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It has long been rumored that the few rows of vines at the entrance to Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, Wash., were required so the winery could be called a "chateau."
PROSSER -- Construction is expected to start soon on the next phase of what backers say will be the state's premier educational and promotional center for Washington's wines and food products.
PORTLAND — It is known as the City of Roses for its annual Rose Festival and abundance of rose gardens, but considering its proximity to Oregon and Washington state's great wine regions — and the selection of wineries, wine shops and fine dining — maybe Portland could also be called the City of Rosés. And Reds. And Whites. Although City of Pinot Noir would be closest to the truth.
Portland has long been a focus for the beer lover with breweries large and small, and now at least two distilleries have joined in, making brandies, whiskeys, gin and vodka.
And while visitors to Portland will, with a couple of exceptions, have to do a little driving to visit a winery, there's still much in and near the city to occupy and satisfy the wine lover.
Here's our guide to some of the best choices among wineries, wine shops, hotels, restaurants and wine bars:
Hip Chicks Do Wine
If your image of a winery is that of a stately mansion, flanked by ancient oaks, rising above rolling hills of verdant vineyards, brace yourself.
That's not how the Hip Chicks Do Wine.
Instead you'll find the Hip Chicks Do Wine winery among a warren of warehouses in southeast Portland. Follow the A-frame sidewalk signs; you'll find it.
You'll also find that the mansion and trees aren't required for serious wine or serious fun even when the verdant vineyards are miles down the highway, explained Hip Chicks publicist Callie Snyder, who was pouring tastes on an October Sunday.
With crush just recently completed on the warehouse floor, the Hip Chicks tasting room was relatively quiet, but the past activity was obvious.
Hip Chicks, founded in 1999 by Laurie Lewis and Renee Neely and since joined by Heather Flournoy, produces about 5,000 cases of handcrafted wine annually. Its selection includes Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Muscat as well as mischievously named and labeled blends dubbed Bad Girl Blanc, Riot Girl Rose, Drop Dead Red and Wine Bunny Blanc, Blush and Rouge, mainly from vineyards in the Yakima, Columbia, Umpqua and Willamette valleys. For the 2009 crush, the grapes were from Oregon vineyards only. The winery also produces a premium brand, dubbed Tiernan Connor.
Different yeast cultures are used to enhance the fruit-forward flavors, Snyder said. The red wines are aged in French oak, while whites are fermented in stainless steel.
The winery's Portland tasting room, inside the winery's warehouse, is a comfortable place to sample pours, shop for wine-related gifts and talk wine. And most people, Synder said, aren't put off by the industrial location or the search.
When you make good wine, "people really seek you out. They want to find you," she said.
The Portland tasting room is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., daily. Hip Chicks also has a tasting room in Newberg, open noon to 7 p.m. daily, at 602B E. First Street, Newberg.
4510 SE 23rd Ave., Portland
503-234-3790
www.hipchicksdowine.com; on Facebook.
Portland Wine Project: Grochau Cellars and Boedecker Cellars
Although Portland can only boast a handful of wineries within its city limits, wine lovers can visit two wineries at one location, the Portland Wine Project.
Grochau Cellars and Boedecker Cellars recently celebrated their first year in the combined facility in northwest Portland, in good company across the street from the Pyramid Brewing Co.
John Grochau and his wife Kerri started Grochau in 2002, and have been making each year about 3,000 cases of Pinot Noir and a few other varieties including Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah and Tempranillo, Grochau said. His wine-making philosophy is to minimize the handling and to go easy on the new oak.
Grochau has a deep resume in winemaking including work at Erath Winery and Brick House Vineyards.
Locating a winery in Portland proper wasn't a hard decision to make, he said.
"It's a 20-minute bike ride from my house," compared with his former hours-long commute, he said. "It's really nice to be closer to home."
And sharing costs with another winery made economic sense, cutting costs by sharing equipment, such as a forklift and bottling equipment that is only used at peak times of activity.
