Wanderlust Traveler: November 2012

The beautiful Willamette Valley

We spent a long weekend in August of 2012 in the Willamette Valley, located about 30 minutes southwest of Portland, to visit several of its wineries in Yamhill County. I also have blog entries from this trip on dining and on our accommodation.

I planned the trip only a few weeks in advance after finding out I would have a business trip to one of my offices in Salem, Oregon. I figured we should take advantage of my mileage reimbursement and spend the weekend prior to the business trip exploring the Willamette Valley as it has been on m1y to-see list for awhile.

The Willamette Valley encompasses quite a large area, but after doing some research I determined that we would focus our winery visits to Yamhill County, which included wineries in Newberg, Dundee, Dayton, and Carlton.

We visited the following wineries over the course of our weekend and further below is a description and review of each of our visits:

The Four Graces:

This warm and inviting winery is located just off the main highway in Dundee and happened to be the first winery we visited. Evidently the winery was named in honor of the owner's four daughters, which he referred to as The Four Graces. The tasting room is located inside a quaint and charming little house that has been beautifully decorated. In addition to the tasting room, there are plenty of places to sit outside while one enjoys their tastings. The staff here were extremely friendly and kind and went out of their way to speak with us, and even took us on a quick walk around the gorgeous property. They even went so far as to share some of their favorite local eateries and even some of their favorite wineries in the area! And the wines? Those were great too!