By Fred Delkin

 Winery touring and November have become synonymous with holiday pleasure. The great majority of western Oregon’s winemaking sites throw their tasting room doors open for the year’s top sales season.  Our state now has over 120 wineries, with a new one opening virtually every month.  Even our great thirst has prevented us from trying all to date, but we can offer a select group to visit from bases in the Portland area, Salem, Albany, Eugene, Roseburg and Medford.

The greatest concentration of Oregon fermentation sites is in Washington and Yamhill counties, most outfits within 30 minutes of downtown Portland.  However, one needs a touring plan to avoid the madding crowd that now courses Highway 99W, main route to winedom.  We offer an itinerary presenting contrasting winery operations:

From Portland area urbanity, time your departure so you reach Ponzi when tasting room doors open at noon.  This is the closest winery to Portland, 4 ½ miles from Washington Square supermall, off Scholls Ferry Road (and a great argument for urban growth boundaries!).  This is an ancient establishment in the brief modern history of Oregon wine.  It opened in 1974.  Founder Richard Ponzi has now flipped the reins to his well trained offspring.  Three wines are a tasting ‘must’…Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and a dry Riesling.  The peripatetic Ponzis also established Oregon’s first microbrewery (Bridgeport, since sold) and now operate a “food & wine center” in Dundee.

From Ponzi, continue west on Scholls Ferry  (aka Highway 210) to the junction with Hwy. 219, winding up the flank of Chehalem Mountain and offering some inspiring views of the Tualatin Valley.  Cresting the ridge, the road snakes its way down to Newberg.  Find the sign in the center of town designating Hwy. 240 and turn right.  Follow this route for five miles to another right on Ribbon Ridge Road, crossing Chehalem Creek to North Valley Road, where you turn left.

Enjoy a fall breeze

A mile later, you’ll spot the sign on the right designating an uphill driveway to Autumn Wind Vineyard.  Established in 1987, this winery has a tasting room with an excellent view of the Chehalem Valley.  Perhaps the most significant wine here is a Sauvignon Blanc (holy grail for oyster lovers).

Leaving Autumn Wind, turn right on North Valley Road.  Within two miles you’ll reach a left turn onto Laughlin Road.  This takes you winding through a defile in the pastured Chehalem hills for almost five miles to the Willakenzie Estate entrance, where you drive uphill to a state-of-the-art winery.  Three gravity-fed production levels produce wines based upon one of the largest vineyard plots in the state.  French investment dollars and a French winemaker are creating a superb Pinot family (Noir, Gris and Blanc).

Turn right leaving Willakenzie and drive into the village of Yamhill and a junction with Hwy. 47, where you take a northerly right turn and journey 71/2 miles to Gaston.  A left rurn onto NW Olson Road at the south end of town will wend you upward three miles to Elk Cove Vineyards.   The Campbell family began this operation in 1977.  An attractive tasting room is perched atop a ridge that overlooks a bowl of vineyards on one side and a sweeping view of the Coast Range on the other.  Elk Cove has an established national reputation for lighter-style Pinot Noirs and rich late harvest dessert wines.  

Less than a mile to the right of the Elk Cove entry, you’ll find Kramer Vineyards, a rustic reminder (dating from 1989) that a majority of Oregon wineries had very humble beginnings.  The Kramers first made fruit and berry wines before graduating to vnifera.  They now earn recognition for fruity Pinot Noirs and don’t ignore a rich yet dry Blackberry wine to accompany holiday feasting.

Winding up your tour

Now, you’re mellow and ready for the final destination on this day’s sojourn.  Retrace your route back to Gaston, then go left on Hwy. 47 some five miles to Dilley, where a sign leads you left on Dilley Road to Montinore Vineyards.  This impressive, nicely landscaped complex opened in 1987.  It includes a large picnic area and the state’s largest tasting room bar.  No fewer than 300 acres of vineyard have pushed the all-estate bottled wine volume into Oregon’s top five.  Wine quality here is somewhat inconsistent, but your tastebuds will find very reasonably priced regular (avoid purchasing reserve bottlings) Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.

