Guide to Willamette Valley Vineyards & Wineries (Oregon Wine Country) [VIDEO]

I’m kim the abundant traveler and welcome back to the channel if you’re new here thanks so much for stopping by and put out laid-back luxury travel videos inspiring you to get out there buy that plane ticket and go see the world if you’re a subscriber thanks so much for stopping by by i am going to be sharing with you tips tricks hacks ideas and my experiences in the willamette valley just outside of portland oregon let’s go ahead and get started where is the willamette valley well first of all it’s willamette as in willamette dammit not willamette and it is a river valley just outside of portland about an hour south and it runs 150 miles long and about 60 miles wide it’s also known not only for its wine but it’s a famous area for growing hazelnuts and it’s beautiful rich gorgeous farmland as well although there are many things to do in the willamette valley today we’re going to be talking about wine lots and lots of wine i spent 15 years in the wine business as an importer and distributor and my first domestic wines u.s wines that is were from oregon i am a huge oregon pinot noir fan it is my favorite thing to drink from the us a little history about the area they have not been producing wine for that long in the willamette valley started in the late 60s early 70s when david lett who is called papapino the reason there is oregon pinot noir he moved up to the area from uc davis he was looking for a place to produce great wines high caliber incredible wines and he chose this area it’s actually the same longitude as burgundy which is the most famous area for producing pinot noir in the world some of the wineries that joined david lett in the very beginning are adultheim sokol glosser and ponzi incredible all-incredible wines you have to go try them when you’re going to the willamette so from its humble beginnings to now i believe there are about 700 wineries in the willamette valley things have changed quite a bit what is very unique about the area is it’s still this sort of laid-back low-key vibe the tasting roo unique a little more simple less people than you find in napa it’s not quite the zoo that you will find when you’re in napa or in sonoma when you are in the willamette valley in the high season though which is sort of july august june july august it is super busy so plan accordingly so let’s talk about when to go since why are we talking about two of the months that are the busiest i was there in march and it was beautiful there weren’t any grapes on the vines yet they had not had bud break but it was a great time to go there was a little bit of rain so bring a raincoat if you’re there in the winter but it was a really nice time really really low key as the spring comes on you have bud break you have the grapes starting to grow and it’s a beautiful bright great time to be there as well in the middle of the summer their summers are very dry and they have lots of sunshine and it is it stays like quite late in the evening because it’s so far north so it’s also a great time to go in the middle of the summer however as i mentioned previously in the middle of summer you have the most tourists and prices are the highest during that time it’ll be harder to get a hotel and a dinner reservation and you will have lots of crowds when you go to the wineries but again not as crazy as being in napa and sonoma let’s talk a little bit about what to pack for your willamette valley trip first of all leave the stilettos at home remember we’re going to farm country you can we bring some cute wedges or something like that for the evenings to go out to dinner but the rest of the time it’s relatively casual today i’m in the willamette and i’m in a long sleeve a plaid shirt a little tank top some jeans really really simple remember you’re going to be walking in the vineyards as well so you want to have pretty sturdy sho maybe some tennis shoes or some nice sort of birkenstocks or something like that if they’re there in the summer you don’t have to be super fancy here something also that’s important to bring is an umbrella and a raincoat depending on when you are there if you are there from sort of november through march or april you’re going to be having rain possibly every single day at least a little bit it is the pacific northwest it’s super green but the super green comes from lots and lots of rain i also suggest bringing maybe bringing a vest and a jacket bring layers because you never know what type of temperature you’re going to be having in addition to this video i give out tips and tricks in my exclusive email list so go to the description below and click join the tribe for additional information about the willamette as well as other wine producing areas and other travel tips and tricks so how long should you stay in the willamette i recommend staying three to four days you can do two to three wineries a day you can make amazing dinner reservations you can possibly go for a little hike as well maybe you could spend a day in portland but three to four days is probably enough now how are we going to get around the best way is to rent a car and drive yourself but please remember do not drink and drive you can rent a driver or you can hire a driver to take you you can also take a wine tour as well just like they have in napa and sonoma but i do recommend driving and if you’re going to be the driver make sure when you’re at all the tastings that you ask for a spit bucket and spit those again