In early August 2026, I’m planning a visit to Portland and have 2 days to explore select wineries. On this, my 3rd visit to the Willamette Valley, I’m hoping to locate wineries which offer unique and different types of experiences. Can you please recommend wineries that offer any of these: (1) a tour of the vineyard and/or winemaking facility, (2) wine tasting in wine cellar and/or from barrels, (3) maybe a visit to a cooperage, and (4) other types of unique experiences? Thank you very much for any and all suggestions!
The first two options are fairly easy to do. Goodfellow and Morten-Long quickly spring to mind as far as places that do tastings in a cellar.
The better question is, what have you enjoyed in the past and what wineries have you visited?
Hi Keith – thanks for the reply! Trip #1 included: Domaine Serene, Carlton Winemakers Studio, Chehalem, and Sineann. Sineann was our favorite experience drinking from the barrels and meeting Peter Rosback was a treat! On that trip, I also attended the first ever “Portland Indie Wine Fest” in 2003.
Years later in July 2021 (Trip #2), I visited Penner-Ash, Roots Wine Company, Brooks Winery (vineyard tour & tasting), Le Cadeau, and lastly Beckham Estate. On this trip, Brooks and Beckham were among our favorites.
On this upcoming Trip #3, I’m hoping to visit boutique wineries (like you mentioned) as well as others that offer memorable tasting experiences and the opportunity to interact with the winemakers personally.
If you want to walk vines, should see if @ShelbyPerkins has time to see you.
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The Studio experience has changed pretty dramtically since 2003. It would be worth a revisit. Full disclosure, I make the PROJECT M wines there. I’d be happy to show you around the cellar if we set it up in advance. Not sure of the rules here, but you can get in touch with me here.
Several good suggestions already. All of them are worth your consideration. I might add that there are a two or three threads in wine talk that have a fair bit of recent info. A few suggestion relative to what sounds like a goal of smaller places and/or unique visits.
- Vincent fits the bill. Plenty of board info there. And also at his facility Championship Bottle makes their wine there. Either or both would be great
- I had a very nice visit at White Walnut last fall. Excellent wines at a very small place
- Not sure it’s what your looking for, but Granville was also a nice visit - might not be what you’re going for as it’s a bit more polished and not tasting in the cellar, etc but a beautiful view and the wines are very good
- Crowley makes excellent wine and you taste where they make they make their wine and have space at the winery they work within
- If you can connect with Matt Kinne at Mckinlay it doesn’t get much smaller and talking directly with the wine maker
- I wasn’t able to connect with him last fall as I was there during harvest, but Junichi Fujita is one of the new producers who I think is doing some interesting things.
- in the eola- amity hills Violin is another board participant who des great stuff and would fit some of your criteria.
- Cristom also offers some of what you are looking for - although I think some of those “experiences“ are priced pretty high
- Evesham Wood/Hayden Fig is a nice place and does a longer tour/vineyard walk/tasting that is very reasonably priced for the type of visit
- a nice afternoon would be a violin visit followed by the longer visit to Evesham wood
- Lastly, since you mentioned unique experiences, I very highly recommend one of the tastings at Antica Terra. They are $$$, but it is among the most unique things I’ve done in the Willamette Valley… And I have visited most years for the last 25 years. The tastings they put on feature, not just their own wines, but also other great bottles from across the world. It is totally unique to what anybody else is doing on the hospitality side of things.
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@ShelbyPerkins should be first on your list!
If you want unique the Antica Terra tastings are about as unique as they come. The wines are a little too ripe for my tastes but I love the format of the tastings where you taste other great wines of the world alongside their wines.
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@gavin.f and @Robert_Dentice – thank you for the recommendation to reach out to @ShelbyPerkins. She was kind enough and welcoming to set aside time to meet with us during our visit on August 7th.
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@mmeyers & @Keith_A_k_e_r_s & @Jerry_Murray – Thank you ALL for your awesome suggestions. With so many amazing wineries to visit, its hard to select just a few during my 2-day visit. Because we will be taking our time visiting each winery, I have decided to visit only 2 wineries per day, with lunch between.
Here’s our tentative itinerary: (changes are certainly possible)
Thursday August 6th: Martin Woods Winery (Cellar Tasting), then lunch @ Cypress Restaurant in the Atticus Hotel, followed by a visit to Arabilis Wine for a seated tasting of traditional method sparkling wines, and if time permits afterwards, maybe a quick visit to Coelho Winery.
Friday August 7th: Perkins - Harter Winery (Vineyard Tour & Tasting), Lunch Picnic @ P.H., then over to Johan Vineyards for a tour and tasting.
Again, thank you all for your suggestions and recommendations. I sincerely appreciate them.
Shelby is the best!
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Aw 
miss you guys @Robert_Dentice come back out for a visit soon!
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I use Coelho’s facility to make my wines. I moved in there after Lingua Franca moved out, 10 years ago. If I’m at the winery on Thursday we can taste barrels.
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