Leaving Montinore, return to Gaston and turn left onto Gaston Road, proceeding to Spring Hill Road and following the signs to Laurelwood, site of an Adventist Academy.  Laurelwood Road then takes you up a steep, forested ridge that opens onto a sweeping valley view at the summit.  Drop down past the country crossroads of Laurel and MIdway to reach Hwy. 219, leading back through Scholls to Hwy. 210 (your outbound route).

Your accomplishments

You’ve tasted all the major grape varietals produced in northern Oregon.  Your palate will have been more than pleased by several tastes along the way.  Yet don’t expect to find great take home prices superior to those of your usual wine retailers.  The big advantage is the ability to taste before you purchase.  You’ve circumvented the constipation of main thoroughfares (which is impossible to avoid in reaching a majority of Yamhill & Washington county wineries).  And you will have seen that there is a lot of room left for growth in our winery/vineyard industry.

If you live south of the Washington/Yamhill concentration of Oregon wineries, you can find relative uncrowded winery tour routes in the Salem, Albany, Eugene, Roseburg and Medford areas.    Following Hwy. 221 north of Salem, you access Bethel Heights, Cristom, Witness Tree, Stangeland, Cuneo, Amity, Kristin Hill, Yamhill Valley and Panther Creek. In Salem itself, you find Honeywood, virtually downtown.  We recommend that you drive south from Salem a few minutes on I-5 to the signed turnoff to Willamette Valley Vineyards.  Here a sumptuous tasting room facility enables you to enjoy some of the new southern Oregon grape vintages, notably a Griffin Creek Merlot.  This large operation also boasts some of the state’s finest winemaking, from a variety of vineyard sites, under the Willamette Valley label.

Albany has a short westward tour route that covers Springhill, Airlie and Serendipity wineries. Just southward, near Corvallis, off 99W, Tyee is a quality-driven operation that is particularly known for Pinot Gris.
 

Eugene wine wanderings

Eugene is gateway to Oregon’s largest wine operation, King Estate, which arguably bottles the finest Pinot Gris for the money in the state and has a showplace headquarters above a vast expanse of vineyards.  On the way to King, driving south from Eugene, one should visit Hinman/Sylvan Ridge, another large (for Oregon) facility offering consistent quality.  Due west of Eugene, reached via Hwy. 126, Secret House has a well established quality reputation, and just south from here off 99W, Chateau Lorane bottles the largest variety (some obscure) of wines in our region.  

Further south, around Roseburg, the Umpqua wine region is actually Oregon’s oldest wine region, where Hillcrest started it all back in the ‘60’s.  North of town, Henry Estate is one of our older wineries, has a healthy export business and is just now turning out some notable Bordeauz-style red blends.  South of Roseburg, Girardet and LaGarza are well worth a short drive.

Oregon’s southernmost vinous outpost is the Rogue region, where a drive southwest of Grants Pass on Hwy. 199 accesses the Illinois Valley, home of Bridgeview and Foris.  Valley View, with an extensive variety of bottlings, a relatively long history and consistent quality, is west of Medford on Hwy. 238, while just south of the Pear City, near Ashland, Weisinger’s and Ashland Vineyards beckon samplers.

There is another holidays tour possibility, driving eastward on I-84.  In the hills just above Hood River, Flerchinger’s and Hood River Vineyards hold forth, and a drive across the Columbia at The Dalles provides an opportunity to visit several new Washington wineries with a Columbia Valley regional designation.  The Bingen, Washington Chamber office can provide directions.

So, if you live anywhere west of the Cascade range, you can visit and taste the winery scene that compares favorably to any of the world’s premium wine production regions.

(Editor’s note: a complete view of Oregon’s wine industry is on the net www.oregonwines.org).