St. Josef’s Winery

I was very impressed with the beauty of the winery, but taken back at how cold and rude I was treated. As we entered the winery 2 people were busy out side setting up for an event, and never acknowledged we were there. We walked the grounds and soon found the tasting room which had a close sign as we approached the room an older lady advised the tasting room was open. Great I said. When she asked what would I like to try and we advised some whites, she immediately asked «you aren’t going to try some reds?». My husband advised to the lady what I liked. The lady immediately went to the cooler to let me try a sparkling champagne with Chardonnay, when she
Poured it in my glass I could see it was flat and she agreed and would not open a fresh one for me to try. I just looked at her and thought Really. Really. You won’t open a new bottle for me to try. That’s when she advised it was $ 5 for 5 tasting. Price for tasting? Ok but usually I don’t have to pay for tasting wine when I’m going to purchase. Me or my husband didn’t want to taste 5 different wines we just wanted to try a white. When we advised her of that
She said «oh I guess you want to share?»
She took my husband glass away and left one. So she had a red pinot noir and poured that for us to taste. As we were tasting my husband was asking questions about tours of the winery and if they could ship the wine to us. We were told that tours don’t happen and most of people from Portland come and pick up their wine. At this point I tried the red which was ok and went to the rest room. As I reentered the tasting room I could see this lady had poured another glass of wine but it looked like a blush. I saw the expression on my husbands face and it was not good. This lady that is suppose to know about wine poured the white wine in the same glass that the red was in. Again I said to my self Really? Really she didn’t do that. How can I taste the white when there is residue from the red, to the point that it made the white horrible. When my husband brought this to her attention she became very rude, and started opening wine with out taking the wax band off before she opened the wine and debris from the wax was flying all over. That was my breaking point I laid my $ 5 down and walked out leaving my husband.
I wouldn’t purchase anything from this place, but my husband the sweet man he is purchased a bottle and left her a tip. He said he felt she needed it worst than we did. My husband has a big heart and we were planning on purchasing several bottles. I hope for my husband sake the bottle of wine is good. As for me this winery needs to get a grip because there are a lot of wineries out there that wants my business. St Josef shame on you. You know the old saying word of mouth can make you or break you

This place is very beautiful and some of the wines are very tasty. The reason Im only giving this a 3 is because there customer service was bad. There were 4 of us girls that came in to taste. There were two ladies in the tasting room. The gal that served us was very hard to understand, she gave us three decent pours but gave my mom a drip each time. Then she would just stand there and stare at us. It was very awkward and not fun. She didnt engage with us at all. She literally just stood in front of us and starred at us. We wont be going back.

The only reason to give this place a 3: the woman working kept complaining about not being able to leave. I understand you close at 5, but I don’t feel 4:40 is «too late». And THEN to have to listen to the woman complain and talk under her breath. Not sure we’ll ever go back.

My husband and I were just driving around taking in the area. We are from California and like visiting the area wineries. Came upon this one on Unilocal.Beautiful Mediterranean building and courtyard. The girl behind the counter in the tasting room was very friendly and knowledgable. For $ 5.00 you get to taste 6 wines. Husband likes dry and I tend to like a little more fruity. We were told that in the summer they have concerts and a festival in September. We ate looking forward to returning in the summer.

What a wonderful surprise! I purchased a coupon through LivingSocial for this winery as part of my road trip through Oregon and Washington. The owner was more then gracious in both fitting us in and giving us an excellent tasting experience. Admittedly, my boyfriend and I do not drink a lot of white wines, partially because we have not experienced many that we have enjoyed. Being a summer day, the owner started us out with their white selection, doing a wonderful job of educating us while walking us through several of their varieties based on our preferences. From there we went on to the list of reds they offer, while gaining a history of wine production in Oregon as well as some of the highlights that make Oregon wines so special. Their wines are so reasonably priced that even on our tight vacation budget we walked away with 6 bottles. All in all it was an excellent experience.

We decided to stop and try a wine tasting and had a great time. The site is quite pretty with a couple of nice spots to sit and enjoy the views and the host could not have been more agreeable. He was very willing to pour any of the wines on their long list and we were pleasently surprised at the quality and the modest prices. We left with a number of bottles and plan to come back with friends soon. I consider this place a real find.

I really liked this place! I had a Living Social Voucher where I paid $ 12 for two wine tastings and I also received a voucher for $ 16 worth of wine. It’s apart from the wine trail more closer to Mount Angel than anything else. There was a pond and stage area in the back, and the vineyard was out front. It has a German/​European feel to the place. Beautiful courtyard with a fountain. They have an event room and a lovely tasting room selling all their wines. We chose a White tasting. I’ve tasted better wine, but I really was grabbed by the Reisling. It had a rich, full unique flavor that was just right on the palette. Hands down, the best white there. I was going to get a bottle with my voucher but to my surprise, the Reisling was on sale for $ 9. We paid $ 2 more and got two bottles with our tasting. $ 14 for free wine tastings and two bottles… it’s an amazing deal! Really quaint place… heard they have a grape-​stomping fest. coming up in September. I hope to check it out. The owner is originally from Hungry, and he traveled all over Europe before coming to America 35 years ago. He was very friendly, and even a joker, so sometimes I wasn’t sure if he was telling a joke or the truth. Overall though, a great, nice, approachable guy. The winery is all family run, and was more personable than other wineries in the area that I’ve been to. I hope to return!

