With six award-winning golf courses, 10 outstanding restaurants commanded by Certified Master Chef Derin Moore, and the luxuriously refined Ritz-Carlton gracing the shoreline, Reynolds Lake Oconee has become a well-known community for a number of reasons.
Now, due in large part to Director of Food & Beverage Jason Plazola, Reynolds has added another benefit to its Members’ rich palate of amenities and activities: wine.
Since Plazola’s arrival in March 2016, Reynolds has initiated a rich tradition of hosting a variety of world-class winemakers at the Platinum Members-only Creek Club. Past luminaries have included Violet Grgich of Grgich Hills Estate, Hugh Davies of Schramsberg, and Steve Reynolds of Reynolds Family Winery, among others. Food is served, wine is poured, and an evening of enriching conversation with a winemaker follows.
In September the tradition continued with a visit from David Adelsheim of Adelsheim Vinyard.
“Adelsheim Wines have been featured on the wine lists of The Creek Club, National Tavern, Eighty8 Kitchen + Cocktails, and The Overlook at Great Waters, so we were very excited to finally host the acclaimed winemaker, an icon of Oregon wine,” says Plazola.
For David Adelsheim, the visit was a treat as well. “For a winery, there are three ways to sell wine—directly from the winery, off the shelf at a wine store, and off the list at a restaurant or club,” he explains. “The first two are important, but only the third way truly builds new customers.”
In addition to visiting with Members during dinner, Adelsheim also dedicated time to sit with the Reynolds staff.
“The only way people can learn about our wines in their normal life is if someone in a club or restaurant recommends our wines. However, no waitperson is going to go out on a limb and recommend a wine to a customer without having first had the chance to taste that wine.”
To accomplish this, the staff tasted the six wines Adelsheim presented to Members at dinner: two wines from the general appellation, Willamette Valley (their latest Pinot Gris and a Rosé made entirely from Pinot Noir); a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir, the two wines that best illustrate their entire home appellation, the Chehalem Mountains; and finally, the two single vineyard wines (again a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir) that illustrate the precision and purity that is possible only in their Oregon valley.
To Plazola, the visit provides an invaluable learning opportunity for his staff. “Having David visit with our team is an enriching experience that will help them bring that story and knowledge to our Members’ dining experiences.”
Oregon is a long way from Lake Oconee, but for Adelsheim these visits are an absolute perk of the job. “One of the things I enjoy most about what I get to do is turning people on to the wines of the Willamette Valley, so getting to do a dinner at The Creek Club with Reynolds Lake Oconee Members is a special joy. At least two tables explained that Reynolds was actually a wine club that just happened to have some outstanding golf available!”
To learn more about David Adelsheim and Adelsheim Vineyard, please visit here.here.
