Event to Celebrate "Artisanal" Oregon Winemaking

Of all the new-to-me wine events this year, I am most looking forward to the Portland Indie Wine Festival. In its sixth year, the festival celebrates the top 40 Oregon craft wineries selected to pour their artisanal wines at the festival's Grand Tasting held on Saturday, May 8th from 2-8 p.m. The festival takes place at the spacious, industrial-chic Bison Building in Northeast Portland. Fifteen of the city's top restaurants will be pairing food with the wines.

The Portland Indie Wine Festival is the signature event of the Indie Wine Foundation, a newly formed non-profit dedicated to sustaining and preserving the art of craft winemaking. Although I feel almost all Oregon wineries could be titled "artisanal," especially Southern Oregon wineries, this event is exciting to experience many up-and-coming brands that aren't wide available to try yet. 

The 40 wineries and 81 wines were selected from a blind tasting conducted with 12 professional wine judges on March 15, 2010.  Quady North and Velocity Cellars were among the list chosen, but many wineries up north had wines selected from grapes grown down south.

Ancient Cellars
2008 Rogue Valley Terebinth Cabernet Franc
2008 Rogue Valley Amphorae Cabernet Sauvignon

Genius Loci
2007 Rogue Valley Folin Vineyard Syrah

J. Scott Cellars
2007 Rogue Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
2008 Rogue Valley Petite Syrah
2008 Rogue Valley Viognier

Quady North
2006 Rogue Valley Arsenal
2007 Rogue Valley 4-2, A Syrah
2007 Applegate Valley Cabernet Franc
2007 Applegate Valley Viognier

Velocity Cellars
2006 Rogue Valley Velocity
2007 Rogue Valley Velo