I’m on vacation but Cathartic Ink is not. Enjoy these posts, and I’ll be back with even more content after the end of my Great New England Tour of Aught Nine

One of the many great things about living in the Willamette Valley is that it’s the heart of wine making in Oregon. There are many fabulous wineries all up and down the valley, with several located just a short drive outside of Eugene. Last Friday I joined my husband and his company on a little tour of two of the wineries, Sweet Cheeks Winery and Silvan Ridge Winery for an afternoon of revelry and wine tasting.

We’ve had wines from both wineries before, and I’d originally chosen Sweet Cheeks’ wines because of their amazing labels. I am constantly analyzing the world around me for examples of good design and there’s just something I love about the Sweet Cheeks’ packaging. Their logo can be seen here, on the side of their building:

The winery is located in Crow so the logo just seems so perfectly suited to the business. And to making really lovely labels, because let’s face it, if you’re not a wine enthusiast the label might be what makes you choose one wine over another.

Silvan Ridge was also lovely, although their logo is a bit less noteworthy. Their wines, on the other hand, are quite delicious. We had tried their Early Muscat–a sweet, semi-sparkling wine–before and loved it, enough that we brought a bottle home with us. We also both enjoyed their Pinot Gris. And this trip also solidified in my mind that I just don’t care for red wines. I like their deep, rich color and they smell good to me but in the end? I just don’t enjoy the way they taste. Maybe I just haven’t found the right one yet.

And what trip with a big group of people is complete without some goofing around? At both wineries we played a mini tournament of Rock, Paper, Scissors with the winner taking home a bottle of wine of their choice. Get 20 people in a room and I can promise you that everyone will have a slightly different way to play that game too. We also took a few jumpity photos, like this one here:

All in all, I think everyone had a great deal of fun and we’re definitely planning to visit some of the other local wineries around here before too much time passes.