Taking on New Adventures

I’ve always wanted to go wine tasting in Willamette Valley, Oregon, but thought it would be with Chuck. Oregon Pinot Noir is his favorite wine. But when my friend, Stacey, wanted to do a girls’ trip for her 50th birthday there, I couldn’t say no.

Having never researched the place, other than just to see how many wineries were in the region, I was excited to explore somewhere new. Plus, the bonus was that I had to do no planning!

Stacey rented a house in Dundee for 3 nights so we had a plan to do some wineries nearby most of the time with one day of a vineyard tour with a driver. We were all on board with this plan and it gave us a chance to not only hang out and catch up with each other but see a lot of the Dundee area.

We all gathered at a restaurant near the airport in Portland on Thursday afternoon since we all landed at different times. Once everyone was in town, we hopped into two cars and made our way the hour south to Dundee. We met up at Argyle Winery to do a sparkling wine tasting. It was a fabulous way to start our weekend celebration.

We did dinner at the house and enjoyed some more wine (duh) there. It was a great first night!

On Friday, we planned to just hang out near the house and do the wineries nearby. We started at Potcake Cellars, which was a pleasant surprise. Annette was an amazing host for our group and the wine was great. I loved it so much that Cindy and I went back two more times over the weekend! If you ever go, I highly recommend the 2017 Pinot Noir.

After that, we walked across the street to Red Hills Market. This cute little market had all kinds of options for our group and it was nice to sit down and coat the bellies a bit before drinking more wine. I shared a salad and charcuterie board with Kari and grabbed a glass of Granville Basalt Pinot Noir, not realizing we were hitting their vineyard on Saturday! It was a really good glass of wine, too.

After lunch, we walked a few blocks to Purple Hands Winery for another tasting. I enjoyed their Chardonney a lot more than I thought I would, and the atmosphere in the tasting room among the barrels was really cool. That was our last winery of the day but we took some bottles back to the house from both tasting rooms to finish off the night in style.

On Saturday, we had a driver pick us up early to take us to three vineyards for a day of tasting. We started off at Granville Vineyards and did a tasting with Jake, who was outstanding. The wines here were really good and the views from the tasting room at the top of the hill were just stunning. I definitely have this one on my list to return to in the future, and want to try a few more of their specialty wines.

Then we made our way to Utopia Vineyards. A totally different vibe, the wines here were also very good. I really enjoyed meeting the owner and learning how he got involved in wine and how the vineyard got started. It had a very casual feel to it and the next time I’m in the area, I’m definitely trying his port.

We ended our wine tour at Arlyn. Being in a group of 8 ladies and supporting a female-owned small farm and winery was really special. Janis is doing great things and her wine is really nice. We loved being around her animals and the tasting had some great touches to it. I loved her rose, and all of her pinots were wonderful. I will definitely make a return to Arlyn when I’m back in the area.

Overall, this trip far exceeded my expectations for win tasting in Oregon. While different than my experiences in Washington and Napa, it had a quaintness that was very nice and easy going. The wines were all very easy to drink and I enjoyed learning about the different reasons everyone got into the business.

Now, time to plan my next wine adventure!