Trip to Portland and Oregon Wine Tour
 

My mom and I are heading to Oregon in late June or early July. We would like to spend a couple of days in Portland and spend some time in Wine Country. We are going from a Monday to Monday and plan to spend the weekend in Eugene with my cousin. We will check out some wineries near his house as well. We will rent a car.

Suggestions on wine tours? Do they leave from Portland? Hotel suggestions (more $$-$$$ options)?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rent a car and visit the ones you want from this site.
http://www.youngberghill.com/our-are...-driving-tour/
You also have the option of taking an Amtrak Cascades train from Portland to Eugene. Check with your cousin about things to see in the Eugene area. There is a wine area near Medford as well.

Check out this website for hotel deals and things to do in Portland

http://www.travelportland.com

My favorite wineries around Eugene are Sarvers, King Estate, Sweetcheeks, Noble Estate- but there are a lot more.
Sarvers is fun on a Friday evening as they have music, some food available for purchase- beautiful views- I am a frequent visitor in the summer.

Thanks Tom Fuller. I do plan to taste wine so I may not drive. That is a great site though.

My cousin did mention King Estate and Sweetcheeks. Sunbum1944--we will be there on a Friday so Sarvers would be great. Travelportland.com looks good.

I looked at Hotel Monaco and a couple of others that were $300+, above my budget for 3 nights but checking out some of the others that I have seen in forum content.

Thoughts on staying in Willamette valley and visit Portland?

Check out the Red Lion at the Convention Centre, the Crowne Plaza or the Inn at Northrup Station- the Inn at Northrup Station is walking distance to many shops and restaurants and on the trolley line

If you use Groupons, there is one today for the Red Lion Convention Center for $69/nt

<i>I do plan to taste wine so I may not drive.</i>

Spit.

For wineries, I like Archery Summit, Lange, Penner Ash (mostly for their Rubeo blend), Argyle (sparkling), Shea (not open to the public I don't think), Andrew Rich/Carlton Winemakers Studio, Beaux Freres, Torii Mor, among others.

We have stayed at the Allison Inn (expensive, but lovely, lots of spa services) and the Inn at Red Hills (more moderately priced, very nice) in the Willamette Valley. We really liked being that much closer to all the wineries than day trips from Portland would allow, especially since we found the traffic in and around Portland surprisingly slow and congested.

I have a lot of favorite wineries! Cristom, Domaine Drouhin, Archery Summit are all great; and Carlton Winemaker's Studio offers a great selection of small (tiny) production wines.

There are a lot of really good restaurants in the Valley as well...

Sorry, meant to add that we always drove ourselves. We shared tastings, and spit when necessary.

Spit. That's funny. That will happen some. I need to decide if I want to drive and navigate.

I did see the Inn at Northrup Station and it looked interesting. I look at a couple of the others.

Thanks for tips on the wineries as well. I'm very existed.

I think that we may take a more scenic route from Portland to Eugene if possible.

<i>Spit. That's funny. </i>

Funny, sure, but it is reasonable advice. It prolongs the enjoyment of tasting and it helps to ensure you get a good driver.

Please do consider a tour. For those of us that live here, we much prefer people to spit or tour as we don't want to be on the roads with people who have been sipping all day long:)

A good tour company is www.anoseforwine.com and they are highly regarded. Even though we live here and are at the wineries often, I took a trip with Fred and Marie a year or so ago for a group event and I was blown away. I knew him from running into him at wineries with his groups, and after our tour I could see why his clients rave about him. Plus, he will take you to the smaller, "hidden gems", and will make sure you have an experience to remember.

All that said, if you do this on your own, it is very easy. We have over 200 wineries in this one area alone, so the hardest part is choosing which ones to go to. My own personal favorites include Seufert in Dayton, Brick House and Arbor Brook in Newberg (very close to each other). These are ones that are always on hand in our home, and that we give as gifts and DH's company gives as gifts, FWIW. If you want to try some other varietals besides pinot noir and pinot gris, hit Zerba (downtown Dundee) for those.

Also, be very careful with driving, even if you are spitting. The police have a very heavy presence here and there are red light cameras, and those include right turn on reds. Tickets for those are $260, so not cheap.

If you need anything else, just ask:)