We are thinking of heading to Willamette/Portland this Thanksgiving. Of course historically a weekend of winery open houses. Has anyone heard of plans (and restrictions) this year? Those in the biz?
Paul
Hi Paul,
My future mother-in-law works at Elizabeth Chambers in McMinnville. She said a majority of wineries will be open using a reservation based system. I’ve been to the valley for tastings twice this year and have had good experiences both times. The restaurant situation was nice because they had shut down the main downtown street of McMinnville for dining (BTW Pizza Capo is great) but I’m not sure how it will be arranged now that it’s getting colder. I wouldn’t hesitate to visit but to each their own.
On a side note, I’m a big Rhone fan and have heard great things about your wines. I’ll get my hands on some soon!
Dave
Funny I came here to say just that - just saw that Halcon is being distributed in the UK now (or, just now with one of the primary distributors I work with). Just became much easier to get my hands on some. 
Likely no big open houses like normal Thanksgiving weekends. If places are open, they will most likely be by appointment.
We will be a part of the event at August Cellars Friday and Saturday 11-5. Reservation appointments are requested but not required.
I live in Portland and the Heathman hotel has a nice dinner, but you have to make reservation well in advanced. For the wine country trip, defiantly plan ahead. Reservations are limited.
You can be less strident. Just plan ahead.
Not sure what we’re doing. Definitely not an open house. Might only do wine pick-up. Do regular tasting reservations during the week but pretty sure if we tried to do a reservation system on those weekends we’d get way too many people dropping in and want to avoid that situation.
Yeah, I usually am part of a Thanksgiving open house at the winery but no plans for that this year. Currently I’m offering tasting by appointment now that I have more time as harvest gets closer to wrapping up. On Thanksgiving weekend I will likely not be around just as Jim says, to avoid confusion. Sigh.
Thanks for all the postings from Willamette wine makers! In case folks are wondering if the ‘reservations are limited’ sentiments are hype or shtick - they are not. I was just in the Willamette last week visiting wineries on a Friday/Saturday and because of personal shenanigans ended up planning most at the last minute. I got a few nice visits in, but most I tried for were completely booked (coincidentally including PGC and Vincent Wines). Luckily I was able to obtain some good local stuff at Valley Wine Merchants in Newberg (highly recommended) and conduct professional unguided private tastings in my AirBnB 
.
Sounds like you made the best of it!
My wife and I visited the Willamette Valley in mid-August, it was our first time there, and we had an amazing time. I’m not sure how things have changed since then, as it was about 2 months ago, and these days things change pretty quickly with COVID and whatnot. Also, I can’t speak to how Thanksgiving weekend will impact things but I’ll share a little about my somewhat recent visit below.
As far as wineriers go, we visited Evesham Wood/Haden Fig, Belle Pente, and Argyle. Argyle was a spur of the moment thing, whereas Evesham Wood and Haden Fig were planned a few weeks ahead of time. We made reservations for both via email. Highly recommend all 3. Evesham Wood and Haden Fig were very personal and intimate tastings. At Belle Pente it was just us and the winemaker, and at Evesham Wood/Haden Fig it was just us and one of the employees. The wines were extremely impressive at all 3, especially Evesham Wood/Haden Fig and Belle Pente. I won’t get too caught up in details on the experiences and wines, as I don’t want to stray off-topic, but feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
As far as restaurants and attractions, I can’t recall anything being closed, or any major inconveniences due to COVID. The only item that comes to mind was space was VERY limited in restaurants even with outdoor seating. This wasn’t an issue as we made reservations about 2 weeks in advance for everything, but we did notice that time slots were somewhat limited even so far in advance, so just be cognizant of that. Also, we needed to change one of the reservations with about 48 hrs notice, and it was tough rescheduling for another time because of the limited availability. The one take away here is to be sure to make reservations far in advance, 2 weeks minimum in my opinion.
We ate at Joel Palmer House, Red Hills Kitchen, and at La Rambla for dinner. Again, I don’t want to stray off-topic and get too into detail around the dining experience, but we loved all 3. If you enjoy coffee be sure to check out Flag & Wire Coffee. Community Plate was amazing for breakfast and Red Hills market was great for lunch.
Hope this helps!
I cant speak highly enough of our experience with Vincent and Jim’s team - hopefully they’re able to accommodate!
Oregon Wine Press just started soliciting info for the open houses, so you should have a better idea in a couple of weeks as to who is open. I’m closed.
This has been a matter of speculation among many of the locals too. The places that I’ve heard are going to be open all have reservations only systems set up, but I haven’t heard from most. Heater Allen will be closed (from a Tap Room perspective this may be permanent), but we will hopefully have an establishment pouring our beer in Mac Market (see below).
The dining situation will be interesting at best. Most places are open with a combination of a few indoor spaces and a few more outside. I’m not sure how much outdoor dining is going to happen in November. Personally, I’m not comfortable dining inside at most restaurants in McMinnville right now. Space is tight and ventilation wasn’t a real consideration when most venues were built a hundred years ago. The one intriguing place for me is Mac Market - a relatively new place located out closer to where the wineries (and my brewery) are mostly situated. They have a huge, airy space in an old glove factory that was totally rebuilt in the last couple years. They have a food truck or two out front, and they’re looking at having a food option inside as well.
this is very unfortunate to read, I hope you are able to survive!
We’ll be closed that weekend. While we’re wrapping up harvest and probably able to see some appointments in November, we don’t have any way to accommodate open hours or any significant number of people.
Actually it’s a growing pains thing. We need the Tap Room space for other purposes as we expand. We’ll find space elsewhere in town for a Tap Room on the other side of COVID.
Excellent! Can’t wait to come visit again in the post-covid world!
Thanks for all the info. Based on this feedback I think we are going to wait until the spring. Hopefully the covid situation will be improving and the weather will be more compatible with outdoor dining.
Paul