Oregon Tasting Rooms Reopening

Getting several e-mails from Oregon wineries announcing their tasting rooms are reopening today May 15. Great news. 21 or the 23 counties are reopening. Marion County (Salem) and Polk County (South Eola/Amity Hills) are still closed though.

Not us. Taking a deep dive on waiting and seeing what happens.

smart.

It’ll be really interesting to see how this goes. It will be anything but ‘business as usual’ as in most cases, reservations are required and there’ll be limited access. Those expecting to be able to hop from one tasting room to another may be very disappointed.

Our County is hoping to move things forward and we’ll be going to the Board of Supervisors with a plan this coming Tuesday that will hopefully be adopted and sent off the the Governor for consideration. SLO County, including Paso, did this last Friday and were rejected from opening yet. What we are hoping to do is to suggest mainly outdoor tastings at present - and opening up vineyards that would not normally host tastings to be able to host them. This raises all kinds of questions as to how to do this effectively when temperatures are on the rise, but that’s a whole other can of worms.

My concern is that if the County does allow for limited tastings that wineries, breweries, etc still to what they are supposed to and don’t open their doors as if this is business as usual. As I’ve posted before, I’m concerned that this will be like the children’s book ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’ which I absolutely love . . .

Cheers.

Curious whether anyone on the boards here in Oregon ventured out this weekend and can comment about how it was? Or any wineries?

Cheers

Every e-mail I have received about tasting rooms re-opening have noted appointment only for the time being.

I t hink that’s a wise thing - and something that will probably be in effect here in CA for the foreseeable future. It may be a matter of simply knocking on the door and seeing if a reservation is possible ‘on the spot’.

Our county will be finalizing a plan to go to the Governor this week to try to get our tasting rooms open a bit earlier. One of the ‘challenges’ right now, as far as I can understand, is that they will be allowing wineries/breweries to open that have full food service to start - doesn’t seem ’ right’ and that’s still something that we’re working on.

The other challenge - the ABC is creating rules that some see as what they should do - but without the county being approved to get to that point, it’s kinda moot . . .

I envision a different tasting experience for the foreseeble future - the ability to just ‘drop in’ will be minimized for awhile. For many wineries, that’s not a problem because they tend to do private tastings anyways. For a tasting room like mine, it’s a different story.

Cheers

BHC will open in June by appointment for small groups only. There were many people out and about this weekend, and reports that they were from counties not yet open. I can wait.

I assume no masks?

Because how do you spit?

Post your phone number on the door of your tasting room. People can call and make an appointment from their cell phones, then you just walk up and open the door.

[dance2.gif]

Hot dog!

Masks to go in . . .

Straws that fit under the masks?

How do you drink?

My wife has been neck deep in trying to figure all the things out to reopen Colene Clemens. They will open this Thursday, by appointment only (and if people just show up, and there is an open reservation spot and they can be accommodated, they will be). Luckily, they have a very large outdoor patio space, so tables will be spaced 6+ ft apart. Tasting Room staff will be wearing masks at all times, and they are requiring guests to wear masks as they come in and encouraging them to wear them as they use the restroom and leave, but they will not be required to wear them as they are seated at their table doing their tasting. They will have a designated person acting as a host to check people in and get them seated on the hour, who will then spend the rest of the time cleaning and sanitizing bathrooms, tables, etc.

What I’ve heard through the local industry Facebook group is that guests have generally been respectful of the new rules of going wine tasting.

It has been a very challenging situation to navigate (like, how do you get gloves for staff to use when you can’t buy them through normal retailers and wholesale outlets require orders 10-100x the number they will likely go through in a year, who is comfortable coming back to work, etc), but most businesses and employees can’t be expected to just pause sales for the next 6-18 months (though I do applaud those that can). Hopefully this will be the start of things slowly opening back up and we can start to figure out what the new “normal” is post-COVID-19.

The tastings will be swirl and sniff only. All you need if you’re really a connoisseur.

The early days have gone well for most I’ve been in spoken with.

Most everyone is operating on parameters including:

Appointment/Reservation only
6 Foot Spacing between groups/tables
Employees wearing masks at all times
Guests expected to wear masks when arriving, “toileting” and leaving

Guests have generally respected the rules.

The challenges have been:

Yamhill County is in Stage 1 reopening but Washington and Polk counties are not - this has caused some confusion
Within Yamhill some wineries are open, others are not - again, the ambiguity has caused some confusion

The Willamette Valley Wineries Association is pulling together resources to address the confusion.


Walter Scott is in Polk County. While our county may reopen in the coming days, we won’t resume tastings in the foreseeable future. We have no Tasting Room. We host tastings in our barrel room and that isn’t feasible while respecting safe distancing.

We are working on a “to-go Tasting Kit” option as an alternative.

A couple of weeks in, any updates on experiences? I’m curious to hear from enthusiasts like me as well as ITB folks. I’d love to visit if the situation is safe.

I am also wondering if entering phase 2 reopening has had any noticeable affect on visitor traffic, dining out, tasting rooms, etc.?

Oregon’s governor Brown late last Thursday put a one week pause on moving to new phases. So nothing’s changed further here yet, including no Phase 1 in Portland. We’ll see if Portland moves to Phase 1 this Friday and other counties in Phase 1 move to Phase 2. My hunch says no but the political pressure may be too much. Expect an announcement any time now, ideally not late Thursday like last week. Cases are at all time high levels in Oregon, and even though they are relatively low compared to most states, and 40% of the latest number of cases was from one employer in eastern Oregon, I don’t see how conditions have improved from last week when things weren’t good enough to open further.

That said, wineries are slowly opening for appointments as Andy details above. I’m not taking appointments this month but am planning some in July. Likely on the back crush pad at a distance. Judging by some winery parking lots, people are out and about tasting. Who knows what the future holds. Hoping for the best.