Moose and I spent a full week as the guest of Stoller Vineyards where we parked behind a stable building in a secluded area of the estate. Mike Haverkate took this photo of the Vintage Highway Airstream just before we departed for Portland.

The whole idea behind “Vintage Highway”—in case you are new to following my travels—is that I pull my vintage, 1972 Airstream Globetrotter trailer on my trips into wine country in search of tasty, new vintages to peddle at Carpe Vino. . .get it?  The concept was put to the test in spades on my 15-day trip across the Pacific Northwest, and I have to say I loved it, especially the week I camped at Stoller Vineyards in Dayton, Oregon, smack dab in the pinot sweet spot of the Willamette Valley.

My shtick is to take my spit-polished Airstream and park on the estate of a winery that is already a friend of Carpe Vino; after I drop the trailer and hook up to water and power, I head out into the neighborhood and make new friends, find new wines.

Airstream at Stoller

I was supposed to be at Stoller for just four nights, but because of the luxury of the full bath in the stable I was parked behind, my hosts graciously granted my request to extend my stay by a few days rather than relocate to the second winery I had planned to visit.  Actually the stable is quite the structure:  on one side are horse stalls; on the other is an indoor, regulation-sized basketball court, with a special sport surface.  I spent a half hour missing lay-ups and free throws one morning. . .I still suck.

To get to the winery from the freeway, I followed my GPS and ended up taking a very short ferry ride across what I think was the Willamette River.  My truck and trailer took up nearly the whole center of the boat for the four-minute crossing.  Since I sensed I was not on a particularly well beaten path, I called the winery and talked to Mike Haverkate, one of Stoller’s first employees, and he offered to meet me in nearby Dayton.