Anam Cara Cellars

If you are in Newberg, you HAVE to stop here! Great wine, great staff, great tasting room!

It is fresh Dungeness crab season and just wanted to say that the medium Riesling, Nicholas Vinyard, is a wonderful accompaniment to this seasonal treat. Throw in a artisan baguette, some olives, Louie Dressing, and you will. have a veritable feast.

This is one of my favorite wineries in Oregon! The owner was so sweet and there was a whole table of tasty food to snack on, some very nice cheeses too! Their wine called Heathers is by far my favorite and worth every penny. I would definitely recommend wine tasting here.

I’m a little torn, the wines were pretty good and we were the only patrons at the tasting room, but the experience got complicated by a delivery guy. So it was very disruptive and not pleasant. He came to pick up some pallets of wine and the attendant was not aware, so after she poured our first wine, she called the owner. Then, he was told to go around and use the forklift, he then told her he didn’t know how to use the forklift. All this discussion was in between our tasting and I really wanted to get out of there, because it seemed like he didn’t even know how to drive his truck, so I didn’t want to get stuck at the tasting room parking. I ended up buying the chardonnay and the dessert wine. As I said the wines were pretty good, the experience was stressful. I am going to forgive them for that, but next time maybe you should tell them you are with a customer and have them wait.

We had been wanting to stop by Anam Cara Cellars for awhile, each time we drove through Newberg and passed it. It’s worth the stop and wish we had stopped sooner.
We enjoyed walking into a tranquil, quiet tasting room with a knowledgeable and friendly server. We sampled their Dry Riesling, Rose of Pinot Noir, Medium Riesling, two Pinot Noir’s and a late harvest Gewürztraminer. Our hands down favorite was the Nicholas Estate Pinot Noir, especially at it’s price point. We tried one of their $ 65 bottles of Pinot (I can’t remember which one) and it just wasn’t as good to me as other Pinot’s we have had in that price point which is the only reason we didn’t buy it. If the price were cheaper, I would have snatched it up in a second.
I’d recommend stopping by.

This is one of the many wineries that Matt & I are wine club members of. He loves their Pinots. I love that the tasting room is only a few blocks from our house. Win/​win. The owners Shelia and Nick are lovely people and I always enjoy the chance to visit with them. They released a Chardonnay last year that is excellent, I am also a big fan of their rosé.

We happened to be in Newberg during the Wine & Seafood festival. Our most enjoyable stop was here at Anam Cara. They have great wine, most notable is a Oregon Chardonnay, and of course Oregon Pinot Noir. They were serving a bay shrimp apéritif that was awesome! Went great with the wine.
Our hostess were Dee and Kate, and even though they were busy we still never felt neglected. Dee was very knowledgeable about their wine, and we learned a lot. Definitely our best wine experience of the day.
Thanks for the great time!

nice tasting room. their vineyard is a couple of minutes away.
$ 10 gets you a tasting of 5 of their wines.
i loved their riesling. it’s in between sweet and dry.
nice lady running the place.

Each visit we make to the Willamette Wine Country results in one «most memorable» experience. Last week our stop in at Anam Cara Cellars’ tasting room in downtown Newberg was that experience.
HOSPITALITY
I know Anam Cara is Gaelic is for «friend of my soul». I don’t know what is the Gaelic word for «welcome» but if the building could speak, that is what you would hear from the moment you enter. But we didn’t need the walls to talk because the tasting room host, Sheila, warmly greeted everyone coming through the door.
She also did a top notch job of pouring the wines and talking about them and the winery. Which makes sense since Sheila and her husband Nick own Anam Cara. Their back story is a fun one, and I’ll link the web page here that will explain it for those who don’t have a chance to go into the winery.

