taste them. The winemaker's art shines through in the concentration of the flavors, the mixing of the sweet and the tart, and the distillation of the essence of the fruit, and this care shows when you taste one of the fruit or specialty wines for the first time. Pomegranate Supreme is a vivid example of this. It is not a mouth-puckeringly tart fruit juice, nor is it overbearingly sweet; it is a delicate mix of the two, and unlike anything you've tasted before. Your taste buds will gladly wrap themselves around this dance of sweet and tart.

The tasting room at Honeywood, warm and welcoming, offers a wine lover the chance to combine a standard wine tasting experience with something most of us have not enjoyed in a while -- the feeling of being a kid in a candy shop. The flavors there on the menu almost demand that you relax and let your inner child come out. They take the art of winemaking seriously, but they offer an energizing difference. Here you can stand on your tiptoes and smile at the chance to try a currant, a peach, or even a cranberry. There is a hint of Willy Wonka here, indeed, but beyond that is a celebration of the native flavors of Oregon, and an invitation to a celebration of new tastes, new flavors, and a new appreciation.

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