Oregon Wine Country (McMinnville), Oregon, USA

Hotel Oregon - McMinnville, Oregon

Downtown McMinnville, Oregon

Pat Choosing Lunch at the Grand Lodge
- Forest Grove, Oregon

Penner Ash Winery - Oregon Wine Country

Chitwood Covered Bridge 
- Oregon Wine Country

Wayne & Pat with the Spruce Goose
- Evergreen Aviation Museum, Oregon

Oregon Wine Country & McMinnville, Oregon, USA (9/8-11/2009) - The Oregon Wine Country during the summer is wonderful and the people here could not be nicer. 

The phrase wine country is germane - over 200 wineries (many world-class) carved out of the beautiful Oregon wine country countryside. 

McMinnville is the largest town in the Willamette Valley (the best known Oregon wine area) and considered the center of this wine area. With green rolling hills as the backdrop, this historic city has kept its turn-of-the century charm while providing full services for 33,000 residents.

We stayed in downtown McMinnville in the funky and fun McMenamin’s Hotel Oregon (see photo). The rooms had names of people and events that made history in the area. We stayed in the Leona room – named for a ship that serviced McMinnville. 

With so many wineries right around McMinnville, it is difficult to choose which ones to visit - decisions, decisions (like kids in a candy store). We started exploring the area visiting the cute town of Carlton where we tasted a great Pinot Noir (what this area is known for) and picked up some wonderful cheese for a picnic at Penner-Ash Winery overlooking the wine country (see photos). 

Then we went on to explore the small towns of Newberg, Dundee, Yamhill, Gaston, and Lafayette stopping for wine tasting at wineries such as: Argyle, Amity, Sokol Blosser, Domaine Drouhin, Domaine Serene, and Elk Cove before having another picnic the next day at Annie Amie Winery. 

We also visited the Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of the famous Spruce Goose – still the largest plane ever built (see photo). Our last day we stayed at another McMenamin’s place, the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove (see photo). Can you tell we like them? Our room was named John Potter who planted the now 150-foot tall Sequoia trees that the town Forest Grove is named for.

Please also see our 5 other blog posts for beautiful Oregon, USA:

USA Oregon Coast Cannon Beach Seaside

USA Oregon Columbia River Gorge

USA Oregon Mount Hood River and Walla Walla Washington

USA Oregon Portland

USA Oregon Oregon’s Central Coast Tillamook Depoe Bay Newport

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Write by: AN - Saturday, September 12, 2009