Tastings of Grochau Cellars wines are available by appointment in the shared lobby of the Portland Wine Project.
Gwen Goodrich, Boedecker Cellar's "Jane of all trades," agreed with Grochau about the advantages to sharing a facility in Portland, including the people it brings to visit both wineries. One of Goodrich's trades is keeping watch over the tasting room for Boedecker.
Boedecker makes about 3,500 cases a year, including its budget-minded Pappas Wine Co.'s Pinot Noir and Gris, and a selection of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Grenache.
But the wines that married winemakers Stewart Boedecker and Athena Pappas seem to have the most fun making are the Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs named after each other.
When Boedecker started in 2003, the couple were preparing to blend a Pinot Noir from various barrels but couldn't agree on the correct combination. Both set off to come up with the Pinot they liked best to determine whose blend would be made, Pappas said. But after creating their separate Pinots, the couple couldn't choose between the two. Ever since, the pair have tasted the barrels blind and made their own blends. Generally, "Athena" is a bigger Pinot, while "Stewart" is brighter with softer tannins.
Interestingly, Pappas said the gender split is similar among those who taste the wine, an observation that Goodrich confirmed: Women seem to prefer "Athena," while men side with "Stewart."
Boedecker Cellars' tasting room is open 2 to 7 p.m., Fridays; 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; and by appointment.
2621 NW 30th Ave., Portland
503-288-7752
Grochau Cellars tasting room is open by appointment.
503-522-2455
Other Portland-area wineries
Cooper Mountain Vineyards
An organic and biodynamic winery making Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Malbec and its Apicio Balsamic vinegar. Tastings noon to 5 p.m., daily
9480 SW Grabhorn Road, Beaverton
503-649-0027
Oswego Hills
Occupying a historic farmstead, Oswego Hills makes a number of varietals and blends, including Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Marechal Foch, Merlot, Riesling and Viognier. Tastings are scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
450 S. Rosemont Road, West Linn
503-655-2599
Ponzi Vineyards
Another Oregon veteran, Ponzi makes Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay and an ice wine, and two rarer wines, Arneis and Dolcetto. The tasting room is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. And the Ponzi Wine Bar offers flights, glasses, bottles and cases from Ponzi and 150 other Oregon vintners.
14665 SW Winery Lane, Beaverton
503-628-1227
Edgefield Winery
Part of McMenamins Brewing, the winery makes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and its Black Rabbit Red blend. Each April, the winery hosts its Celebration of Syrah festival. Tasting room open noon to 9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday; noon to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
2126 S.W. Halsey St., Troutdale
503-669-8610, 800-669-8610
Helvetia Winery
The winery makes Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer and offers tastings in the century-old Yungen House, open noon to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.
23269 Yungen Road, Hillsboro
503-647-7596
Oak Knoll Winery
Built on the site of a dairy farm, Oak Knoll makes Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling, Niagara and blackberry and raspberry wines.
Tasting room is open, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
29700 SW Burkhalter Road, Hillsboro
503-648-8198, 800-625-5665 (OAK-KNOL)
St. Josef's Winery
Celebrating 25 years, St. Josef's makes Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet. The tasting room is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekdays but phone ahead. Closed in January.
28836 S. Barlow Road, Canby
503-651-3190
Wasson Brothers Winery
Brothers Jim and John Wasson make Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Muscat as well as fruit wines from raspberry, loganberry, blackberry and rhubarb. Its new tasting room in Sandy, Ore., is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
17020 Ruben Lane, Sandy
503-668-3124
Vinopolis
Vinopolis isn't trying for a chic sense of style to attract customers. Wines are displayed in racks and in their original cardboard boxes or wooden crates, a sprawling selection well organized by region and variety. Replace the wine with books and you'd mistake it for a certain nearby new and used bookstore.
Consider it the Powell's Books of the wine world.
"That was very much in my mind," said Vinopolis owner Dan McCallum, when he started his wine shop five years ago at its downtown location.