Sheila was as gracious and welcoming to folks at the tasting bar who knew little about the wine varietals her winery makes as she was to folks who knew quite a bit about wine. This is the epitome of class, to treat all who enter with the same attention and respect. There are a few winery tasting rooms in the Willamette Valley which could learn a great deal by standing on the customer side of the tasting bar at Anam Cara and having the experience of being Sheila’s guest.
The WINES
My husband and I knew prior to our visit that Anam Cara made Pinot Noir. In fact one of their Pinots led a wine critic to describe it as «transcendent». We tasted that Pinot, the 2009 Estate Reserve, and think the critic got it right. This is a supple, sophisticated wine that is deliciously approachable now and will be even better if one has the discipline to hang on to a few bottles for a couple of years. At around $ 45 /​bottle we think it is among the best we have enjoyed in this price point. We also tried and liked the around $ 32 /​bottle 2009 Nicholas Estate Pinot Noir and thought was also easily one of the best in class at this price.
What was a big surprise for us here was to learn that Anam Cara makes two kinds of Riesling. Woohoo! Our favorite white varietal made by an increasing numbers of Willamette Valley vintners and we thought both the 2011 Dry Riesling and Medium Riesling (available only at the winery tasting room) were very good. So was the late harvest «ice wine styled» Gewürztraminer.
We bought some of each of these white wines and if it wasn’t for t too little room in our car and too many bottles of Pinot Noir in our wine storage at home, we’d have picked up some of that varietal too.
Lucky for you if you don’t live close enough to visit the tasting room, Anam Cara ships to states that allow it. Trust me when I saw you’ll want some of this wine for your holiday meals! Pinot Noir and Rieslings have to be two of the most food friendly varietals. And think about that Gewürztraminer with apple crisp or pumpkin cheesecake or ginger bread!
TASTING SET UP
Tasting fee is either $ 10 or $ 15 (we had free passes provided by The Allison Inn’s concierge so I can’t recall) and is refunded with a mere two bottle purchase. There were roughly five wines in the tasting flight, all free poured and served in top quality glassware. In our tasting we sampled Dry Riesling, Rose of Pinot Noir, Medium Riesling, two Pinot Noir and a late harvest Gewürztraminer. All wonderful.
THIS N THAT
1) Anam Cara’s tasting room is universally accessible (called ADA compliant in the old days) for people who walk as well as people who roll up to a tasting bar, from parking to level in entry and throughout the space.
2) Children seem welcome; one couple had their delightfully well mannered «10ish» year old kids along, who found plenty to look at in the tasting room while their parents enjoyed wine.
3) Art and wine are great companions, so it is a happy thing to find an assortment of art, from glass art to oil paintings made by local artists as well as commercially manufactured wine centric fun «kitchy witchy» pieces all for sale.

Super cool spot in town to taste a number of nice wines and very, very friendly people. Sheila was nice enough to give us a tasting and all kinds of great info about the area and places to check out, even despite the fact we weren’t buying any bottles and were just there for a tasting. The wine was great, it’s a really cool space, and she couldn’t have been nicer. We’ll definitely be on the lookout for their wine, and hopefully can return sometime to actually buy some bottles!

We recently came to this tasting room with a wine tour and were able to sample some really nice pinots. While this place is no frills, and is a mile from their vineyards, I still enjoyed the tasting, and the owner was extremely nice and welcoming.

We visited the new Anam Cara Tasting Room in Newberg and while we are big bold red drinkers, we enjoyed their ’09 Riesling. Also our pallette for Pinot Noir tends to be the $ 40 and above range, but their ’07 Nicholas Estate which is derived from 5 clones is one that has layers of flavors that we enjoyed and for the price, met our goal of finding a Pinot Noir that we liked for under $ 40. We also liked their ‘ice wine style’ Gewurtraminer, which they recommended to be paired with a pumpkin dessert (recipe was gladly provided) Of course with any wine, it’s all based on the individual pallett, but Dee and winemaker Shelia were pleasant and the new tasting room was relaxing. We purchaed 3 bottles and cant wait for the shipment to arrive to us here in California. I’d recommend a visit and see if their wines meet your particular pallett’s liking.

Had a chance to sit and talk with their owner during a brilliant introduction to the new «Allison Inn & Spa» (
) that is being built at Newberg. I tasted a couple with the kindly gent serving a heavy pour —
I gotta say, Oregon wine country has decimated my interest in Napa. Simply destroyed it. These are teensy wineries that are dedicated to wine… and not creating an amusement park. Ugh Napa… ugh.
Their Reisling was okay, but I am not much of a fan of them… however it did fend off the over sweet vibe that so many of have.
I quickly focused (obviously) on the Pinot Noir — soft tannins while full body… and it might be weird but the soil sold me… it is more of an old world pinot than the new world flowers and sweetness. This is minerally, earthy, and yummy to say the least. =)