Portland collective offers 21 varietals

Published 12:44 pm Wednesday, February 15, 2017

It’s normal to think of a winery as located on a lush slope in the countryside, nestled among acres of vineyards where colors change from green to gold with the seasons.

Oregon’s Willamette Valley certainly has its share. But Portland, too, has its wineries — more than two dozen of which press their grapes and produce their wines in a decidedly urban environment.

These are mainly small-batch wines with annual production that may be measured in hundreds of cases rather than in tens of thousands. A few of these urban wineries stand alone, but many more are a part of collectives, whose members share many of the production costs.

A case in point is the Southeast Wine Collective, where 10 individual commercial wineries share custom-crush wine-production facilities. Sourcing from vineyards in the Willamette, Applegate, Rogue, Umpqua, Walla Walla and Yakima valleys, these wineries truck their grapes to Portland to produce 21 different varietals, a tribute to the diversity of Pacific Northwest microclimates.

“We are pushing the boundary on many varietals that are less celebrated here,” said Collective co-founder Kate Norris.

She and her partner, Tom Monroe, opened the Collective in 2012 in Portland’s Division-Clinton neighborhood. Its location near many of the city’s hippest new restaurants makes its second role a natural: The Collective pours wines as well as producing them.

The Collective

All 10 resident wineries have varietals on the menu at the Wine Bar. There is a pinot noir from Gersing Cellars; a gamay noir from the Tripod Project; rieslings by James Rahn and Loop de Loop; and pinot gris and petit verdot from 51Weeks Winemaking. Alumni of the Collective contributed a sauvignon blanc (Bow & Arrow), a cabernet franc (Jackalope Wine Cellars) and another pinot noir (Vincent Wine).

In a private wine tasting, I was especially impressed by a lightly oaked, 2015 Dell’ucello Vineyard chardonnay from Welsh Family Wines; a 2015 Rogue Valley sangiovese from the Ore Winery, with a distinctive strawberry flavor on the palate; and a 2013 Walla Walla cabernet sauvignon from Laelaps Wines.

Blends by winemaker Pam Walden — a 2014 Walla Walla Red (cabernet sauvignon-cabernet franc-merlot) by Willful Wines, and a 2015 Blanc (pinot gris-gewurztraminer-muscat) by Jezebel Wines — were also outstanding.

The Wine Bar also pours a broad range of French and Italian wines, along with Iberian dessert wines, a few sparkling selections and four on tap. All 60 wines are sold by the glass or the bottle. Norris said she likes to pour a variety of wines “to mirror and give reference to the wines we have here.” Additionally, the company is home to the Cuisinières Supper Club, featuring a delicious and moderately priced menu from Chef Althea Grey Potter.

Winemakers

In addition to operating the Southeast Wine Collective, Norris and Monroe are the owners of the Division Winemaking Co. Their particular varietals include sparkling and rosé wine, chardonnay and chenin blanc, pinot noir, gamay noir, cabernet franc and syrah.

Norris — born in the Middle East of English and French African parents, she studied winemaking in France — particularly enjoys Burgundian and Rhone styles. She offered me a glass of her Division-Villages 2015 Méthode Carbonique Pinot Noir, a whole-cluster tap wine (available by the growler) that she said is “not a serious pinot in any way, shape or form.”

It was very drinkable, but I preferred Division’s 2015 Pinot Noir Trois, sourced from one of the Willamette Valley’s Temperance Hill Vineyard, a certified-organic vineyard planted in 1981 in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA near Salem. Norris and Monroe co-fermented elegant Dijon 777 and earthy Pommard clones, aging the blend for 16 months to produce a ruby-colored Pinot Noir of deep black-cherry flavor and soft tannins.

Division wines may be purchased at the Collective or ordered directly from the company website, divisionwineco.com.

Apart from the Southeast Wine Collective, Portland has many other urban wineries. Three producers — Angel Vine, D’Anu and Cinzia Bella Coure — share a production facility and tasting room at Urban Crush on South East Seventh Avenue. Around the corner, the Teutonic Wine Co. specializes in riesling, gewurztraminer and other Mosel-style German wines.

Garagiste, in North Portland, is the tasting room for Jan-Marc Wine Cellars; its owners had their first crush in a two-car garage in 2003.

PDX Urban Wineries is an association of 14 urban wineries that host special events throughout the year. Its website (pdxurbanwineries.com) is a great place to connect with their unique culture.

— John Gottberg Anderson specializes in Northwest wines. His column appears in GO! every other week.
 He also writes for our food section.

Information

Garagiste PDX Wine Bar: 1225 N. Killingsworth St., Portland; janmarcwinecellars.com, 503-954-3959. Open 3 to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Southeast Wine Collective: 2425 SE 35th Place, Portland; sewinecollective.com, 503-208-2061. Open 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Friday, 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday, 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m. Monday.

Teutonic Wine Company: 3303 SE 20th Ave., Portland; teutonicwines.com, 503-235-5053. Open noon to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Urban Crush: 2025 SE Seventh Ave., Portland; 503-969-7209. Open noon to 7 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.