Like Powell's, it's certainly one of the largest shops of its kind around. McCallum knows exactly how many different wines he offers: 1,851 in nearly 4,000 cases spread over 5,000 square feet of retail space and another 5,000 square feet in the basement cellar.
If it's Oregon Pinot Noirs you're looking for, Vinopolis stocks 125 to 130 different Pinots. And the selection is just as wide among other varieties, including 400 different Burgundies and 60 to 80 Champagnes and sparkling wines.
"We've got wine for everybody," McCallum said. "Lots for $10 and under and $1,000 bottles and everything in between."
Interest may be higher now in bargain wines, but McCallum said most of his customers are intent on getting the best wine for the best price.
He sends out a weekly e-mail newsletter that brings in its share of business. It, like the shop's Web site, is bare bones and skips the fancy graphics but is packed with deals and information.
Vinopolis schedules tastings from 4 to 7 p.m. on Fridays and from noon "until the bottles run dry" on Saturdays.
Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
1025 SW Washington St.
503-223-6002
Liner & Elsen Wine Merchants
Liner & Elsen has served Portland- area wine lovers for about 20 years, and has been in its location at 22nd Street and Quimby in northwest Portland for about three years, a move that expanded its floor space to more than 3,000 square feet, room for an estimated 2,000 labels.
"We cater to everyone," said employee Neil Thompson, from those looking for a $7 bottle to those searching for a high-end rare bottle. A climate-controlled cellar protects a collection of Old and New World wines, some up to 40 years old.
The shop's staff, owner Bob Schreb and three others with years of experience, are "extremely food type" wine people, Thompson said. They enjoy answering questions and making recommendations about which wines to serve with a particular meal, picking out key ingredients.
When the wine is something that a customer wouldn't have guessed would work, that's when it's fun, Thompson said.
"We got a call from the dinner table, with the people raving and praising the wine pairing," he said.
The shop also offers a selection of Reidel and Spiegelau stemware, including Reidel's Oregon Pinot Noir glass.
Tastings are scheduled for Friday nights from 5:30 to 7:30, and a fee is charged. Saturday afternoon tastings, from noon until the bottles are empty, are free. Check the Web site for a schedule. Tastings typically focus on a region.
Liner & Elsen also schedules seminars and bus tours to wineries.
Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
2222 NW Quimby St.
503-241-WINE (9463)
800-903-WINE (9463)
Blackbird Wine Shop
Blackbird Wine Shop owner Andy Diaz has had his shop in northeast Portland for about 2 1/2 years, offering about 150 labels typically in the $15 to $20 range, with a handful, including an Oregon Pinot, up to $40.
The emphasis here, Diaz said, is on small producers, particularly small winemakers who hand-harvest their fruit or grow grapes organically. It's an ethic that fits with the "locavore" movement's bias toward family producers, but Diaz expands it to include small producers throughout the world.
Even keeping to his market for affordably priced wines, Diaz said he works to offer wines not found in supermarkets or other wine shops. He said he wants customers to find something that satisfies them as wines that can be enjoyed that day, balanced by value and comfort in the knowledge that customers are supporting small producers.
Blackbird offers tastings on Friday night. By early December, Diaz had planned to open a companion cheese shop, again with an emphasis on family producers. With the cheese, however, he will concentrate on Oregon farms. The cheese shop will mean he'll have bottles open for tasting much of the time, as well as cheese plates.
Open noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday; noon to 9 p.m. Friday; noon to
5 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday.
4323 NE Fremont St., 503-282-1887
Oregon Wines on Broadway
This wine shop and wine bar has 36 red wines available by the taste or glass and more by the bottle, kept away from air with an argon gas system. Thirty Oregon Pinot Noirs are in stock, as well as a bar menu of bread, cheeses, pate and nuts.
Open noon to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
515 SW Broadway St.
503-228-0126, 800-943-8858
(two locations)
Some 500 labels with extensive Northwest list, at least 100 wines under $20; discount for Cork Club members; selection of fine chocolates. See Web site for listing of Friday night tastings, with tasting fee typically $15.
