Wineries to visit in Southern Oregon

My husband and I typically fly out of town for most long weekends but with Covid, ended up doing more distanced road trips in 2020. One of our favorite finds was Medford and Ashland in Southern Oregon. It is about ~6hr drive from SF but we broke it up by staying in Shasta and we LOVED it. Of course the wineries in the area motivated us to drive further north and we ended up visiting 6 wineries and 1 tasting room in 24 hours 😂. We’ve always loved Willamette Valley wines but was surprised to find interesting varietals other than Pinot in Southern Oregon. Tasting fees and bottles were all so affordable compared to Napa so we kept making stops during our drive.

Here’s the list of places we visited, tasting fees were around $10-15 for all of these wineries and waived with a bottle purchase.

1. Dancin Vineyard: Great stop for lunch! and also the only winery that was focused on Pinot during our trip. Tasted 3-4 different Pinots and left with a few bottles

2. Quady North: Cute tasting rooms in downtown Jacksonville. Variety of whites and reds but have 3 different Cab Francs + a sparkling Cab Franc. We ended up joining their club!

3. EdenVale: Super cute ground and great view of the vineyard. They have a long list of white and red wines for you to choose from

4. LongSword Vineyard: Good whites, had an interesting Chardonnay with a slight fizz/sparkle

5. Red Lily Vineyards: Great Spanish style red wines. You can also choose to taste/drink wine with the view of Applegate River

6. Devitt Winery: This was more like a house with a vineyard! We love small wineries but I would say this one was a micro. Owner/winemaker poured us wines that you probably won’t get to taste anywhere else

7. Wine Garden Tasting Room: Super cute tasting room where you can taste wines from 3-5 different wineries. Selections vary and we enjoyed the variety!

Willamette Valley wineries to visit in a day

Pinot wasn’t always my drink of choice but my husband is a fan so I would have a glass when he wants to open a bottle. When I tried Pinot Noirs from Willamette Valley region though, I was sold. We took a trip to Oregon in 2019 and made sure to dedicate a day for wine tasting.

We wanted to mostly visit small/boutique wineries and added in wineries with varietals other than Pinot as well. Here’s my list that I think you can’t go wrong with:

1. Bells up: Casual winery where we got to meet the owner while tasting. Compared to Napa wines, we thought all of their wines had amazing price to quality ratio and bought multiple bottles. Mostly Pinot! $30 tasting fee waived with purchase.

2. Natalie’s Estate: Small family run winery where we got to meet the husband and wife owners of the winery. I added this to the itinerary after seeing they also have Cab Sauvs and Cab Francs and definitely glad I did. $25 tasting fee waived with purchase.

3. Soter: Probably the largest winery we visited during our trip. Tasting experience was a bit more formal compared to others and enjoyable with an amazing view. They do distribute outside Oregon and I actually started noticing their bottles at wine shops after the visit. $30 tasting fee waived with purchase.

4. Beaux Frères: Not a huge commercial winery but well-known for their Pinot. It is on the pricier side compared to others (~$85-100/bottle) but definitely still affordable compared to Napa. We really liked the wines and regretted only buying 1 bottle because it was our first stop. $40 tasting fee waived with purchase

5. Ayoub: This is probably the most intimate/boutique winery. Wine maker hosts tastings himself at his property overlooking his vineyard. Really unique and fun experience + great Pinot. $30 tasting fee waived with purchase.