Days: 4
Level: Easy
Mileage: 32 ave - 128 total
Start/Finish: Portland, OR
Price: 800

 

Meals: All included except dinner in McMinnville
Restaurants: Nick's Cafe in McMinnville
Motels: Hotel Oregon in McMinnville
Events & Activities: Wine tasting


All of our Wine Tour Weekends have the same formula - moderate mileage, camp on vineyard properties where possible, wine tasting at camp in the afternoon, and we try to include some fun evening activities. This tour travels through the heart of the Willamette Valley AVA, an area that is known for its award wining Pinot Noir's.

This tour will take you through Willamette Valley AVA and the six smaller AVA's within it - Chehalem Mountains, Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton, Dundee Hills, McMinnville, and Eola-Amity Hills. The ride is a fairly easy ride. The average mileage is only 36 miles per day which will give us plenty of time to visit local vineyards. The terrain for the most part follows the valley floor but there are a couple of 500 ' hills on the first full day's ride.

With an early Thursday afternoon departure shuttle out west of Portland to the Banks area. We get a good start on our wine tour by going by six vineyards during our nice little evening ride. We ride in to Forest Grove where we will stay that the Grand Lodge. Built in 1922 as a Masonic & Eastern Star home, it was renovated and opened by McMenamins in 2000 as a hotel, restaurant, brew pub and winery.

On Friday we ride through the valley between the Chahalem and Yamhill-Carlton AVA's stopping at a vineyard here and there. We can't stop at all of them because there are just too many around here. We make a short climb up onto Ribbon Ridge so that we can have lunch at a vineyard and hear about why this little pocket on the ridge is a unique AVA in and of itself. In the afternoon we ride along on the outskirts of Newburg and down to the Willamette River. Here we will camp at an old family farmstead. The farm is also a vineyard so we have a nice "farm dinner" that night with wine from our hosts vineyard. A local wine expert will join us for our afternoon wining tasting and dinner to tell you all about the Oregon wines that you will be tasting this weekend.

Our second day of riding takes us out into the heart of Willamette Valley Pinot country - the small towns of Yamhill and Carlton. It's an easy ride as we ride past one vineyard after another. We finish up the days ride as we come into McMinnville that afternoon. During our overnight stay in McMinnville we'll stay in another McMenamins property - the old Hotel Oregon in downtown McMinnville. Staying in town will give us a chance to do a wine tasting in town in the afternoon. For dinner that night the group will go to the famed Nick's Cafe. After dinner you will want to wander the streets of McMinnville and check out the quaint little shops.

Leaving McMinnville we roll along the base of the Coast Range as we again pass vineyard after vineyard in the McMinnville AVA. Mid-day we will be riding across the opening to the Van Dozer Corridor and you will likely hear all about why it is so important to the wine industry. We ride south into the Eola-Amity Hills AVA where we again find a friendly vineyard to host our entourage. In the afternoon we will have our wined tasting there on the vineyard grounds. Dinner will be another special "farm dinner" where we will highlight the wines of our host for the night. For entertainment tonight we will have a movie night under the stars where we show an appropriately wine themed movie in camp.

On Monday ride across the Eola Hills and meet up with the Willamette River again. We cross the river on the old Wheatland Ferry and stop in at the Willamette Mission Start Park for a break. Riding on up the valley we roll through the farms that line the banks of the Willamette River. We come to the end of our ride at Champoeg State Park where we get cleaned up before riding in the shuttle bus back into Portland.

Tour details may change without notice. Although you'll have an up-to-date itinerary prior to departure,
changes due to unforeseen circumstances may occur at any time.