Open noon to 6 p.m., Monday; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m., Sunday.
2901 NE Alberta Street
503-281-2675
1715 NW Lovejoy Street
503-501-5028
Korkage
Tastings from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursdays, $10 fee. Cheese and cracker plate or bring your own food. Most wines under $25, grouped by style of wine. Open noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; 'til 8 p.m. on Thursday.
6351 SW Capitol Highway
503-293-3146
Great Wine Buys
Tastings on Friday nights and Saturdays, emphasis on Oregon and Northwest wines.
Open 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
1515 NE Broadway St.
503-287-2897
Portland Wine Merchants
Emphasis on Spanish and Portuguese wines. Friday night tastings, 4 to 8 p.m., $15; Saturday and Sunday, samples from newsletter. Open 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, Sunday; 'til 8 p.m. on Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
1430 SE 35th Ave.
503-234-4399
The Wine Cellar
Free tastings 4 to 6:30 p.m. Fridays 4-6:30 and noon to 5 p.m., Saturdays. See Web site for classes. Open 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.
13486-A NW Cornell Road
503-643-5655
Mount Tabor Fine Wines
Emphasis on premier Northwest wineries. Tastings on most Fridays, $15. Open 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Friday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday.
4316 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
503-235-4444
Powell's City of Books
Seriously now, you weren't thinking of visiting Portland without a stop at Powell's City of Books. With 68,000 square feet of store, it's arguably the world's largest independent new and used bookstore. In Portland's Pearl District, the bookstore is a good first stop for wine country travelers. Powell's helpfully organizes its books by subject, assigning room colors to general areas of interest.
You'll find new and used books on wine and wine county touring in the Orange Room. (Yes, Red, Purple or Rose would have been more fitting, but it's a minor quibble.)
A quick scan of the shelves gives an idea of the options available for books on Oregon wine and wineries, including Pacific Pinot Noir, by John Winthrop Haeger; A Passion for Pinot, with photos by Andrea Johnson and Robert Holmes and text by Jordan MacKay; The Wine Trails of Oregon, by Steve Roberts; The Oregon Wine Country Guidebook by Cindy Anderson; and Oregon Wine Country, with photos by Robert Reynolds and text by Judy Peterson Nedry.
Open daily, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
1005 E. Burnside St.
503-228-4651, ext. 5482
800-878-7323, press 3
Wildwood
You might think it would be difficult for a sommelier, considering the hundreds of wines he or she has to choose from, to help a diner select a good pairing with, say, a pan-roasted Muscovy duck breast or skillet-roasted Totten Inlet mussels.
It's really not, said Jeff Moore, wine director of Portland's venerable Wildwood restaurant. Simplicity makes such recommendations easier.
"The emphasis here," under executive chef Dustin Clark, "is good local food, simply prepared to let the ingredients shine," he said.
The wine shines, too. Wildwood offers a list of about 250 labels, of which about 55 are Pinot Noirs. And Moore keeps things flexible, stocking wines that are ready to drink now and keeping an eye out for deals for his clientele.
"That's the upside to the downturn," he said of the struggling economy. To keep their names in front of wine lovers, many wineries are offering single-vineyard wines that once wholesaled for $30 now run $17 or $18. If a diner is trying to keep to his or her own budget, Moore said, he can recommend a number of choices under $40.
The season and its food often dictates the wine choice, Moore said. For example, a richer dish might call for a wine with a little acidity.
Your choice among appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts may be tougher.
The menu changes frequently, but that's to be expected at a restaurant attuned to seasonal ingredients. A recent menu featured a grilled halibut and butter lettuce salad with heirloom tomatoes and a clay-oven-roasted pork chop with squash empanada, mustard creamed Brussels sprouts and collard greens.