Driving out in Canby, Oregon was a random side trip of my tri-​state vacation in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I was on the quest for orchids, which proved to be unsuccessful when I was turned away because the nursery owner was at school (wtf?).
Anywho, we were in Canby and didn’t know where to go. So we drove towards a FRESH U-​WE PICK STRAWBERRIES sign. Along the way we see this glorious estate with Italian cypresses and bronze lion statues. A-​ha! A winery! A perfect alternative to orchids, I say. I head inside with a few friends.
The gates were opened. There was a sign that did in-​fact say that you should call ahead, but we were randomly in Canby. We thought the worst thing was that nobody was there and we’d go get strawberries instead. We parked and saw some other cars. There must be someone here! Past a fountain was the tasting room, but still not a single person to be seen. We ring a buzzer and a woman came down to help us. I guess today was our lucky day! We did a $ 5 a person wine tasting.
Here is the list of wines we tried in order:
Rose, Chardonnay, «Lilli» white blend, 2 Pinot Noirs, Syrah, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Late Harvest Pinot Gris.
We got a lot of knowledge and friendliness from our service, not really any missteps aside from perhaps jumping from Syrah to Riesling in the tasting. We were told where we could check out some other wineries and were offered retries of the wines we had.
Two particular standouts for me were the Chardonnay and the Syrah. They told me that Syrah isn’t typically grown in this region because of the colder winter climates, so I bought a bottle thinking it might be something nice and unusual to bring home to Honolulu.
This was my first wine experience, and it was pretty good. But I do wish they’d invest in some sort of open or closed sign.

This was our second stop on our wine tour of the Silverton, OR area. Admittedly, after visiting Vitis Ridge, St. Josef’s had a lot to live up to. The owner’s son in law was pouring for us. Instead of giving individual tastings to everyone, he gave the men one kind of wine, and the ladies another, inviting us to exchange. That would have been fine, had he poured even remotely generously. No kidding, he scrimped in a major way with all of us – there was barely enough to taste, much less share. The wines weren’t bad, but not stellar. My husband suggested we buy a bottle so as not offend and also so that we could waive the tasting fee which is typical in wineries. He put down a $ 20 for a $ 19 bottle of wine, and we made our way out the door. The son in law ran after us, saying we owed $ 10 more for the tastings. Wha, wha, what? The other two couples paid the tasting fee and left, one of them even left a tip (a $ 10 tip). After my husband followed him back into the tasting room to give him the additional funds, the stinge-​meister notice the additional 10 bucks that our friends left. He asked if we wanted that to cover our tasting fees, okay fine (yes we reimbursed our pals). To summarize – we all left we a bad taste in our mouth and shared with our driver that we would not recommend this winery to anyone we care for.
But–
The grounds were pretty :)

I was lucky enough to have been invited to a birthday party at St. Josef’s.
The grounds are beautiful, the main building is Mediterranean, the landscape was very well done, and their available services were accommodating for the party.
The owner was stationed at the tasting bar and he was very funny, knowledgeable, generous, and jovial (I think he was tasting too!)

Wine is holy.
It’s true!
We drink it during church because we’re emulating the Last Supper. Vineyards like this one are named after saints (and saintly owners, perhaps). And as you walk into the estate, there’s a huge painting of a jolly drunken monk in is brown garb at the top of the stairs, happy to greet you.
So, since we’ve now established that wine is possibly the nectar of the gods (or God), when you go wine tasting at St. Josef’s Winery, you’ll feel remarkably close to the divine with so much of it in your system.
For a measly $ 5, you get a souvenir wine glass… and a taste of several different wines (read: eight or more), all made on the premise. The only thing for me is, after tasting so many wines with nothing to cleanse the palate in between, it was hard for me to decide which wines I liked best.
I’m a Syrah fiend. While their Kitara Syrah had good flavor and kick to it, by the time I got that far in the wine tasting process (the vineyard’s namesake Joe said we needed to go in a certain order, so that meant trying at least four or five different wines before getting to the Syrah), my mouth was dry and it was hard to drink. Oh, their reds are dry.
I’d have to say that the winner from the bunch that we tried has to be the Gewürztraminer (try saying THAT five times fast), which was a nice, light, white, sweet dessert-​ish wine.
And, surprisingly, the bottles were quite affordable, too, ranging from $ 9 to $ 24.
It was a pleasure to get to chat with Joe, who came to the United States from Germany, about his lifelong passion of winemaking with his family, the different varietals, and the nuances of each wine. The only thing was that the wine tasting room was quite small, and had the tendency to get pretty crowded.
The estate grounds are gorgeous, and I went on a day that was quite dreary, so I can only imagine what it’s like during the summer. There’s a pond and graduated grassy grounds, a huge fountain, a nice deck for barbeques and the annual festival, and lots – and lots – of grape vines.
So next time you’re on your way to Silverton for a hike at Silver Falls, take an hour to stop and get blessed… with wine, that is.