Tom B.
Yelp
In short:
Salem's living room, as far as wine places go. Great pinots and rieslings, among other styles. Wonderful setting, good food, great service.
In long:
If you're like me and start relaxing as soon as you're on winding roads across rolling hills, your BP will drop 10% by the time you even pull in here. You're up a few hundred feet on one of those rolling hills, and on a clear day, I imagine you can see Mt Hood from here. You can see miles and miles across hills and valleys. Or you can turn to one side and a few feet away you'll see grapes that have been producing wine harvests since 1973, and still to this day produce pinot they're bottling here.
Spreading out from the winery, there are dozens of acres of vines, most of which they harvest and bottle. Much of this is land they farm themselves; some grapes they buy from neighboring farmers.
The pinots here are lovely--this IS the heart of Oregon pinot country--but they very much emphasize the rieslings and white blends, too. I won't break down every wine we tried, but we have precious little wine storage space and, despite that, we left with a case.
The building seems somewhat ordinary from the outside, just a big box with a pitched roof. They do a lot of production and aging here, maybe all of it for all I know. But much of space comprises a big tasting room. All the good view sides of the building are public--you can sit inside or out, and outside has upstairs and downstairs options.
Most importantly, you HAVE TO reserve a table. Finding a table as a walk-in, especially on a weekend, would be a lucky break, and most of the time I'm sure it would not happen. We wanted to move outside and it was booked solid. Inside was still great, though.
There's a mix of high-boy tables, dining tables, and couch/coffee-table seating. Very homey.
We got sat right away and immediately got a splash of rosé in our glasses. They bring out your wine flight one pour at a time. Zach was our guy, and he explained where the grapes grew, what the winemakers aimed for with that vintage, and added tons of info about the winery history, branding, and so on. He was very natural about the whole thing, listened to us, laughed at our jokes, and generally made the whole tasting a fun and informative afternoon without making us feel like we needed to write stuff down. Pouring one at a time is slower than getting your whole flight at once, but you get the whole story of each wine while you're trying that glass, which helps you retain the info better.
Food here is great--the pappardelle was cooked perfectly, the bruschetta was getting a bit soggy but the flavors were amazing and my sister ate every bite. Her BF loved the pork belly slider (great crusty bread). The charcuterie offerings were really solid, a decent step up from supermarket meats and cheeses. The watermelon poke was interesting and delicious; the tortilla chip flavors kind of overpowered the tuna--it'd be cool to try this with wonton chips instead.
We spent a couple hours here and hardly realized the passing of the time. This is my first contact point with Oregon wineries and I can't wait to explore others (and come back here).