5 Urban Wineries & Tasting Rooms in Portland to Visit this Fall

In the big city and can’t make it out to wine country? No worries you can still get your wine on in Portland this fall. Try one, or all five, of these  tasting rooms and sip away while the last leaves fall and the rain soaks the street. Portland Pairings Not sure what to have with…

Dig into Oregon Wine

If you missed Lenne’s last dirty event, you are in luck. They are at it again. Come out to Lenne Estate and discover why they say “soil is everything!” Enjoy a blind tasting of eight high-end Oregon Pinot Noirs and learn how terroir, the soul and the essence of the wine, influences its flavor profile….

7 Thanksgiving Table Cork Crafts

With the big din coming up quick, it’s time to get your table (and wine list) set. So as you are preparing your grocery list, cleaning the fire place and shopping for a new table cloth, add these simple crafts to the line up to make the day delightfully crafty! 1. Cork Place Cards 2….

Real World Wines by Union Wine Company

Wines for the real world, Union Wine Co invites you to sip, savor or even throw a soiree with their delectable pours. Crafted from some of the oldest Riesling vineyards in Oregon (1968), the Kings Ridge Riesling by Union Wine Company lets loose with flavors of apple, stone fruit and a flinty finish. Without being…

Illahe’s 2012 Rose of Tempranillo

Pink is the new black in Oregon and Illahe’s Rose is the hippest of them all! A pale salmon pink, Illahe’s Rosé of Tempranillo features aromas of cherries followed by equally as delicious notes of strawberry, dry flowers and spice on the palate. Balancing the delicate flavors, the wine pinched the cheeks with nice citrus…

Get Dirty for Oregon Wine

Get down to the dirt about Oregon wine at Lenne Estate! This saturday, August 24 from 10:30 – noon, enjoy a comparative tasting of wines produced from two different soil types and locations. It’s a head-to-head battle that will be oh-so-palate-pleasing. Enjoy samples of four wines from the volcanic, Dundee Hills and four wines from…

Youngberg Hill’s Pinot Blanc

This crisp, citrusy white wine is an instant summer classic! If you closed your eyes and breathed in the aromas of Youngberg‘s Pinot Blanc, you’d think you were waking up on a lake shore with the wind softy blowing at sunrise. It’s aromatic notes of grapefruit, grass and petrol swift through leaving only summer lingering…

Harper Voit’s 2012 Old Vine Riesling

If you could grow a fruit orchard on a stone bed, you’d get this amazing wine. Harper Voit’s Old Vine Riesling greets with a nose of lemon-lime zest, flowers and vanilla wafers. Then it says hello with a blend of guava, grapefruit, citrus and cool slate minerality on the palate. Cutting in with a kick…

Moving on with Kramer Wines

I recently moved to a new house in Portland out on the East side with two strangers from Craigslist. To celebrate and get to know each other, I opened a trio of some of my favorite wines by Kramer Vineyards. Like my new roommates, each of the wines brought a new flavor and flare to…

2009 Amity Vineyards’ Pinot Noir

Drink up Oregon wine county’s rich history in Amity Vineyards’ Pinot Noir. One of their two ECO-Wines, Amity Vineyard’s 2009 Pinot Noir is bright and green with notes of cherry, red fruit, cola and a little fresh earth. The color, like squished black cherries, and aroma of black licorice and spiced cherry cobbler, make the…

Cheers to Sunshine and Lavelle Vineyards’ Wines

As spring and summer start to roll in, wineries all around Oregon are releasing their new vintages and serving up customer favorites. For Memorial Day weekend, I visited LaVelle Vineyards at its tasting bar in the Fifth Street Public Market and enjoyed their 2012 Chardonnay and 2010 Northwest Duet. Lavelle’s new Chardonnay featured lovely fruit-forward…

Raski: Nepalese Rice Wine

I just returned from a seven week trip touring and trekking in South East Asia! And after a severe drought of wine during my travels, nothing tasted sweeter than a glass of Oregon wine. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t give some local wines a try as I roamed about. In Nepal at a traditional…