Oregon Wine Tour for Two (plus our driver, of course)

We love visiting wineries, especially when we don't have to drive from one to another, but it's hard to find wine tour companies that accommodate a party of two.  When we were planning our trip to Portland, Oregon, for earlier this year, we intended to use Portland's excellent public transportation system (which is free in the downtown area), and we could easily take light rail from the airport to our hotel, so the expense of a rental car didn't make sense. But we also wanted to spend a day touring Willamette Valley wineries.

After looking at a whole lot of websites that said, "Oh yeah, we'd be happy to take your group of 10 or 15 or 20 on a wine tour in our buses," or "Oh yeah, we'd be happy to take the two of you on a wine tour in our snazzy limousine and charge an arm, a leg, and your famlily dog," I'd just about given up on the idea that we could find an affordable wine tour with a car and driver.

But then I found Oregon Wine Tours, run by Ron Burke (above, on the left).  Ron's company focuses on small groups of 2 to 10 and offers a variety of reasonably-priced options that range from self-drive iteneraries through guided tours to VIP and romance packages.  We chose the Premium Tour Package, which included pick up and drop off service at our downtown hotel, a full-day tour visiting four boutique wineries in the Willamette Valley, and a stop for lunch.  Most of the wineries Ron features waive their tasting fee for his tour groups, which makes the day that much more affordable.  Ron runs tours 7 days a week, all year long.

Ron picked us up at 9 a.m. at our hotel.  We began asking him questions right away and discovered he is very knowledgeable about wine.  We had a fascinating discussion as we drove through the beautiful Dundee Hills wine region.  We learned about the effects on wine of the microclimate and different soils of the hills and valleys, as well as the history of the area's development as a wine region and its winemaking families.

We visited Anderson Family Vineyard, a family-owned, low-tech, small-batch (about 1,000 cases a year) operation founded in 1992.  They don't do a lot of tastings for the public, but they will for Ron's groups.  We loved their pinot noir and found their chardonnay surprisingly good (we're not really chardonnay fans).  We learned about their gravity feed method of moving the wine and why they feel it's better than using pumps. 

Adelsheim Vineyard is another family-owned winery founded in 1971.  They have a beautiful new tasting room in which we had a lovely selection of cheese and crackers to go with our wine tastes, and we learned about their unusual labels that feature art portraits of women associated with the winery.  Great pinot there, too, and they sell their wines on line. 

Domaine Drouhin is owned by a French family that also has vineyards in Burgundy, and their pinot noirs, first planted here in 1988, have much more of a dry, French character than the other wines we tasted.  Their approach to planting and cultivating their vines is very different from most wineries in the area.  Sometmes you can taste a wine from their Burgundy vineyards in their tasting room, as well. 

Patton Valley Vineyard, founded in 1995, was our last stop.  More lovely pinot noir here, and several regulars sipping away in the cozy tasting room.  Patton's wines are also available for online purchase.  This winery has now gone to 100% screw caps on their bottles, which seems to be the wave of the wine future.  You can get a short lesson in screw caps for great wine here (you'll need to scroll down a ways to find the article).

All of the wineries offered the option of ordering half-cases to be shipped, so you can drink their wine at home without breaking the bank.

Ron delivered us to our hotel in Portland about 6 p.m.  We were relaxed from the glow of our wine tasting and still had plenty of time to go out for a nice dinner that night.  We knew a whole lot more about pinot noir and the Dundee Hills viticulture region than we did that morning.  And we were looking forward to some great pinot noirs arriving via UPS when we got home.

Thanks for reading my blog!
Annette