tBoW and Dotor√© visited Portland just when the Portland Indie Wine Festival was being held. 40 wineries selected to pour their best efforts by a panel of know-it-all wine snobs. Our kind of people. The kicker is the wineries have to produce no more than 2500 cases. So you can see they are going for the craftsman, or as we observed in this case, “crafts-couple” winemakers.
Here’s how the tBoW team rolls when hunting the wild Pinot Noir. We roust our local wine snob pals, in this case David Russell of Woodland Hills Wine Co, to put us in touch with one of his fellow wine snobs in Portland. Thank you David for Murray the K of Great Wine Buys at 16th and Broadway on Portland’s Eastside. Murray turns out to be da man helping us winnow through wineries pouring at the festival; listing the top dining spots; and, finally, suggesting wineries for the road trip into Willamette Valley. Murray made like Manny, as in Ramirez, and hit it outtadapark! [ed. wrote this before Manny’s 50 game suspension, could not let it go] (more…)

It has been 20 years since tBoW visited Portland and the Willamette Valley in 1993. We made two day trips into the Valley touring McMinnville and the Dundee Hills. Here is a map of the AVAs in the valley. Link here to the Willamette Valley Wineries website.
We visited about ten wineries including Domaine Drouhin, Rex Hill VIneyards, Torii Mor Winery, Brickhouse Vineyards, and Lange Winery. (more…)