Helvetia Winery

I went with my sister on Valentine’s weekend for her birthday and we had a wonderful time! The winery is beautiful set in a rustic house and parking was super easy. Place was very easy to find and the people there were very friendly and knowledgeable.
When we got there early they weren’t finish setting up for our tour yet so we waited in the front. They gave us complementary glasses of their delicious chardonnay while we waited. They had some local handmade Native American art pieces for sale and also chocolate from a local chocolatier. We even got to sample a few pieces.
Shortly after they finished setting up we were given a history of winemaking and the process a winemaker has to go through and inspect the condition of the land, barrel type and suitable weather for optimal grapes. We toured all over the property seeing the house where they keep their harvester, fermentation room and the grape fields. We even got to try samples of aged wine from different years.
After the tour we got to the best part the wine tasting. Each wine was delicious and unique to the year it was made it was paired with smoked salmon made from local native americans. All in all it was a wonderful 2 hours spent at the winery and we took home a few tasty bottles and a large amount of winemaking information. I would love to bring my friends and family here for the wonderful experience.

Wonderful experience, did the wine tour, very educational and fun. And the wines are delicious!

disappointed that the signs all say they are open and the website says open, and yet you drive out there to find it was closed. I realize Jan is not wine tasting weather and due to the slowness of the season they prob can not afford do be open in the winter months. We visited on Saturday and was disappointed they were closed. Perhaps a drive to your signs to say closed would be helpful.

It was a Sunday funday, and I was out with friends and their daughter. We had just finished eating locally and were actually headed to a lavender farm since it was close by and we wanted to get out and wander. The sun was peaking in and out and it was a little cool out but decent. We made it by the farm but it was closed. There was a sign saying that the winery was open and so we gave it a try.
There were a few cars and a rustic house and barn. A woman was on the steps waiting, asking if we were a part of Living Social. I guess you can get a tour of the whole place if you sign up through them. We were just passing through and we were welcomed all the same. My buddy and I decided to do the tasting. We tried three whites and four reds (three of those were Pinots, 09, 10, 11) I am not a white wine drinker at all. I enjoy deep, earthy, dirty wines, so the fruity white wines don’t do it for me. These were decent but I wasn’t thrilled till I got to the reds. The 2009 was the smoothest and richest of the group and I ended up with a bottle.
They have a wine club you can join which saves you money and gets you additional perks. I just bought a bottle because with so many other wineries to try out, and the fact that at the moment I don’t have a functioning vehicle, makes it tough to return. It was still a pleasant experience. I would go back to take a tour.
Enjoy.

Don’t wear high heels.
It didn’t occur to me that I may have to walk through a gravel driveway, traction mats with holes in them on the stairs and then go on a tour of the actual grape fields. At least I probably had the best traction of anyone as my heels dug firmly into the wet soil, locking my position solidly in place whereas others could have slipped on the wet sloping ground. Hooray for heels at this point.
After wiping wet earth off my filthy shoes, we started our visit with a generous pour of a beautiful and delicious rosé with the gracious co-​owner/​hostess. The rosé was outstanding.
We sampled two varieties of delicious smoked salmon on crackers with the delicious wines. The owners educated us about the barrels they used and how the wines were made and the nuances of the differences in what to look for in how the wines tasted and why. It was more interesting than many of my wine tasting excursions for that reason.
The rosé was so lovely that I ended up taking a bottle home with me. It’s gone now…

Nice little change of pace winery not far from cornelius pass. Great place to get your hands on some locally caught wild salmon or steelhead as well.

Used a groupon to do the tour, tasting, and receive a growler/​Chardonnay. I would give this place five stars, but I do think they should work a little more on the upkeep of this winery. Driving in it is a little off putting, but that’s my only minor complaint. This place really is a gem. The wine was great. I love the Chardonnay and Pinot noir. John is very knowledgeable and truly cares about winemaking and giving you a fabulous experience. He was excited to have us try many different wines, some from bottles and others from the barrel. I learned such an interesting wealth of information. One of the best winery tours and tasting experiences I’ve had and the salmon was icing on the cake! Also, Make sure to make an appoinment if you are planning to do a tour.

just discovered this diamond in a rough winery. It is up the road from the Helvetia tavern and just a bit further from the now-​famous Roloff Farms in Helvetia, Oregon. The wines are wonderful, but what puts this place over the top is the proprieter, John and his pristine setting.
DO NOT come here if you are going for the larger than life corporate version of a wine tasting room… this is a modest farm house from the turn of the last century that has been converted into a tasting room. It is a gravel parking lot, so high heels are not recommended.
But DO come ready to have a great experience. John knows so much about the history of this farm house, and the geological history of Helvetia’s soil, but he is also one of the most worldly people I’ve ever met. A quick scan of the walls shows that he has quite the political past, and he has rubbed elbows with many heads of state… don’t let that put you off if you are not the political type, because he is just a fascinating guy to chat with nonetheless.
I walked out with a bottle of each of his wines, which I found to be reasonably priced ($ 13−25/bottle) and he has a wine club with 4 shipments a year… but here’s the kicker.
Don’t ask me how, but they somehow have an inside scoop on indigenous Native American salmon… we are talking delicious fresh (not farmed) salmon there on a regular basis for you to purchase and bring home at a reasonable price… it was less than $ 10/​lb for FRESH SALMON (better than Copper River, IMO) …That alone garners 5 stars to a winery.

We went here on my first visit to a winery. We had bought a livingsocial deal and had no idea what we were getting oursleves into. But the experience turned out great! John, the owner, was a lovely host. I learned a lot about wine making, tasting, and bottling from his tour. The tasting was held in a room for barrel tasting and a cute little red house for bottled wines. We were also served smoked salmon that was caught the previous day! Both wines and salmon were delicious! We ended up buying a bottle of pinot noir and a fresh whole salmon that was sold by a Native American woman who had caught it fresh the day before. Guests were welcomed back to just sit on the back porch, drink some wine and watch the scenery. Did I also mention the winery had two very friendly dogs?

Very very nice people. Knowledgeable and friendly.
Only complaint would of been that they could of worked on their display. John even mentioned a few times «come back tomorrow we will have the place cleaned up by then.» The tour was informative but the van they drove us in was a bit messy. There was also some run down vehicles out front. We were unsure we were at the right place.
This was the first time i had experienced barrel tasting, that was interesting and pretty fun to learn about.
They also allowed us to sample local smoked chinook salmon and steelhead which was amazing. Due to limited supply though they can only sell you one can at a time, wish i could of purchased more.
All and all it was a great learning experience, very nice and friendly service, wine was decent, salmon excellent, presentation needed work.

Helvetia is a small winery up a dirt road in the rather gorgeous Tualatin Valley.
Until last night, I was not much of a wine consumer (I’ll have my gin, thank you very much). But then I sampled Helvetia’s ’06 Pinot Noir. I don’t know the parlance of wine tasting talk, so I can’t adequately describe this Pinot Noir, but I thought it was wonderful and bought a bottle.
The owners are John Platt and former congresswoman Elizabeth Furse. They have pictures on the wall of them posing with the beloved former First Couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton. John was there on Saturday evening and he is a warm and welcoming fellow.
BTW, how I found out about Helvetia was because there was a party here for a friend graduating from Lewis and Clark College.
Dig the freshly-​shorn alpacas on the farm just down the road from Helvetia!