Article on Champagne in Portland

Why Portland Is America’s Champagne Capital.

“I travel frequently to New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, and in my opinion, Portland has the best Champagne selection,” says Julie Gulla, a wine collector who works in finance and is an aficionado of grower-producers like Cédric Bouchard and Pascal Doquet. “For years now, enthusiasts in Portland have been dedicated to finding and sourcing fantastic Champagnes.”

Let the one-up-man-ship begin.

Bar Vivant and Ambonnay are both fantastic. And Kate Bolling at Oregon Wines on Broadway drinks(and sells) a ton of great Champagnes.

Great timing! We’re headed there this weekend! At home, we open ten bottles of champagne for every still wine.

Thanks!

Warren

My basement alone is cause for either celebration or grave concern depending on your perspective.

We do okay in the Midwest.

Love our Portland friends!

I first met Peter Liem when he was a resident of Portland and the Champagne bar that he was a part of had something to do with kicking up the culture there. Kate caught the bug from him (and initially introduced us).

Can’t even imagine, knowing Kate’s proclivity.

RT

I know I’m doing my part. It’s my biggest single holding, eclipsing any other Region. Can’t wait to get back from this work trip tonight and pop a bottle with my wife.

Interesting!!!
I assume it was not always so!?

Until shipping became problematic I bought a lot of my Champagne from Vinopolis in Portland.

Being spoiled here in PDX is an understatement. Grateful to explore new Champagnes regularly with all the options there are.

From the article Jim linked, “Besides its deep wine knowledge, the staff at Ça Va is trained in anti-racism, nonbinary hospitality, and sexual assault awareness, all of which serves to create a safe, welcoming space.”

Outstanding, Jim!

Ooops, wrong Portland.

That trend has evolved at our household over the last 20 years. We initially reserved Champagne and sparkling wine for special occasions, then gradually fell in love with champagne and simultaneously discovered it can pair with virtually anything.

Yesterday, we did our first Portland Champagne Crawl. We started at:

Oregon Wines on Broadway, where we had the following fantastic flight for Cedric Bouchard:

Roses de Jeanne Inflorescence Blanc de Noirs Côte de Val Vilaine
Roses de Jeanne Blanc de Noirs Les Ursules
Roses de Jeanne Inflorescence Blanc de Noirs Cote de Bechalin


We then walked to Park Avenue Wines for this flight:

Tenuta San Michele Sparkling Nerello Mascalese; very fruit forward, needed salty and spicy food to tame its exuberance
Filipa Pato Sparkling Rosé of Baga and Bical; my first sparkler from Portugal, and I was impressed. Very dry, savory, with a long finish
Diebolt Vallois Tradition; serviceable; I’ve liked other wines from this producer more.

Lastly, we visited Ambonnay. That has to be the highest concentration of grower champagnes per square foot of any wine bar. We loved it! Lots of my favorites there, but I went for a wine I’d never tried:

Éric Rodez Blanc de Noirs; complex, beautiful vinous champagne.

Portland is a great city for champagne.

Cheers,

Warren

That’s an interesting evolution to champagne dominant wine drinking. We have only recently started drinking champagne more frequently than just for special celebrations, and are enjoying it, so we’ll see where we go with that.
Your “Champagne Crawl” sounds wonderful. What a great idea and one that we will adopt. I have mixed feelings though about the word “crawl” next to champagne. On the one hand, it IS inclusive and brings the champagne drinker into the community of his fellow drink wanderers. On the other hand, perhaps the word “crawl” could be replaced by something more suitable. How does “Champagne Sashay” sound to you?

I worry sashaying might make my glass foam!

Rodez makes sinewy wines. Really underrated by mainstream critics. Peter Liem is a big fan though as am I*.




*Caveat being that I’m not a Champagne fanatic, but I am enjoying Champagne as a food wine, both in the restaurant and at home.

This dinner was one of the best we have ever done, including one with 16 vintages of Rinaldi Brunate with Jamie Wolff.

Jeff Kellogg, whom some may know, served as our Champagne expert.

Good choices! There’s also

http://www.pixpatisserie.com/drinks/

Sec Wines has a fabelous Champagne selection, lots of grower wine…where I get most of bubbles.