Armonea 
Wine Country Farm  
(Dayton, OR) 
winecountryfarm.com 

Winemakers see the red volcanic soil of Oregon’s Dundee Hills as prime Pinot Noir producing property, but wine lovers have been appreciating this peaceful view of the Willamette Valley and the Cascades since the late Joan Davenport began to transform the property in 1990.

She found Riesling vines dating to 1970, a planting along Breyman Orchard Road that’s believed to be the third-oldest in the Dundee Hills American Viticultural Area. In 2006, Davenport built Armonea Winery near the barn that dates to 1870. Davenport, named her winery as a tribute to the Spanish word for harmony, and her daughter continues the legacy.

The attractions and amenities at Wine Country Farm are extensive, starting with the view from a spacious patio surrounded by evergreen trees and blocks of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling. A stone’s throw to the east are vines owned by Domaine Drouhin and Domaine Serene. Wine Country Farm also partners with Equestrian Wine Tours, which provides horseback and carriage tours, a special tie to Davenport and her love for equines. Her farm remains an ideal basecamp from which to research some of the New World’s premier producers of Pinot Noir. Lace up hiking boots or clip into cycling shoes for short trips to several nearby wineries. Upon return, there’s a soothing hot tub and a masseuse on call.

Perhaps more importantly, the inn features a tasting room where estate wines are poured, wines produced by Alberto Alcazar, longtime cellarmaster for Ken Wright Cellars - perhaps Oregon’s most acclaimed winemaker.There are nine suites. Rates start at $150, and there will be a chilled bottle of Alcazar’s refreshing Pinot Gris waiting.

Delfino Vineyards B&B 
(Roseburg, OR) 
delfinovineyards.com

Jim and Terri Delfino became refugees of the Bay Area in 2001 when they found this 160-acre ranch on the internet and started Delfino Vineyards. Upon launching their winery and tasting room in 2006, the Delfinos created a complete wine country experience for the southern part of the Umpqua Valley. Their B&B allows their guests the opportunity to “taste the place” and spend a couple of nights.

In 2002, the Delfinos built this intimate cottage for their friends who would drive up from San Francisco to help them plant their vineyards. Soon after, they transformed it into a comfortably modern B&B in the shadow Callahan Ridge, eight miles from Interstate 5 and 80 miles from the Pacific Ocean. 

Turn off Colonial Road and at the end of Laurel Oaks Drive is the Delfinos’ home and their guest cottage, which stands as part of a Norman Rockwell painting.

A crisp morning walk leads past their sizable pond and their 18 acres — nearly half of which are planted to Tempranillo, thanks to cuttings from nearby Abacela. Other varieties include Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Dolcetto. (After all, Delfino means dolphin in Italian.) Jim, who was raised by farmers, works both the vineyard and the 1,000-case winery, which explains the hot tub and beautiful swimming pool nearby. Terri taps into the business administration from her previous life to manage the tasting room and the B&B. 

Centrally located, there’s Melrose Vineyards to the north and Abacela to the south. The 600-acre Wildlife Safari in Winston is 20 minutes away.

Cost is $250 per night, with a minimum stay of two nights at the one-bedroom cottage. Arrival includes a bottle of award-winning wine.

Dominio IV 
Three Sleeps B & B
(Mosier, OR) 
threesleepsvineyardbandb.com 

Patrick Reuter makes the wines at Dominio IV in McMinnville’s Granary District, and his wife — decorated viticulturist Leigh Bartholomew — manages the vineyards they pull from for their brand.

Those vines include their estate site in the Columbia Gorge, Three Sleeps Vineyard, which they farm biodynamically. Among the reasons for such stewardship is because Leigh’s folks, Glenn and Liz Bartholomew, live within Three Sleeps Vineyard. They also operate Three Sleeps Vineyard B&B, a destination with views of Mount Adams, cherry orchards and grapevines for acclaimed Dominio IV wines.

Critics are slowly beginning to realize the quality of wines produced in the Columbia Gorge. The diversity of wines here is remarkable, ranging from Albariño to Zinfandel, and the Columbia Gorge Winegrowers Association rightfully embraces its slogan of “a world of wine in 40 miles.” Bartholomews’ 15-acre site fits in deliciously with its Syrah and Tempranillo.