Wildwood has been open for about 13 years, but with Clark as chef since 2007. Moore's tenure is a little longer, having arrived in 2004.
Wildwood is open daily for lunch and dinner, Monday through Saturday and for supper on Sunday.
1221 NW 21st Ave.
503-248-9663
Ten 01
Ten 01 is a relative newcomer to the Portland dining scene, and its executive chef's tenure is even more recent. Benjamin Parks beat out 400 applicants and six finalists in May to head one of Portland's leading slow-food restaurants with its emphasis on wine-friendly food made with regional, seasonal ingredients.
Again, the menu changes, but expect treats such as a pan-roasted duck confit on mascarpone polenta or Idaho trout with an apple cider beurre blanc.
Ten 01's sommelier, Erica Landon, has been with the restaurant since 2006, but has quickly earned a glowing reputation.
She's built a cellar of some 3,000 bottles with more than 800 labels from 40 wine regions. The list puts an emphasis on Burgundies and sparkling wines.
Parks' culinary upbringing was simple enough, a military family in Texas living on meat and potatoes.
But his mother, reflecting on her own military family life in Germany, introduced Parks to German cuisine and the unexpected flavors of caraway seeds and other unfamiliar ingredients.
Parks celebrates a team effort in his kitchen that includes not only his kitchen staff but also the farmers and others who supply him and Landon and her expertise in wine.
"I'll sit down with Erica with a dish, and she'll pick out the different flavor notes," he said.
Or, when planning a private dinner with a particular wine, Landon and Parks will taste the wine to see what ingredients it suggests.
Ten 01 is open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.
1001 NW Couch St.
503-226-3463
Toro Bravo
Toro Bravo is what you want a tapas restaurant to be: bustling and loud and with a menu that is salty, savory, fried and too long to list. If you're lucky, French kisses - brandy-soaked prunes stuffed with foie gras - will be on the menu, which does change with availability of ingredients
And should you feel any guilt over salt cod fritters, sauteed chanterelles or a chili-braised beef and sweet potato empanada, console yourself with the chalk-written list on the wall next to the kitchen listing every single local provider. It's all good local food, if not entirely good for your arteries.
The wine list is brief, but it includes some Oregon choices by glass and bottle along with Spanish reds and whites.
Toro Bravo is open for dinner daily.
120 NE Russell St. A
503-281-4464
Heathman Restaurant
The Heathman restaurant is an obvious choice for wine lovers, and that's a good thing. The menu changes - sense a theme here? - but expect entrees such as a wild sturgeon with potato risotto and a beef tartar or roasted quail and pork belly from executive chef Philippe Boulot.
Sommelier Jeff Groh's cellar is equally generous with 750 individual labels, 6,600 bottles and 60 wines by glass, with an emphasis on Oregon and France.
The Heathman schedules winemaker's dinners, guided tastings, seasonal wine flights and regional wine dinners.
The Heathman is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
1001 SW Broadway
503-241-4100
www.heathmanrestaurantandbar.com
Le Pigeon
If sweetbreads and beef cheeks are an acquired taste, this is where you acquire it. The wine list is very French with some Oregon choices. And for dessert, bacon cornbread topped with maple ice cream.
Open for dinner nightly.
738 E. Burnside St.
503-546-8796
Lovely Hula Hands
Don't expect Hawaiian. Expect an emphasis on local ingredients and a French-heavy wine list with several Oregon wines for good measure.
Opening nightly, except Monday.
4057 N. Mississippi Ave.
503-445-9910
Andina
Andina offers a fusion of fresh local ingredients blended with Peruvian culture, such as quinoa-crusted scallops. Not surprisingly, the wine list centers on South American, but represents Oregon well.
Open for lunch and dinner, daily.
1314 NW Glisan St.
503-228-9535
Noble Rot
Sunset magazine just named Noble Rot, now in a new location on a fourth-floor rooftop, its favorite wine bar for 2009. Wines are available by the glass, bottle and flight, including a Willamette Valley Flight. The menu includes small plates and entrees, such as Porcini mushrooms with crispy semolina and leeks.
