Very helpful. Thanks, Marcus!
Newberg Bakery (surprisingly in Newberg) has incredible pastries and rivals Model Bakery in Napa for quality baked goods.
Thank you everyone. We’re gonna stay in McMinnville because of the information here. I was wondering by the way I’ve noticed a lot of the paces to taste are tasting rooms that are not very personal. Does anyone have any places that you can walk the vineyards with someone or at least have a more one on one or small group thing going on?
David
Schedule an apt with Marcus at Matello/Goodfellow in McMinnville. Can’t walk the vineyards but it’s not a tasting room open to the public. Ditto for Westrey in McMinnville.
If you’re interested in Riesling, schedule an apt with Bill at Paetra which is a 12 or so minute drive from McMinnville. He can show you some of his vineyards and his wines are nice.
Otherwise, you’ll need to schedule appts at wineries across the valley to get a more personal, non-public tasting rooom experience. Some of my favorites are Walter Scott, Brick House, Crowley, Kelley Fox, Arterberry Maresh, Belle Pente, J Christopher, Patricia Green. Be sure to cluster your appointments or ensure you have enough time to get from one to the other as getting around the different AVAs can be time consuming.
I think you can take a vineyard tour at Beaux Freres. Although not much to see besides pruning and cover crops right now.
My pleasure, visiting here without eating well would be criminal!
All good information above. I’d add Vincent as being worth trying to hook up with, if you don’t mind driving a few minutes out of town. The wines are great, and the Eola Hills are beautiful.
The Eyrie tasting room on the outskirts of McMinnville (across the railroad tracks) is not in the vineyard but is small, serious, low key (at least when I was there) and they include a library wine in the tasting. They get extra points from me because the guy in the tasting room recommended Pura Vida restaurant(mentioned above) which was great. Plus, Heater Allen is a couple doors down from Eyrie.
This will depend a lot on what styles of wine you’re looking for, but most appointment-only places will fit. I’ll second the suggestions for Belle Pente and Patricia Green. Make sure you budget a lot of time if you schedule an appointment at Patricia Green. It can take a while there (which is a very good thing).
Also, even though it’s not quite what you’re describing, don’t miss the Eyrie tasting room. It’s right in town, so easy for the beginning or end of one of your days, and pay the money to taste whatever library wines they have available. It’s the best opportunity to taste a piece of Willamette Valley history.
This thread is filled with great recommendations and information. Although we stay in Newberg near the Allison Inn at a VRBO, McMinnville sounds like the best option for your original request of a central location in wine country with bars and restaurants. I’m just curious if you considered staying at a vineyard. Unfortunately, I don’t have a list, but I know a few wineries offer accommodations on their property. I’m thinking about Stoller, Arterberry Maresh and Chehalem (wine industry folks only).
As for visiting and walking the vineyards, from my previous experiences I can recommend Beaux Freres as well, the seated tasting at DDO included a stroll a number of years ago, Anderson Family, Chehalem (perhaps club members only at the winery), the seated tasting at White Rose included a stroll last year.
As Doug recommends, there are several places that can offer a one or small group experience with in most cases the winemaker. Most of the folks have already been mentioned (Scott Tallman’s list is great), but I will add Anderson Family and Ayoub. If you can schedule an appointment with any of the contributors on this board, you will have a great time.
Have fun and enjoy your trip to Oregon wine country.
James
My lovely wife is taking me to Willamette Valley, April 26-29 for a 3 day tasting weekend. Totally stoked,I’ve never visited the Willamette Valley before!!! Only Portland on business many many times. 
I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains, CA but in the last year or so really have fallen in love with WV wines. I’ve never been the Willamette Valley before so I’m stoked. My Palate is certainly changing and migrating AFWE fairly quickly it seems.
I think I first tried PGC and Vincent and then scored some Cameron and Goodfellow at K&L. 
These producers are still favorites. but I’ve been buying cases of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from all the local Portland retailers and trying many new (to me) producers to sample their warez.
![[thankyou.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/df165fe9c1593d19166ae7e1ffe5e272089cc07b.gif "thankyou"){kind=small}
Berserkers
Flying in Late Thursday night and headed to WV in the morning. Then we’re staying at 3rd St flats which seems awesome due the recommendations here. McMinnville seems very of centrally located and has a walkable downtown which my wife will enjoy.
Current Plans:
Friday
Cristom
Walter Scott
Goodfellow Family Cellars
Sat
Vincent Wine Company
Biggio Hamina
Eyrie, Brittan, Westrey (Walkin?) Something in walking distance from 3rd st
Sunday
Patricia Green Cellars
J. Christopher Wines
Trying to prune the list is hard. My wife will be overwhelmed if we taste more than this and hopefully she will like Mcminnville if she decides to sit out a round or two. My left overs list could easily fill another trip. Also wanted to leave room for impromptu walkins.
Arterberry Maresh, Kelley Fox, Crowley, Brick House, White Rose, and bunch more will probably need to wait. Hopefully I can get most appointments confirmed up this week. Most everything else is locked and loaded.
Sean
Sean, Hard to go wrong on this selection. McMinnville is central and getting better all the time. I need to stop by a few of those places and pick up some Berserker wines myself one of these days. Sounds like a very enjoyable time. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
We’re doing an almost identical trip at the end of June including a stay at 3rd St Flats! Can’t wait! We’re tacking on a few days in Portland. But your list of visits pretty well mirrors up with those wineries I’m hoping to hit, although I might add Big Table Farms. Please report back and let us know how it went (highlights, low lights, # of visits, driving time, restaurants, etc). TIA!
