Capitello Winery Tasting Room

What they do well: Do you ever feel like a novice when you go wine tasting and the host describes the notes of pear and oak? When you taste wine, is your only palatable discrimination white or red? I often feel my palat isn’t refined enough to taste each nuance in wine and I can I only identify obvious traits like dry or full-​bodied. But here, every wine is so distinct. When the host says notes of mango, you smell the sweetness of the wine and you taste the mango. When he described the wine as grassy and peppery, that’s exactly what I tasted. With each taste of wine, I was guided with an accurate description of what you should taste and it wasn’t subtle by any means. The strawberry in the rose was nothing short of strawberry. Too often I’ve tried a flight of white wines and only been able to enjoy the sparkling muscat. Here I loved the pinot gris and the sauvignon blancs. I feel like I’ve only just now had first real wine experience. I highly recommend this place. Wonderful, knowledgeable service and above all, absolutely delicious wine.

Great location. Very pretty, mellow vibe inside (as long as you don’t look at the drawings of chicks with distressed animals on their chests). Nice for a few friends gathering after work, before heading off to a dinner spot.
«75% concrete egg,» is the first bit of a wine descriptor I read. Lawdy. If you’re not an avid wine person, you’ll have no idea what the taste of a wine is by reading the menu. Or listening to the staff, if my experience was any indication. No one in my party knew a concrete egg was a winemaking vessel, we just wondered why the f*ck we’d want something that tastes like sidewalk. Glasses were $ 7−11÷12 each. None of us liked our wine enough to get a bottle so I didn’t notice those rates.
I didn’t care for the «big, very grassy» Pinot I had and drank only half a glass. Several of my friends like what they got and we nearly all stuck to reds. Cheese plate looked good for small and overpriced but they’d run out of bread and Brie by 6:15. No real food menu to speak of, so don’t go hungry.
So, would I go again for great wine or a meal? No, but it gets a good rating from me almost despite itself. If you’re looking for a casual but classy spot to sit with a friend for an hour and sip wine, it’s perfect. Big glass front window and quiet enough for conversation. Go for the ambiance and consider the cost of your glass a rental fee. Then if the wine is also good, great! Bonus. :)
On street meters, paid parking north of building on 5^th.

Owner was wonderful, educated us on his wine and was passionate, every wine we tried was delicious, please please go here and meet this wonderful family and their amazing wines

Excellent wine, cozy atmosphere, and great service. One of my favorite wine spots in Eugene.

Aaron was a fantastic host and treated my group of 6 ladies well! He let us sit in a room off from the main room to have some privacy. Thank you for the wine tasting and the information on your winery. Great job!!!

After ten years in the local wine industry, family owned Capitello Wines has finally opened a tasting room in downtown Eugene. Ray, who was recruited from New Zealand in 1993, made a career with King Estate for ten years before opening his own winery with his son Desmond and his wife Jen. Capitello combines a selection of wines from his native Marlborough, New Zealand with Pinots, Sauvignons, a Brut, and dessert wines from the Willamette Valley.
When we stopped by this afternoon to find the old Lord Leebrick Theater transformed into a warm but modern space with rustic design touches like farmhouse shutters. The owners clearly put a lot of effort into customizing the bar space, which beautiful displays their selection in a natural, untreated Oregon wood structure. If you look up from the bar, you’ll see some of the exposed brick from the building itself, which adds to the contemporary, rustic feel of the place that puts you in that vineyard state of mind.
We enjoyed all of the wines we tasted, especially the Sauvignon Blanc which had a pleasant level of acidity, and crisp, citrusy flavor. The sweet riesling is fruity and sweet but better balanced with acidity than most. We’d love to try their award-​winning Dolcino some time too, which is a (Gewürztraminer) ice wine in the style of King Estate’s Vin Glacé, which, incidentally, the owner of Capitello helped develop for King.
The downtown tasting location seems like a good place to relax after work, and they’re setting up a little side space where groups could get together. They’re also working on getting in some other wines, and setting up a tap for some Oakshire beer and Mead (Blue Dog I think?). They’re open noon to 8pm, Wed-​Sat, with Happy Hour daily from 4−6pm, which means $ 1 off glasses of wine.
Welcome to downtown!