The bar is open nightly Monday through Saturday.
1111 E. Burnside St.
503-233-1999
Alu Wine Bar and Lounge
Alu has recently changed its menu and refocused its wine selections to sustainably made and family estate wines, which include Oregon and Washington winemakers. The same ethic goes for the food menu.
Alu is open nightly, except Tuesday.
2831 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
503-262-9463
Bar Avignon
Among the things that Bar Avignon says on its Web site that it likes are "hot soup on a cold Autumn afternoon," "cheap red wine that tastes good" and "accordions." We like Bar Avignon. The wine lists focuses on Oregon wine with other pleasures. The food menu includes small plates and entrees.
Open daily after 4 p.m.
2138 SE Division St.
503-517-0808
Metrovino
This wine bar, owned by Todd Steele, offers a diverse selection of 1.75-ounce tastes to full glasses and flights by using the Enomatic Wine Preservation System. Steele was GM of the AgriVino Wine Center and purchased the system from the Carlton operation. Menu includes appetizers, cheese, salads, soups and entrees.
Open night after 5:30 p.m., except Sundays.
1139 NW 11th Ave.
503-517-7778
Kir
Kir calls itself a relaxed and intimate wine bar with wines from Oregon, France, Spain and Italy with small plates such as country pork and pistachio pate. With pickles. Precisely. Open Tuesday through Saturday after 5 p.m.
22 NE Seventh Ave.
503-232-3063
Wine Down on 28th
A comfortable bar with a fireplace to boot, serving Northwest, California and imported wines by the glass and bottle, including a large selection of Ports. Menu includes cheese, salads and small plates.
126 NE 28th Ave.
503-236-9463
Thirst Wine Bar & Bistro
Thirst emphasizes Northwest wines among its selection of 30 wines by the glass and 60 by the bottle. And if you want to prove something, order a Battle Flight that pits Northwest wines against imports. Menu includes antipasto, cheeses and small plates.
Open nightly after 3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
0315 SW Montgomery St.
503-295-2747
Hotel Vintage Plaza
Wine lovers hoping to keep the theme going with their accommodations should consider Portland's Hotel Vintage Plaza, a 117-room historic downtown hotel that offers nightly hosted wine tastings, scheduled classes, wine-centric packages and a knowledgeable concierge who can help direct travelers on their journeys.
Originally built in 1849 in the Romanesque style of brick and stone, the building was bought by the Kimpton hotel group in 1985 and renovated in the early 1990s. Catering to wine tourism was an obvious choice said Marianne Moisant, assistant general manager at Vintage, considering the number of wineries, wine shops, wine bars and fine restaurants within an hour's drive of Portland or a short ride on light rail.
Fans of Pinot Noir even have their own package at the Vintage. Starting at $289 a night for two, Pinot in Portland guests are greeted in their room by a bottle of 2005 Chateau Bianca Pinot, with the hotel's own label, and two Reidel Oregon Pinot Noir glasses to keep. Along with valet parking, the package also includes a certificate for a flight of wine pours at the hotel's Pazzo restaurant, which itself has an abundant wine list that includes some 30 Pinot Noirs, most from the Willamette Valley.
Those who skip the package can still get in on the wine fun. Northwest wineries are frequently the hosts for the daily tastings at 5 p.m. And most Wednesdays, classes are offered on food and wine pairings. The classes can get down to the finer details, including a recent seminar on vineyard soil and terroir's effect on wine, Moisant said.
Even turning on the room's flat-panel TVs offers a wine-related choice. During a recent visit, one of the in-house TV channels was running a documentary on, of course, Oregon Pinot.
Guests also are encouraged to draw on wine concierge Cindi Marconi's 20 years of wine industry knowledge, inquiring about winery destinations, tours and wines themselves.
Rooms start at $130 a night, off-season.
