Wine & Dine & Truffling Time | Mushroaming - Daniel Winkler's Webpages Dedicated to Mushrooms and Nature Tours

Integrating the Oregon Truffle Festival MushRoaming is offering a pre-festival

Wine, Dine & Truffle Time Tour

in Oregon’s beautiful wine country, January 24-28, 2018

guided by Daniel Winkler

The Wine & Dine & Truffling Time Tour starts on Wednesday evening. We will meet in downtown Portland. During a multic-course mushroom dinner at the famous Imperial in walking distance from our hotel we will get to know each other. Thursday morning we will leave Portland and search out a Douglas fir forest close to the picturesque Oregon wine country, where our first outdoor fungal adventure will take place. We will be hunting for the famous and delicious Oregon white truffle (Tuber gibbosum) and when possible also for Oregon black truffle (Leucangium carthusianum) with a trained truffle dog and an expert truffle hunter.

After the truffle hunt, we will visit local wineries and/or a farm specializing in olive oil production. We will be received with wines and olive oils to taste and appetizers to compliment the experience. The afternoon will conclude with an educational visit to Newberg’s new Wine Center in Dayton. Next destination will be the Best Western in Newberg, in the heart of Oregon's wine country, eight miles from Dayton. We will check in and get ready for dinner.

Thursday evening we plan to delight in a multi-course truffle and mushroom meal at the famous Joel Palmer House located in Dayton. Joel Palmer House is on the National and Oregon Historic register and dates back to 1857; Chef Christopher Czarnecki took over the restaurant in 2008, which was founded by his great-grand father. Already his grand father focused on "fine dining with wine and wild mushrooms". Not surprisingly Joel Palmer House is regarded as one of America's leading restaurants, when it comes to mycophagy, or better the art of preparing culinary wild mushrooms.

After an early breakfast on Friday, we will board our mini-van to drive to a gorgeous waterfall for an easy hike in Oregon's lush green forests. After the walk we will continue our drive to Eugene (the distance from Dayton to Eugene is 85 mi). We expect to arrive at the Eugene Hilton approximately at 3 pm to check into our rooms. Many of the events of the Truffle Festival will conveniently take place in the Eugene Hilton.

Banner for the 2018 Oregon Truffle Festival

The program of the Oregon Truffle Festival will start Friday afternoon, January 26, and last through Sunday afternoon, January 28. You can look up the detailed weekend program at the Oregon Truffle Festival page. All group participants are receiving the "Experience One Epicurious package" as part of the Wine & Dine & Truffling Time tour. Content of the Epicurious Package is listed below. Should you prefer an urban experience in Eugene let us know, you can chose the Urban Forager program, that substitutes Saturday's forest truffle hunt and vinyard visit with an urban adventure visiting a brewery and winery, restaurant luncheon and Market Hall finale in the oldest part of town.

Also this year OTF has registered as a non-for-profit.

Note: Should you like a different package for the Oregon Truffle Festival please let me know asap and I will purchase a different ticket for you. Since OTF provides transport during the Festival this logistically no problem (price difference to be covered by participant). However, attending events before Friday afternoon would require participant to have his/her own transport to leave the tour earlier)

Experience One: The Epicurious: $675 per person (included in tour price of $1890 !)

Oregon black truffles shaved on pasta

2018 Program

Friday night the 2^nd Annual Oregon Truffle MacDown.
Saturday morning breakfast – Hilton Eugene.
Saturday truffle hunt and winery luncheon or the all new: Urban Forager Tour in Eugene (.
Grand Truffle Dinner - Saturday evening
Sunday Brunch at the Hilton
The Oregon Truffle Marketplace Truffle Marketplace – Sunday

Tour Costs 2018

$1890 per person in double room (9+ participants)
$1990 when 6 (minimum) to 8 people

(single room extra $250)

Pre-registration & Registration

Included: Transportation from Thursday morning between Portland downtown and Eugene, standard level rooms, breakfasts in Eugene and Newberg, dinners & "minimal" wine during the pre-festival tour, The Epicurious ticket to the Oregon truffle festival with all its benefits. Hotel rooms from Wednesday afternoon in Portland to Sunday morning in Eugene.

Not included: travel to Portland and from Eugene, airport shuttles, Any other hotel expenses such as breakfast in Portland, room bar, internet, laundry, dog fees etc., lunch on Friday in Eugene, gratuity to driver & guides.

Nuts and bolts:
Best is to arrive in Portland OR by Wednesday late afternoon. Departure Sunday afternoon from Eugene, OR.
Everyone makes their own travel arrangements before and after the truffle tour.

You are welcome to bring your dog, just be aware there is extra fees in hotels and you would need your own transportation.

For the truffle hunts it is good to bring warm clothing that also keeps you dry, should we encounter some rain. Also bring good footwear, gardening gloves and a headlamp could be helpful in the young dense Douglas fir stands. In addition a sealable glass or plastic container for storing the fresh truffles with butter, which will absorb their aroma. However a gallon ziplock bag might do too..

Beautiful Oregon wine country in fall

Daniel Winkler sniffing truffle

Daniel sniffing Oregon black truffles (Leucangium carthusianum) and also holding some Oregon White Truffles (Tuber gibbosum).

Last revision 4-27-2018

Page first uploaded Aug. 3, 2013

My Pacific Northwest Truffle Page

New Article: Truffles of the Pacific Northwest.

read or download

Daniel's Pacific Northwest Truffle Page

Daniel's Article: Truffles of the Pacific Northwest.
Fungi vol: 6.4: 16-19. read or download

Leucangium carthusianum Oregon Black truffle

Oregon Black truffle (Leucangium carthusianum) has a complex fruity pineapple aroma that lends itself for surprising creations.

The Grand Truffle Dinner is the culinary climax of the Oregon Truffle Fest

Chris Czarnecki Joel Palmer House Truffle dinner Participants of the Wine & Dine Truffle Time tour enjoying the excellent multi-course truffle dinner prepared by Chef extraordinaire Chris Czarnecki at the famous Joel Palmer House in Dundee, Oregon.

Freshly collected Oregon whites!

Tuber gibbosum Oregon white truffle The delicious Oregon white truffle (Tuber gibbosum) adds a rich truffly aroma to simple dishes of pasta or more complex dishes. It has an aroma reminiscent of garlic, cheese and other difficult to describe hints.

View of Silver Falls in Central Oregon. Walking in the fresh air in the mild Oregon winter is a welcome opportunity to easily "walk off" some of the incredible food we have enjoyed on previous days.

James 'Animal' Novak and his Lagotto Romagnolo truffle dog August at work digging for Oregon Black truffles. Lagottos are a special dog breed from Romagnolo region in Italy that have been used as truffle dogs for centuries.

Authentic truffle oil or butter is infused by keeping fresh mature truffles in a closed container (lids are not shown) with an oily food item that will absorb the truffle aroma. Depending on the amount and ripeness of the truffle it takes 1 to 3 days. Note that truffles are on folded paper towels (rice grains work too). If they end up sitting in their own juice they go bad quickly.
Here I am infusing cold pressed virgin olive oil and butter. I also infused all kinds of nuts, chocolates, eggs and cheeses. All very tasty! And the butter keeps the awesome aroma for at least a year when frozen.

Many truffle oils or other truffle products have chunks of truffle, which - especially when cheap - often are from basically aroma-free dirt-cheap Chinese truffles (Tuber sinense). The aroma is then provided by adding bis(methylthio)methan a.k.a. 2,4-dithiapentane, which is one of the 2 dozen or so odor components of a wild truffle.