Wine Tasting in Forest Grove, OR
Daniel and I love wine tasting, and when we heard there were great vineyards in Oregon we definitely wanted to check them out. If you saw my Rockaway Beach post, you know that we decided to stop at a few on our way to the Oregon coast. We chose to do wine tasting in Forest Grove because it was the closest to our original route. It’s only about 45 minutes outside of Portland, so it’s also doable as just a day trip.
Our first stop was the David Hill Winery and Vineyard!
The wine tastings are in this adorable house below.
The David Hill Vineyard had really great reviews on Google, which was one of the reasons we stopped there first. And no wonder! The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable, and it wasn’t overly crowded, so we were able to ask as many questions as we wanted.
They had a nice variety of wine, and everything I tried was excellent. Wine tasting is only $5 for 7 wines! Pretty big difference from when we used to go tasting in Santa Barbara, CA! While there were a number of wines I would have loved to take home, we decided on a bottle of their Estate Gewürztraminer. Highly recommend if you like a refreshing white!
They also have a variety of other local products available for purchase in the tasting room. Including cheese, crackers, and sausages.
While it was a bit too cold when we went, during the nicer months it would be fun to by a bottle and snacks, and have a picnic!
They have a few picnic tables outside, as you can see from the picture. Their grounds are really pretty, it would be a great atmosphere for a relaxing lunch outside.
But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the photos below!
I think we’ll definitely be coming back here!
Our 2nd stop was Shafer Vineyard Cellars, which had one of the best views by far!
The draw to this vineyard was the complimentary cheese and crackers, which I’m a total sucker for. They also had good reviews on Google.
This seemed like a smaller, more family run vineyard than the last. In fact, the only person in the tasting room was the wife of the late owner. She was so incredibly nice, and she even waived our tasting fee (which was only $5 to begin with)!
Shafer Vineyard also had a great variety of wines, and we decided to buy a bottle of their “Holiday Magic Wine,” which is a gluhwein. Can’t wait to have it over the holidays!
The tasting room was a little small and a bit busier, but luckily they had a huge Christmas shop to explore in between tastings!
They seriously had any kind of ornament you could possibly think of! It was also fun to see these huge tanks of wine!
I would definitely recommend this vineyard. Here are a few more pictures of the gorgeous grounds!
A fountain was recently installed as a memorial for the late owner of the vineyard, Harvey Shafer.
Another place we were hoping to check out was Bull Run Cider, but unfortunately they were closed when we were there on a Sunday. We certainly have not even scratched the surface of vineyards in Oregon, but this was a great start. If you are headed towards the Oregon Coast or looking for a day trip, definitely check these vineyards out! And if you’re looking for more things to do on your way to the coast, don’t miss my full romantic getaway post!
We were super excited to finally see the coast, but we were also excited to make some stops along the way. A friend of ours gave us the idea to stop and do some wine tasting, which was right up our alley. When we used to live in LA our weekend getaway spot was Santa Barbara, and our favorite activity was bicycle wine tasting! I had heard that Oregon had great wine and vineyards, but I had no idea HOW MANY! Seriously, go to Google Maps and search “vineyards near Portland, OR” and then zoom out a bit… I was not expecting all of those red dots! We stopped in Forest Grove because it was the closest to our route to Rockaway. You can read about the vineyards we stopped at 
Side note: while on the way to the vineyards, I totally saw a sign for 
