Trip to Willamette Valley and Oregon Coast

Wife and I took a trip out to Oregon last week. We captured a few great shots of the Oregon coast and our wine tastings along with some familiar people. We could not have asked for a better time in Oregon and would not have been nearly as enjoyable without the recommendations of the folks on this board. I don’t think we would have found places like 3rd Street flats, La Rambla, Community Plate, Red Hills Kitchen, Flag and Wire, etc. Shoutout to Marcus Goodfellow, Dustin Swenson at Kelley Fox via Matt Stolz on this board, Erica and Ken at Walter Scott, Ben at Brittan, Jacob at McKinley, and Aaron at Eyrie for hosting us in these difficult times. Outside of Brittan we had never visited or had any of these wines. I can’t emphasize enough the level of quality coming out of these places today.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Wow, you packed a lot into a week! What did you end up buying?

We bought at all the places we visited! Mostly PN, Chard with a few outliers - Rosé, Riesling, Sparkling wine, Pinot Blanc Rosé, and Syrah.

Nice writeup Gus…glad to hear you enjoyed your trip!

My wife and I took a trip to the Willamette Valley back in the Fall of 2016. It was a fantastic and very memorable vacation. We stayed in McMinnville which for us was a perfect place to stay in the Valley, very centrally located and a good town for walking, etc…

We did the City/Coast/Valley tour…We flew in to Portland and stayed there for two nights. It was our first time visiting Portland and there were lots of great bars and restaurants to try. It’s a cool city and I am glad we stayed a few nights there. We then drove out to the Oregon Coast to Cannon Beach for two days. Other than you, I have not seen many board members comment on this side trip (as most are focused on the wine scene), but it shouldn’t be missed. Incredibly spectacular scenery, very wild and pristine coastline, huge rock formations in the surf that you can walk out to at low tide, etc…and it’s only like a 2-hour drive from Portland. We then drove from the coast to McMinnville (another only 2-hour drive), and spent three days there visiting wineries and tasting, eating, and just generally enjoying the valley. We visited Biggio Hamina, Goodfellow, White Rose, and many others along the way. A good time for sure. Then we ended our trip by driving back to Portland via the Columbia Gorge route, which was also beautiful scenery.

We found that the mix of city, coast, and wine country was a perfect scenario for our trip. A little bit of everything kept us fresh and invigorated. If it is your first time in that part of the country, you can’t go wrong. I can’t wait to go back…

1 Like

Thanks! Yes, very similar itineraries. We had been to Willamette before but not the coast. Definitely not a place to miss when in Oregon. Remarkable beauty.

Perfet itinerary for a full week. Will have to try this out when my kids are a bit older!