Willamette Valley, Oregon?

If any of you have recommendations of places to eat, vineyards to explore, or food purveyors to visit in the Willamette Valley (Oregon), I would welcome that information toward a short trip to the region in late July. In exchange, I will report back on my adventures and any good finds later this Summer. I did find a previous thread, but it mostly addressed food destinations in Portland.

Thanks!

FB, lay out what you want to do.

The Willamette Valley is pretty big. It generally runs from either the Columbia-Willamette confluence or just south of Portland to just south of Eugene, perhaps 100 to 150 miles, depending on how you define it. So the first question is: where you will actually be?

I strongly recommend you do a little searching around PortlandFood.org.

I apologize if my initial request seemed a little opaque.

By way of background then, we will be staying in Amity about 8 miles from McMinnville, where there seem to be a lot of delicious restaurants (some of the recurring names in my searches are the Joel Palmer House, Tina's, The Painted Lady, Bistro Maison). We will have a car so I expect we will try to cover some territory (right now, I anticipate hitting Yamhill, Carlton, Dundee, Newburg in addition to Amity and McMinnville; we also will try for an escapade to Neskowin along the Coast, where I understand the beach is beautiful and pristine).

Along the way, we are hoping to have some memorable meals at fancy restaurants and casual eateries alike and to visit some of the local wineries (some that come to mind are Argyle, Domaine Serene, and Chehalem because we like their wines, but of the many others there may be some that are definitely worth the visit). We also will have a kitchen and some amateur chefs among us so I expect we will prepare some of our own meals. As such, I am excited to learn of any worth the detour food purveyors (for instance, Willamette Valley Cheese seems to be an interesting local cheesemaker). I would imagine there are some terrific places to buy meat, bread, fresh produce, and specialty products in the vicinity, some of which may be more worthwhile destinations than others.

This gastronomic component of our trip will unfold over the course of four days, after which we will be heading northeast toward Mount Hood for some camping in an area that is better known to us. My goal is to have some flexibility for spontaneity once we get to the Willamette Valley, but also to avoid missing any real gems - thus the early planning.

Extramsg, thank you for pointing me to PortandFood.org. Somehow I had missed that resource altogether, a sign that I have not done my homework very well yet. I had come upon your culinary blog - a great source of information - after following your eating adventures in Chicago from afar.

I can recommend a place called Michael's Landing in Corvallis. I had lunch there a couple years back and the Halibut Oscar was really great. I also recall a seasonal soup that was awesome, but can't recall exactly what it was.

http://www.michaelslanding.com/index.htm

Also, Willamette Valley Vineyards is a neat place to stop and do a tasting. It's right off of I-5 and the view from their chateau (I use the term loosely) has a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. Though I feel there are better examples of Oregon Pinot Noir, these are quite good and the vineyard/winery easy to find.

http://www.willamettevalleyvineyards.com/?s=home

Hope this helps! Davooda

A couple winery resources:

http://www.willamettewines.com/

http://www.winesnw.com/mid-will_vly_eol ... n_map.html

(Make sure you check the other maps linked on the site above as well.)

PortlandFood.org Links:

Wineries?

Dundee vs Red Hills (that quickly broadens)

Willamette Valley Wine Country (an extension of the straying thread above)

2004 Winery Crawl

2006 Winery Crawl

I'm sure there are others.

Tina's, Nick's, Red Hills, Joel Palmer, Painted Lady, Dundee Bistro, Bistro Maison -- they're all good enough. I haven't had a stellar meal in Wine Country, yet, however.

here's a nifty website from the state, with special offers to boot.
http://www.traveloregon.com/
Here's our Southern Oregon Wine Association:

http://sorwa.org/
Though you won't get this far south, I always try to get a plug in, as we don't get the Pub our Northern Cousins do.

Do note that you will need to make appointments at many of the wineries. It's not like Napa where many are open and have regular tastings.

