DW and I have two days to do nothing in the McMinnville, OR area in late July while waiting for the rest of our clan to show up for a reunion at Cannon Beach. Our intent will be to consume as much high quality pinot noir ( or any other similar libation) as the liver will allow. A long time ago we visited Left Coast Cellars and loved it so that is a no-brainer. My impression is one can just throw darts at the map and come up with a perfectly reasonable list of Wineries in this area to visit, as they all take great pride in their craft and pretty much the competition amongst wineries keeps the quality high. ( just like "What small town in Tuscany would you recommend?" - what a dumb question) With that in mind, does anyone have a particularly high recommendation for winery to visit, and/or one to particularly avoid?

We are going back to the Valley for the third time this August--indeed, it's hard to find a bad pinot there.

The only winery I would suggest avoiding is King Estate, only because they are high volume producers, and a lot of people have had their wines and want to make a beeline to the winery. But even they have domaine wines that I have heard are good, and the estate looks cool.

My highest recommendations (in no geographic order, so you will have to plot them yourself) are:
Cristom
Domaine Drouhin
Bergstrom
Archery Summit

I tend to like Burgundian pinot, and all of the above are in that style.

I also recommend:
Sokol Blosser
Penner Ash
Torii Mor
Adelsheim
Ken Wright
Lemelson
White Rose
Elk Cove

And I highly recommend Carlton Winemakers' Studio (in Carlton, naturally), which is a collective where you can find really, really small production wines from a rotating mix of local wineries. Always interesting!

In Mac, I am curious about the KAOS complex, which is new since we were there last.

mms is a poster here who gives great Willamette advice, and has steered us to some excellent wineries, so I hope she sees this thread and weighs in soon.

Nice - thanks!

bookmarking

You're welcome! Just noticed you mentioned "similar libations", so...did you know there's a sake distillery just outside Portland, in Forest Grove? Well there is, and it's really good!

http://sakeone.com

There are also some great distilleries in Portland, We make a point of stopping at Clear Creek, which is near the airport, on our way to the Willamette Valley.

http://www.clearcreekdistillery.com

As an aside, have you been to Anderson Valley (CA)? Great pinots being made there, too.

Yes, the single malt whiskey from ClearCreek has my eye . . .

You like single malts AND pinot? Be still, my heart, lol. Be aware, then, that it tends to sell out in a heartbeat. Hope you can have some when you're there. And that they have some left a few weeks later!

(Clear Creek's cassis liqueur and Douglas Fir brandy are both great, btw.)

This is the area where we live and we enjoy the wineries. Trust me, there ARE some bad ones, lol!

My personal favorites include:

Arbor Brook
Brick House (by appt only)
Seufert
Stoller
Grochau
Seven of Hearts
Scott Paul
Domaine Drouhin

There are many more, but these are the ones to go back to time and time again.