Oregon Beyond Pinot Noir
A Visit to Smith Tea and Coava Coffee
Throughout 2018, the Domaine Roy team will be venturing beyond our vineyards to explore various Oregon producers that draw similar attention to detail in their quest for excellence. As the Willamette Valley is gaining international recognition for its wines, we want to discover other beverages renowned for their quality in Oregon. In our first edition, “Beyond Pinot Noir”, we celebrate the craftsmanship of such producers by visiting Coava Coffee and Steven Smith Teamaker in Portland.
When we arrived at Coava Coffee’s new roasting plant on Main Street, we were welcomed by a cup of Mr. David Mburu, named after one of their prized farmers in Kenya. We are informed that Coava is the sole buyer of Mr. Mburu’s entire crop every year. Coava’s selective partnerships with growers ensure sustainable practices. For example: if a natural disaster strikes in Kenya, Coava pays the farmer what they were promised, even though the crop will be limited or damaged. This protects producers from folding, allows the farmer to reinvest into their farms, and get back to producing at the highest level of quality.
Coffee Review rates the coffee we are drinking an astonishing 96 points. It is the attention to long-term relationships with farmers that allow Coava to import coffee beans at the pinnacle of their quality, year after year. Once Coava receives the fruit, their quest for quality continues. Until very recently, Coava was the only roaster in America to use a sorting table in the roasting facility. Usually, sorting tables are used in coffee plantations to sort the good and bad berries before they are shipped to roasters. Because of the direct correlation between density and quality, sorting the processed beans once again before roasting allows Coava to separate the top 1% of the beans from the rest, yielding a coffee with amazing complexity and an utterly clean mouth feel.
After our Coava visit, we headed to Steven Smith Teamaker to partake in a botanical tea tasting. Immediately, we start noting profound similarities between aromatics in tea and Pinot Noir.We learn the complexities of tea harvest, in which a single crop or “flush” extends over 45 days or more, depending on the origin and climate. Like Oregon Pinot Noir, tea leaves thrive in ideal conditions where wet and cold mornings quickly give way to hot and sunny days, followed by cold and brisk evenings. After harvest, adjustments can be made during the production processes of withering, rolling, and drying leaves to correct for imperfections. Additionally, perfect leaf conditions can be highlighted to bring out the most of flavor and aromatic experiences.
The comparison between flushes on day 6 and 50 of the same Darjeeling is enlightening. Set in the foothills of the Himalayas, the variation of the leaves from the organic garden of Steinthal allow for Tony and his team to constantly reengineer the recipe in order to achieve the right profile and extract the utmost balance of flavor. Their goal isn’t to create the same exact tea year after year but to embrace fluctuations rather than aim for a strict recipe; it is about a balancing act of nuances. It reminds us how we aim for purity and transparency and want to let each vintage of Domaine Roy tell a tale of place and time.
As if we hadn’t observed enough overlap between the worlds of wine and tea, we taste their Jing Mai, a tea whose leaves have been scented in wine barrels. Just like an Oregon Pinot, this tea showcases earthy notes, minerality and dark fruit. As part of our collaboration, Steven Smith Teamaker is allocating a small quantity of their Jing Mai black tea from Yunnan, China scented in a French oak Pinot Noir barrel. It’s available as a loose-leaf tea in a two ounce bag with a tea strainer and can be ordered in the offer below.
After visiting these skilled craftsmen, it was clear that coffee, tea and wine are deeply intertwined with the concept of terroir. The environment, soil, orientation, altitude, and climate determine how the plants will thrive and produce the very best crop possible. Once nature has done its work, it comes down to attention to detail and meticulous care from the production side to allow for the creation of beverages that can stand with the best in the country and in the world.
These visits showed a great expression of the parallel between wine, coffee & tea; revealing the vibrant flavors of hand crafted, small production farming. We hope our reputation for quality is a testament to our hard work both in the vineyards and winery, along with collaborations that set us apart.