Oregon Winery Recommendations

[CortneyD]

Do we do this here?
Is this kosher?
Just wondering if any of you have winery recommendations for the Willamette Valley area- Husband and I are trip planning and I always prefer first-person recs to guide books... anyone have some favorites?
Thank you!

 

[sour_grapes]

Do we do this here?

Yes, we do! All the time!

I have had a really lovely time at a small handful of Willamette Valley wineries. Sadly, I cannot recall their names! I just spent some time looking at maps, and my photos, etc., and cannot figure it out. I have been to some tiny hole-in-the-wall places and some grand, lush, wedding-venue-type places. But dang it if I can find the names....

 

[CortneyD]

Yes, we do! All the time!

*Phew!* I didn't want to break any rules or offend anyone, but I couldn't think of a better lot to get recommendations from than this bunch! Thanks!

 

[winemaker81]

While I can't offer advice on wineries to hit, I can explain what I do when planning a winery tour.

I search for "wine trails", which provides a group of wineries to consider and provides links to their sites. I also use GoogleMaps, and magnify the map until I can see wineries listed on the map, which usually gives me a link to their sites. From there I read the sites, decide if they sound interesting, and make choices. Part of this is timing -- I allow for an hour at a winery (sometimes more) and consider the time between wineries.

Yup -- this can be a fair amount of effort, but without recommendations it works fine. It's not perfect, as some wineries are disappointing (even ones with lots of medals), but it makes for a fun trip.

I'm currently planning a winery tour of the western part of the NY Finger Lakes for July ....

 

[Neb Farmer]

There are a lot of great wineries in the Dundee/McMinnville area. Ponzi is always a good bet, Duckpond makes some good wine (in spite of the name), along with a few others....Eola Hills , Sokol-Blosser, Witness Tree, Stangeland....and in between all of these are many others. Dundee has a tasting room that used to highlight a lot of the local wines.

 

[ibglowin]

Just looked and I have 60 bottles of Oregon Pinot in the cellar so guess that qualifies me to chime in here.

My favorites in no particular order are:

Archery Summit
Beaux Freres
Ken Wright
Sokol -Blosser
Drouhin
Evening Land
Patricia Green
Toil

We spent the better part of 4 days back in 2013 touring wineries and used McMinnville as our base of operations. Loved the area, loved the restaurants and of course loved the wineries. Make sure to save some time to tour the Evergreen Aviation Museum. Hundreds of aircraft of all ages including the new permanent home of the Spruce Goose........

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

I'm currently planning a winery tour of the western part of the NY Finger Lakes for July ....

Ooh. Hunt Country makes a nice ice wine

 

[CortneyD]

Thank you all for the input- its greatly appreciated!!!

 

[berrycrush]

Biggio Hamina is my favorite. Cristom and Eyrie are good but expensive. Siltstone has good QPR too but not sure they do tasting.

 

[ibglowin]

What a crazy coincidence! That was the one small winery we went to via a recommendation by one of the locals in McMinnville. We were impressed enough to walk out with half a case between 2 couples as well as one of the nicest Pinot glasses I have seen to date (very heavy ). He had some very good juice.

Biggio Hamina is my favorite. Cristom and Eyrie are good but expensive. Siltstone has good QPR too but not sure they do tasting.

 

[Raptor99]

I live in a rural area near Portland OR. There are many wineries in the area, including about 7-8 within 10 miles of my house. Sadly, I have not visited many of them (long story...).

The Hood River area has a lot of wineries. Here is a list: The 10 Best Wineries in Hood River to Visit in 2022 If you are coming during the summer, the same route takes you around the "fruit loop" with many orchards and fruit stands. Here is a map showing both wineries and fruit stands: Fruit Loop Map