We enjoyed our meal at Dundee Bistro a lot, and there's a tasting room attached (owned by Ponzi, but you can taste lots of different wines there)

This year's Spring Wine guide:
http://www.oregonlive.com/wine/oregonian/guide/

Thank you for steering me toward some helpful websites and maps and for sharing some tips on the area. Obviously, if anyone has other ideas, I would welcome those also. Otherwise I will report back early August on any good finds.

Do remember that any drive through the Pacific Northwest in August or September will provide you with penty of opportunities to stop at various orchards and the like.

Dusting off this thread, any updated recs? We'll be based in McMinnville for five days and will be doing wine tastings in the greater valley. I am using other links in this thread for research as well.

I find http://willamettewines.com/ a good resource for the area. Many wineries do now have tasting rooms open and hours are listed there. Still, it's a good idea to call ahead, as you never know if small places might be closed for some private event.
Wines and Wineries we've visited and liked - Cristom, Evening Land, Lange, Patricia Green, Shea, Soter, St. Innocent, Westrey, Winderlea, Yamhill Valley.

Also check out hiking in the area, Oregon has lots of hiking trails and you're not ever far from something interesting.

Thanks, leek. We are traveling with someone in the restaurant biz, so he is working on the winery tours.

Any recommendations on restaurants?

We spent a day in Willamette last October. While I can't recommend restaurants we enjoyed the wines and tasting rooms at Penner Ash, Stoller, and Anne Amie. We had some great food in Portland though. You can check the Portland thread.

We generally stay in Portland and day trip to the wineries.

Another one we like is Anderson Family. If you get there make sure to try their Chardonnay as well as their Pinot Noir.

GP--

One of my former students is the hospitality director at Rex Hill. They seem to have an awfully good time there, she's a delight to interact with, and Rex Hill's wines are awfully good. If you'd like, I could maybe set something up with Carrie. PM me if you care to.

Geo

Geo wrote:GP--

One of my former students is the hospitality director at Rex Hill. They seem to have an awfully good time there, she's a delight to interact with, and Rex Hill's wines are awfully good. If you'd like, I could maybe set something up with Carrie. PM me if you care to.

Geo

Thanks, Geo! Look for a message soon.

I'm from Oregon and have gone back for an annual wine tasting weekend with friends for the past 15 years. We usually separate the trip out into two days: day one in the Carlton / Yamhill area, going to Carlton Winemaker Studio, Brick House, and usually two others that vary. We sometimes start the first day at Elk Cove, which is pretty far away from most of the others, and then head south. We've also really enjoyed going to Penner-Ash over the years, though we do not go every year. Day two is for the wineries around Spring Valley Road (Cristom, Witness Tree, St. Innocent, Bethel Heights, Stangland), which is closer to Salem.

There is a lot of ground to cover, but it's difficult to go wrong given the setting. My only advice is to try to stick to one area each day.

My wife and I spent a brilliant day out there two years ago for our tenth wedding anniversary. Don't know if you still need information and recommendations, but here goes:

WINERIES: We visited Evesham Wood (appointment only), where the winemaker Erin Nuccio poured six wines to taste in his barrel room. We visited St. Innocent, where I have been a member of the wine club for years, and had a lovely time in their commercial tasting room. Due to the club membership, we also got taken through the facility and into the barrel room for a barrel tasting, which was quite a revelation. And we visited Soter Vineyards (appointment only), where we enjoyed several wines in the tasting room/open living room at their Mineral Springs vineyard site. I think Soter may be in the process of opening a new location for tasting rooms, but we had a lovely time there. Weather was perfect, which helped. I think it would be difficult to hit more than three wineries in a day without a chauffeur/designated driver.

I grew up in Eugene, and if you get that far south, you can have a really wonderful meal at the King Estate winery. King Estate is one of the largest producers in Oregon. The food at the restaurant and the vineyard setting outside of Eugene is really lovely. My family has gotten together there for holiday dinners over the years and always had a great time.

FOOD: There is an excellent pie shop in Amity, Oregon. Worth a visit.

Enjoy your time out there in God's country. I love it out there.

Best,
J.Ro