422 SW Broadway St.
800-263-2305, 503-228-1212
Hotel deLuxe
Originally the Mallory Hotel, built in 1912, Hotel deLuxe was reopened in 2006 after a renovation that restored the downtown hotel's Art Deco and Art Moderne look and now celebrates the golden film era of the 1940s and '50s. Photos of film stars are displayed, and rooms and floors are dedicated to actors, directors and producers, including the hotel's premium Marlene Dietrich Suite.
Rooms start at $129, off-season.
DeLuxe also offers Gracie's for diners and the Driftwood Room lounge.
729 SW 15th Ave.
866-895-2094, 503-219-2094
The Heathman Hotel
Certainly among the city's most celebrated hotels, The Heathman Hotel announces luxury from the moment you spy the Beefeater-dressed doorman at the entrance.
The 150-room downtown historic hotel built in 1927 is a Conde Nast Traveler "World's Best Places to Stay" and was recently renovated with an eye toward limiting construction waste going to landfills. Rooms start at $149, off-season.
Wine lovers at the Heathman can enjoy a wine-tasting package that includes deluxe accommodations, valet parking, continental breakfast at The Heathman Restaurant (see restaurant listings), a bottle of organic Oregon Pinor Noir and a wine concierge.
On Thursdays, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., The Heathman hosts an evening with complimentary wine and a program with authors, Heathman history and Portland tourism recommendation.
1001 SW Broadway St.
800-551-0011, 503-241-4100
Avalon Hotel and Spa
Situated on the bank of the Willamette River in Portland's South Waterfront District, the Avalon Hotel and Spa offers 99 rooms, many with views of downtown's lights and of adjacent protected wildlife habitat. Rooms start at $99, off-season.
Its spa offers more than 60 health and beauty treatments. And diners can enjoy the Aquariver Italian Kitchen and Wine Bar at the hotel for lunch and dinner. Continental breakfast is served on each floor of the hotel.
0455 SW Hamilton Court
(On GPS, enter 4650 SW Macadam Ave.)
888-556-4402, 503-802-5800
RiverPlace Hotel
Overlooking the Willamette River and the Hawthorne Bridge, the RiverPlace Hotel features plush suites and rustic Craftsman-style charm in its lobby. Rooms start at $142. Guests can enjoy the view from the Three Degrees Waterfront Bar and Grill.
1510 SW Harbor Way
503-228-3233
larkspurhotels.com/collection/riverplace
Benson Hotel
Downtown's Benson Hotel is on the national historic register with rooms starting at $116, off-season. There are three dining opportunities - El Gaucho, London Grill and The Palm Court. The first two have been featured as Match Makers.
309 SW Broadway
888-523-6766, 503-228-2000
Hotel Lucia
Hotel Lucia in downtown Portland offers lavish rooms and services amid cutting-edge design. Rooms start at $118, off-season.
Its Typhoon Restaurant and Bo Restobar specialize in Thai cuisine and Asian fusion dishes.
400 SW Broadway
866-986-8086, 503-225-1717
Blue Plum Inn B&B
A vintage bed & breakfast in Portland's northwest Irvington District, the Blue Plum Inn B&B offers a stately home base near downtown with rooms starting at $94.
2026 NE 15th Ave.
503-288-3848, 877-288-3844
Lion and the Rose B&B
The Lion and the Rose Bed & Breakfast - a 1906 Queen Anne mansion - offers six guest rooms, starting at $99, off-season.
1810 NE 15th Ave.
503-287-9245, 800-955-1647
Portland's White House
You're not likely to see the first family, but you'd almost expect it when you approach Portland's White House and its 14 columns, circular drive and fountain.
The home was built by a Portland lumber baron in 1911 in the Greek Revival style.
Rooms start at $125.
1914 NE 22nd Ave.
800-272-7131, 503-287-7131
JON BAUER is editor-at-large for Wine Press Northwest. His e-mail is jbauer64@gmail.com
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If you find a comment offensive, clicking on exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
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