yamhill valley vineyards: summer edition.

seasonal photos for my friends at yamhill valley vineyards!

driving through the yamhill gates and up through their gorgeous vineyard on a day like this one is just so magical! if you're ever cruising through mcminnville or the willamette valley of oregon, be sure to stop by the winery & tasting room at YVV for some wine tasting & charcuterie! they have a lovely tasting room & spacious back patio which is shaded under beautiful trees, overlooking part of the vineyard. 

^^^ mt. hood peeking over the horizon at sunrise.

yamhill has been family owned and operated since 1983 and is one of the oldest wineries in the mcminnville AVA. their staff is extremely friendly & knowledgable on all things wine & the science behind winemaking.  the rolling estate is stunning year-round, especially during the summer and fall, just before harvest! yamhill grows all the fruit utilized in their wines, and they produce many different varieties. my favorites from our latest tasting were the pinot gris, the rosé, and the "tall poppy", yamhill's signature specialty pinot noir.

it is a funny trip down memory lane to look at yamhill's website and spot some photos that i took during my first visit there back in 2011!! i really do love going there! :)

thanks for having me, yamhill! i'm excited to come back this fall to experience my first harvest!

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romantic backyard valentine's day dinner :)

i'd been dreaming & scheming up this dinner scene all last week.  we didn't have any real valentine's day plans or things we wanted to do, so i thought we could do something fun at home.  thankfully the seattle weather cooperated with us and we were able to execute our lady & the tramp inspired italian dinner out in our backyard.  i recently watched the video of the

dinner scene

from that movie; it was so cute and made me so happy...i forgot how sweet that movie is since it was never one of my top disney favs.  

peter got me these beautiful orange/red/yellow tulips the day before valentine's day.  they are so bright and lovely! for our dinner, i made homemade meatballs, spaghetti, and some garlic toasts with havarti cheese.  shout out to our friend jenny's family winery,

yamhill valley vineyards

, for supplying our choice vino for the occasion.  we have been saving the bottles we bought during our visit there last summer.  i'm glad we busted out the 2009 pinot noir reserve for our special dinner date (2009 was a "good year" in oregon wine country...i think...right jenny? does anybody read this? anyway, the wine was delicious in my book). 

here are some photos of our dinner scene.  i am so glad we were able to reuse the wooden heart light we made for peter's cousin's wedding last year!

rosemary [from our yard!] for blood orange & rosemary water.  very light and refreshing!

in my original lady & the tramp scheme, i wanted a red and white checkered table cloth, but didn't find one in time.  i like how the stripes looked, though!

my sweet pete hung up the heart light for me

and he made a fire in the fire pit!  it was feeling aaalmost summer-y out there.

i bought pete the delicious grapefruit ipa by ballast point brewing.  it is ultra delightful.

meatball makings.  i omitted photos of the meat, because raw meat photos would be gross in a line-up of photos with flowers and candles and general cutesy-ness.

i wanted to show this little cast iron dutch oven that my grandma recently mailed to me. she told me it was actually her mother's! we couldn't figure out how old it probably is, but i am glad that i have it now :)

our wee little backyard area

dinner is served.  

the only thing we were missing was some olde italian jamz.  nope, we did not recreate the spaghetti kiss. you're welcome.

my fancy backwards-capped, flannel wearing valentine. i love him.  [he's wearing my uncle's old hat with horses on it that says, "designated driver." haha]

happy valentine's day!

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