More residents of the Portland/Vancouver area are appreciating the natural beauty that the Corps of Discovery first recorded for Thomas Jefferson. In an hour, a wine lover can touchdown at Portland International Airport, rent a car and be standing in Three Sleeps Vineyard or tasting at one of more than 30 wineries.

Three Sleeps refers to an answer Lewis & Clark received when they asked a Northwest tribe to describe a distance to be traveled by canoe. One can get a sense of those explorers’ wonder with the loop hike at nearby Rowena Plateau, part of the Tom McCall Nature Preserve.

Among the amenities at Three Sleeps is the breakfast featuring eggs from local hens and farm-fresh fruit. The Bartholomews also can arrange for a licensed massage therapist to provide in-suite treatment. 

Rates start at $160, and there is a two-night minimum stay on weekends and holiday weekends.

Simon’s Cliffhouse at the Columbia Gorge Hotel
columbiagorgehotel.com

Durant Vineyards
(Dayton, OR) 
redridgefarms.com

The Durant family offers a wine country experience in the Dundee Hills that is unmatched in the Northwest, providing wines from estate vineyards, olive oil pressed on the estate and two exceptional lodging options.

Red Ridge Farms accurately bills itself as “a destination for the senses” as home to the Oregon Olive Mill, Durant Vineyards, gourmet salts, three gardens, an outdoor pottery shop, solarium and a plant nursery that includes culinary lavender.

It’s a beautiful, remarkable and enterprising endeavor for Paul Durant and his parents, Ken and Penny. In the North Willamette Valley, Pinot Noir thrives, however, the 17 acres of olive trees is a special passion. Those trees don’t come close to satisfying the demand for the Durant oils, so the family relies on California as the source for most of what they feed into the Northwest’s first commercial olive mill. Tours, tastings and classes are available by appointment.

Grapes from across the 60 acres of Durant Vineyards, founded in 1973, end up in the hands of some of the state’s top winemakers. A few of those vintners bottle Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay for Durant Vineyards, a 3,000-case brand.

Lodging at Red Ridge Farms provides substantial privacy after a day of touring or dining in Dundee or Newberg. The Garden Suite, a fully furnished one-bedroom loft above the gift shop, overlooks the nursery and the valley. But when the gates lock at the close of business, that corner of the estate is yours. A two-night stay is $550. Stoneycrest Cottage is essentially a two-bedroom home with full kitchen, laundry and deck tucked in a remote corner of the estate. 
A two-night stay is $705

 

Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyards Inn  
(Roseburg, OR) 
reustlevineyards.com 

The Umpqua Valley’s place in the history of Oregon wine often gets overlooked, but Stephen Reustle is helping to change that with work from his Prayer Rock Vineyards.

About 15 miles away, the late Richard Sommer pioneered Pinot Noir plantings in the state at HillCrest Vineyard in 1961. Three miles away, Calvin Scott Henry III, founder of Henry Estate, developed a vine trellising system used around the globe. 

Reustle, whose winery is along Cal Henry Road, also is making history. The East Coast native sold his successful marketing business and moved to the Umpqua in 2001 in order to grow and make world-class wine. He pioneered U.S. production of a white grape native to Austria — Grüner Veltliner. His gold medals in international wine competitions span Grüner, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc as well as Syrah, Tempranillo and Pinot Noir.

And this spring, Reustle-Prayer Rock Vineyards was named the Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year by Wine Press Northwest magazine.

Recently, Stephen and his wife, Gloria, took the building that once served as their winery and transformed it into a two-story guest house. There’s a master suite, full kitchen, wood stove and weight room with a treadmill. It comes with heavenly views of the valley, 40 acres of vines and the proximity to the Reustle tasting room and underground cave. 

Reustle also serves as a gateway 
to exploration. It is 30 minutes from downtown Roseburg and less than 40 minutes from the charming enclave of Elkton, pop. 193, and its four wineries.

Lodging cost at Reustle is $480 for 
a two-night stay. Guests likely spend more than that on wine after a sit-down tasting in the cave..

 

Stoller Family Estate  (Dayton, OR) 
stollerfamilyestate.com

Bill Stoller learned the value of hard work and a lifelong appreciation for agriculture by growing up along the shoulders of the Dundee Hills — on his family’s turkey farm.