no drinking and driving it takes longer than you think to get between the wineries as i mentioned previously it’s about an hour from portland to the first winery in the willamette and if you’re going from the northern part to the southern part even from the north to the middle it’s going to take about 30 minutes to 45 minutes to get between the different wineries so plan accordingly each winery visit the shorter ones will be an hour to an hour and a half the longer ones if you’re taking a vineyard tour or something like that can be two two and a half hours long so plan accordingly and make sure you have plenty of time down time and plenty of time to get between the wineries if you’re looking to plan your own day and drive yourself this is my recommended itinerary get up in the morning have a really good breakfast with some carb and some protein because you are going to be drinking wine early and have your first appointment around 10 30 in the morning after that i would either go to an early lunch to skip the crowds or i would go to another winery around 12 12 30 for either a lunch appointment or a early afternoon appointment and then go to lunch after that in other words you’re going to be skipping the lunch crowds then you have a late lunch or you’ve had an early lunch and then you only have one afternoon appointment i would say maybe a 3 3 30 appointment uh the latest that the wineries are open tend to be 5 5 30 and they take appointments only until around 4 30. so that is something to note as well also when you are going to the different wineries make sure to take time to do a little shopping to do a little driving around to check out the beautiful towns of carleton and dundee and mcmenville as so make sure to not just jam-pack your trip from winery to winery to winery to winery another recommendation that i have for making your winery appointments is pick different styles of wines different styles of wineries for your appointments it makes it more interesting maybe you go to a really fancy appointment at domains for example at domain serene and then you go to a more casual appointment maybe go get some bubbles at argyle and just sit on their patio and just enjoy the afternoon with friends chit chatting just make sure to vary your appointments and not too many in one single day so in the evenings where should you stay well i recommend staying in portland and driving in each day or i recommend staying in mcminnville or in carleton there are amazing airbnbs in the area there are also some great hotels including the allison inn i have left a link in the description below for all of my favorite hotels in the area so you can just go to the description and check them out now that you have been to wineries all day and you’ve possibly done a little shopping lots of driving and you have a place to stay the next thing to work on is food and food is extremely important in any wine producing area because food goes with wine wine goes with food it’s all about food and wine so a couple of recommendations that i would have for you is rambla which is spanish tapas in menville i’m also offering a couple ideas that are different than the normal sort of wine country fair because sometimes you just want something that’s different for example the conservatory you might get a little tired of drinking wine all day you might get what they call a mouth fatigue uh so maybe the conservatory bar that serves cocktails might be a great option for you there’s also again if you were looking for fine dining bistro maison in mcminnville is fine dining excellent service you can also try the carlton bakery if you just want to stop and get a snack these of course are all in all different cities but i would go online and look at the different blog posts for some of the best restaurants and definitely make some reservations in advance let’s talk about the most important thing what wineries to go see as i mentioned i was in the wine business so these are some of my personal favorites number one raptor ridge winery they are right there on the way in from portland they are wonderful they are wonderful wines wonderful people and it’s a great way to start your day i do recommend as i said before maybe going to a really fancy uh winery like domain serene they have one of the most famous wine clubs in the entire world they also have a chateau and burgundy now so it’s quite interesting to go to them and sit on top of their perch and look out over their beautiful vineyards you’re going to be in the area of the mainstream you might want to try domaine druin as well which is the french house domain druin but this is their oregon property very very cool you could try some of the old school wineries including adultheim or ponzi ponzi is up near raptor ridge so that might be a great second stop after rector ridge i personally love these are a couple of my personal favorites i love bergstrom are you kidding me i love bergstrom i also love sodar soder is one of my favorite wines i did go to sodar on this trip those two wines to me are just divine i like wines that are a little dirtier a little more traditional little heatier that’s just my jam i do recommend also stopping at argyle to clear the pallet and drink some bubbles and i recommend going far south near salem maybe going to crystal they also are a more hedonistic more masculine style pinot noir i hope that you enjoyed my suggestions about the willamette valley i’m kim the about a traveler and i’ll see you on the next wine adventure [Applause] you