Scott
Sean - great list. You’ll have a blast. If you like beer and looking for a change of pace, hit Heater Allen (next door to Eyrie) and Allegory Brewing in McMinnville. Wolves & People in Newberg just off 99 is fun as it is on a family farm in a renovated barn.
My wife and I and colleague are just back from 6 days in McMinnville (plus 4 days after in Portland) and add these thoughts/experience to the various threads on Willamette Valley visits. It was our first trip to Oregon. Living in Ohio, we have to buy almost all our wine via the Internet due to very high state-imposed pricing and extremely limited in-store selection. So, such visits serve purposes for us that might differ from your purposes on tasting trips. And I know many of you have interests and tasting/buying preferences that differ from us so I don’t mean to suggest that our method be your madness. Anyway, FWIW:
After scouring VRBO, AirBnB, etc. for an upscale 2 bdrm/2 bath place w/a kitchen somewhere in the valley, we stayed in the La Rambla Loft above the restaurant on 3rd St. It was fabulous and highly recommended for a single couple or two couples, especially if you prefer to cook some meals in rather than eating out every meal. And you can contact the owner directly to make arrangements. We found McMinnville to be the most centrally located town for tastings and outings throughout the valley (in comparison to Newberg, Dundee, Carlton, Amity) and it has a more quaint ‘strip’ and more overall charm than the other (smaller) towns. When we did eat out, the places most frequently listed on this or the other WV threads were fine.
In trying to choose where to go for tastings, we found it easy to identify far more excellent wineries than we could ever visit. Trying to winnow down that long list to THE best places based on our buying/drinking preferences proved futile. So instead of crowding in as many tastings as logistically possible in an effort to not miss anyone (ie 4 - 6 tastings per day), we decided instead to limit ourselves to 2 tastings a day with a lunch break in between so we could better linger and more fully enjoy each experience. For us, visits to wine regions aren’t marathons spent running from winery to winery, and our palates ‘burn-out’ after two tastings of 6 - 12 samples each, especially since I can’t get a full sense of a wine when I spit; plus, to me it seems sacrilegious to waste good wine like that. Less is definitely more (enjoyable and meaningful) for us. Therefore we chose producers that we have bought from or intend to buy from so we could put a real face to the Internet acquaintance. Glad we did. We prefer to spend our limited $ on wine grown/produced by friends who we believe do it the right way for the right reasons. All of these producers turned out to be Berserkers and even then we had to skip several people who will be at the top of our visit list next time. I know that our palates and wine knowledge/experience pale in comparison to most of you, but nevertheless it seems to me that the Berserker producers are crafting as good wine as the ‘usual suspects’ that appear on the ‘must visit’ lists routinely posted here. For example, when scheduling your tastings don’t overlook FrannyBeck or Longplay or Vincent or WeinBau Paetra or others. You know them from Berserker Day or as regular forum contributors: they source fruit from many of the same vineyards as the ‘big’ names, and/or sell fruit to them, and I suspect they know how to process it just as skillfully.
Lastly, we’ve learned that our visits to wine regions are enhanced with several ‘non-wine’ day outings interspersed with days spent tasting. Gotta go walk off the fine food/drink. This trip we packed lunch and had great day outings exploring the coast (in Newport eat at Local Ocean) and hiking the spectacular 10 Falls Trail in Silver Falls State Park. The weather even cooperated.
Cheers,
John
I am willing to bet there are a lot more choices than there were on my trip there in 1986. 
James, to address your question about, “…staying at a vineyard…” my wife and I stayed at Wine Country Farm B&B last year in the late spring (technically in Dayton, but an easy drive to McMinnville). It’s surrounded by vineyards on all sides. The view was beautiful. Now, I’m not typically a fan of B&Bs because I like privacy, but the room we got had a private bathroom. Breakfast was very tasty, too, and it’s very, very centrally located. The B&B is part of a working winery but, if their wines are all like the complimentary bottle they left in our room, AVOID. Also, you HAVE to make sure you get one of the few rooms with a balcony that faced East. Most of the rooms didn’t have balconies, although the view from the shared patio immediately below us essentially has the same view. Here’s the view from our room:
I forgot to mention with the above: we originally looked into the 3rd Street Flats (based on recommendations here), but they were booked. The above place is directly across the road from the entrance to Domaine Drouhin and (going from memory), just to the right of my photo above is the hilltop tasting room for White Rose. We ate dinner at Thistle in Mac…amazing.
Magnificent post John. You could hook up with Michael Alberty and write for Wine Press or what ever publication covers the local scene.
I will be visiting my daughter at SCAD that weekend, so am out. Sorry. But, if you dine at The 411 they have one of my 2010 Pinot’s btg.
Sean,
One thing going on the weekend you will be in McMinnville is the dedication of the newly rebuilt Alpine St. The new Alpine is designed to be walking street that connects Goodfellow, Brittan, Eyrie, Westrey, and Heater Allen. The dedication will be on Friday from 11 to 1. I expect that stuff will be going on all weekend. We (Heater Allen) will be reopening our Tap Room/Bier and Wine Garden (only place in town with a Cameron wine on tap) that weekend as kind of a soft opening. Should be fun!
As far as dining is concerned, there are a bunch of good choices on 3rd Street, from La Rambla (tapas) to Bistro Maison (best fries in Oregon) to Thistle, Nick’s, and 411. Community Plate and Valley Commissary are both great breakfast and lunch options.
John, the restaurant in Newport that you are thinking of is Local Ocean.