Over time, the Portland businessman, co-founder of the world’s largest privately held staffing company, envisioned something greater for that land, so in 1993, he bought the farm from a cousin. Nearly 25 years later, Stoller Family Estate has grown into the largest contiguous vineyard in the Dundee Hills at 200 acres. Stoller set the standard for conservation by creating the world’s first LEED Gold Certified winery. In the Salmon-Safe vineyard, there are 100 Western bluebird boxes and more than 40 raptor boxes for pest control. The 4,000-square-foot tasting room, with its floor-to-ceiling garage-style glass doors, uses solar to collect 100 percent of its power. On a sunny day, there’s a massive lawn for disc golf or games of football Kennedy style.

And the wines by Melissa Burr are beautiful. In 2014, Wine Press Northwest named Stoller Family Estate its Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year. 

There’s no better way to drink in the Stoller experience than to rent one of the three guest houses that predate the winery by decades and now are surrounded by vines. The Estate House features three bedrooms/two baths, a spacious kitchen that fills up with the morning sun, flat-screen TV, back patio with barbecue and a garage. Rates start at $495 per night. The Wine Farm House ($545) offers five bedrooms.  The Cottage House ($395), a stone’s throw from the tasting room lawn, has three bedrooms/two baths with flat-screen TV and back patio with barbecue. The Cottage also carries the legacy of his parents’ home when they lived on the turkey farm.

 

Weisinger Family Winery  
(Ashland, OR) 
weisingers.com 

Second-generation vigneron Eric Weisinger made wine throughout the New World before returning home and taking the reins of the vineyard his father established near Ashland in 1979. John sold fruit to Oregon winemakers for nearly a decade before becoming the city’s first estate winery in 1988.

Eric was nine when he and his two younger sisters helped Dad plant those first 4 acres of Gewürztraminer. It was a natural selection for someone with German roots, and that aromatic white grape lured John from Texas to Southern Oregon’s Bear Creek Valley. At 2,200 feet, Weisinger Estate Vineyard is one of the highest elevation sites in the state, and they’ve since added Tempranillo and Pinot Noir to their property. Both produce wines of renown.

The Pinot Noir was planted next to the original farm house built in the 1920s. In 2013, Weisinger remodeled the 576-square-foot home into its Vineyard Cottage, turning it into a quaint and quintessential getaway for wine lovers from Portland to San Francisco, 350 miles to the south.

There’s a full kitchen, a barbecue, air conditioning and a fireplace to provide year-round comfort. Technology includes Wi-Fi and DirecTV with access to Netflix, Pandora and Roku. Hop out of the hot tub straight into the queen-
sized bed topped by a resort-style mattress.  Rates start at $200 per night with a two-night minimum. It comes with a complimentary bottle of Weisinger wine, a local cheese basket, a complimentary tasting at the 2,000-case winery and a discount on wine purchases. For someone who wants to blend a wine-country experience with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which runs mid-February to early November, it’s a gold medal.

Nearby Wineries & Dining

Youngberg Hill Inn
(McMinnville, OR) 
youngberghill.com 

There are about two dozen B&Bs in Yamhill County, but when it comes to presenting that experience within the context of a vineyard, Wayne and Nicolette Bailey at Youngberg Hill stand out from the rest in the coastal foothills of the North Willamette Valley.

With roots that reach back to farming in Iowa, the Baileys bought the inn, 20-acre vineyard and the winery in 2003. And because of their three young daughters, they immediately embraced organic practices for the vineyard first planted in 1989. Natasha and Jordan each have a block of Pinot Noir and an acclaimed wine named after them. Aspen appears on vineyard-designated bottlings of both Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. Their father grows the grapes and makes the wine.

As a destination, Youngberg Hill is well-positioned with more than 100 wineries and tasting rooms within a 20-minute drive. 

The sweeping views from atop Youngberg Hill make for some of the most iconic images in the Oregon wine industry, and the accommodations match expectations. As innkeepers, the Baileys are members of the elite Select Registry. The wood-paneled lodge offers nine rooms, and each of the five king suites somehow seem tucked away to offer remarkable privacy. The Cellar Suite spans 610 square feet. In-room options include Jacuzzi tubs and fireplaces. There are two courses at breakfast with options such as Egg Florentine, Salmon Hash and Pinot Poached Pears. Rates start at $199 per night, but the Martini Suite ($399) comes with a private second-floor patio and prime views of Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson and the vineyard.

Make sure to arrive by 4 p.m. That’s when Wayne or members of his team stage a complimentary one-hour wine tasting for B&B guests. They also can help arrange visits to neighboring wineries.