Hello
My wife and I will be travelling to Oregon for the first time and staying in Newberg Oregon for 3 nights (Oct 10 - Oct 13)
We are looking forward to sampling wine and produce in the area. We live on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne which is a Pinot Noir region also.
We both love to drink Pinot Noir, i enjoy Pinot that is Light to Medium bodied, fruity and spicy with smooth to subtle tannins.
We are looking for any recommendations on wineries to visit in the area where we can taste the wines available in the area.
I am also looking to take wine back to Australia with me from the cellar door. Is it possible to taste and purchase older vintages (around 2011) from cellar doors? I do understand the smaller wineries will probably not have older vintages open and availabale for tasting.
Thank you in advance for any help.
Hello Aaron,
There are a number of posts on the Board if you use the search function that are full of specific Winery visit and Dining recommendations.
Your visit will be coming in the midst of Harvest here (we’re anticipating our first fruit in late September) so it will be an interesting time to be here. That said, advance appointments would be a good idea anywhere you plan to visit.
Most everyone here sells from the Cellar door if they have wine available but back vintages are usually limited. Tastings of back vintages are rare here and few wineries do them. One winery which sometimes does is Eyrie, also one of our pioneers.
Please send me a PM if I can be of help as you plan your visit.
De Ponte Cellars has 3x 2011s available at their winery right now. You should visit. Bring a snack from Red Hills Market, sit on the deck, pet the dog.
2011 Halsey Pinot Noir
2011 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir
2011 Lonesome Rock Ranch Pinot Noir
Here’s a link to the thread from last week - lots of great suggestions in there:
Thank you very much for the information.
I will be sure to check out the other posts for some advice also.
We visited WV for the first time in August 2015. We visited Archery Summit, White Rose Estate, Matello, Penner Ash, Stoller, Soter, and Sokol Blosser.
While all of our visits were really nice, we personally prefer the cellar door experience where you can sit outside and enjoy a tasting al fresco. We were able to do that most places. Matello, Archery Summit and White Rose made our favorite wines. But chilling outside at Stoller, Sokol Blosser, and Penner Ash was more enjoyable.
Favorite wine of the trip may have been a Walter Scott at dinner. I think you’ll generally find the Oregon styles lighter and higher acidity than the pinots from Mornington. prices will be quite a bit higher.
While we generally choose to taste based more on the ambiance than the wine, I’ve also previously purchased some Longplay wines during BD and thought those were great value for money.
We joined a number of wine clubs following our visit, but have since moved to Sydney and run out of storage space. If you’re staying st the Allison Inn in Newberg you will love it, it’s great. Have a great visit.
I was just out in that area last week but only had a day in and around Newberg. We hit up Patricia Green, Belle Pente and Beaux Freres and preferred them in that order. Patricia Green and Belle Pente were more personable visits and I just loved the PGC wines…can’t recommend them enough. So much good wine out there.
Thank you chris, appreciate it. We also prefer the cellar experiences where you can sit and relax and take in a nice view/environment. We also like the smaller boutique wineries. We will be sure to check out those wineries you mentioned also.
Thank you very much Joe. Will check those ones out too. I take it they are boutique type wineries since you enjoyed the personable feel.
You’d definitely need appointments but all super nice people to deal with.
Aaron – I strongly suggest that you take Andy upon on his offer (Post #2). You won’t be disappointed.
As in PM’ing him or visiting the wineries he suggested?
I would also suggest the private wine tasting at Cristom as they do it up well with some food and barrel tastings. Great time.
Actually, Andy did not suggest any wineries. If you read his signature line, he is a partner in Walter Scott Wines (mentioned by others in this thread). One of the great things about this board is the participation of a number of excellent Oregon wine makers, winery owners and vineyard owners. Based on his ownership position, Andy won’t toot his own horn. But, I will. 
My suggestion is that one of your days should be devoted to the Eola-Amity area. I would recommend Cristom (mentioned in previous post), Walter Scott(very close to Cristom, <5 minutes), Bethel Heights (right next door to Walter Scott) and Evesham Wood (approximately 10 minutes from the previous 3).
Lunch options are slim in the area (Andy may have suggestions). If not, I would suggest taking a good picnic lunch with you and plan on eating lunch on the deck at Bethel Heights.
If you are visiting from Australia, I highly recommend getting some Mexican food while you are in the states. Dos Mundos Food Cart is just on the north end of Newberg Google Maps It’s run by a former cook at the Alison and his family.