Chehalem Tasting Room

We have been here twice now for Sunday tastings and just love it. In fact, I joined their wine club after the first visit. Both times it was Bob and Daniel working and though Bob poured both our tastings, Daniel often chimed in as well. The wine is good and the variety is outstanding, especially for Oregon wineries. It is nice to be able to taste more than 3 or 4 types of wines and again, the wine is still great. They have three different AVA’s and have been in business for over 50 years (I believe) which is what promotes such a wide variety of wine styles. In addition to great wine at a decent price point (I believe wines thus far have ranged from $ 28-​$ 60 a bottle), the service is awesome. They are friendly, flexible and clearly want you to enjoy the wine and your time spent with them. No stuffiness or snootiness that sometimes is found in the wine industry. They also sell wine growlers and usually have 2 wines on tap at a time. I am looking forward to being a part of their wine club and participate in the special events, in addition to more visits to the tasting room to enjoy their wine and to share it with friends. Now I just need to up my wine storage game as my collection is quickly accumulating and I’m looking forward to seeing how these develop and taste further down the line too.

The staff here were incredibly friendly and felt genuine in their questions about my husband and me. However, I’m so used to tasting wine at wineries or tasting rooms off the main drag that it was tough to really get into the vibe with a busy road right out in front. Wines were tasty. Particularly a chardonnay, and I generally dislike chardonnays. This one was done differently. Very clean without all that oakiness.
Would I come back again? Probably wouldn’t go out of my way but if some friends wanted to go I would oblige happily.

Visited this spot as my first wine tasting experience while at a bridal shower. Employees were really friendly and helpful. Made the experience a great deal of fun.

Very cool building! Server was nice and shared lots of information about the region. She spent a lot of time with us talking about the AVAs and sharing her knowledge about the grapes. We bought the Pinot Gris which normally we would never but, but it surprised us. Definitely worth the visit!

I discovered this winery after seeing a lot of their wines on the wine list of some of the fancier restaurants in PDX. After my visit, I’m also now a big fan of Chehalem.
We tried their Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Ian’s Reserve Chardonnay. All were good.
Of the pinot noirs, we tried the Ridge Crest, Three Vineyards, Stoller and Corral Creek. All were amazing as well.
Overall, this was a great tasting experience that I highly recommend.

Chehalem Winery’s in-​town tasting room makes it über convenient for customers to taste their wines. You can still go out to the winery for tours and private party tastings, by appointment.
The tasting fee is $ 10 on weekdays (5 wines) and $ 15 on weekends (7 wines).
But, the tasting fee is forgiven with a $ 50+ wine purchase. We approve of reasonable tasting fees and rebate policies so as to discourage the free wine seekers.
Chehelam Is well known for quality red and white wines that focuses on cool-​climate varieties that include Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Grüner Veltliner, and Gamay Noir. With minimal processing and without compromising great fruit, Chehalem wines promise good ageing but are very drinkable young.
Jodi, our host, welcomed us on a rainy afternoon. Their homey brick tasting room made for a comfortable venue for tasting and conversation. We tried 7 wines, more than normal, since we were the only customers and several wines, such as the SEXT Riesling, not normally opened were tasted. Besides SEXT, we also liked and bought a German white, a 2013 Ridgecrest Grüner Veltliner.
If you have only time for a few winery tastings in Newberg, make one of them Chehalem. Jodi even gave us a wine box, even though we only bought 4 bottles, knowing we were just starting our Newberg wine adventure and would fill the box with other wines. A class act in our book.

A memorable visit.
Excellent service. Very informative presentation. Delicious wine. The whites are incredible. The chardonnay is most flavorful yet subtle. Perfectly balanced. Very different from the popular, buttery chardonnay.
Relaxed experience.

Plan ahead, spend a few bucks and book a seated tasting at the actual winery down the road.
We visited 10 or so wineries during on our recent trip, and it was our favorite one, hands down!

We squeezed in one more tasting on our way back to Hood River. It was at the end of the day and this tasting room was still fairly busy. The wines are pretty good. I enjoyed tasting all of them and purchased a couple of their bottle plus two of their growlers. That was a fun and different option. Their whites are really tasty. Will definitely visit them again next year.

Wonderful, fun tasting room. So friendly. So yummy! Jodi is amazing and patient and helpful and knowledgeable. More whites than most, if you want to escape the Pinot Noirs, but the PNs are so varied and excellent, too!

Chehalem produces some of the top whites in the valley. I dropped in Saturday and did a full tasting with M. It has been around a year since I purchased wine here, and drank through most of the whites last summer. Saturday was a nice refresher and made me realize they really are deserving of 5 stars. Dave helped us, and ultimately I signed up for their whites only club. M really likes their reds, but I find their pricing to be on the higher end in the valley, and honestly I can’t tell the difference between their reds and others I enjoy at much lower price points. The SEXT is one of my top 5 favorite whites.
As I mentioned in my previous review, the tasting room is in downtown Newberg, which is nice if you want to stay at a local bed and breakfast and just walk to tastings one day, check out my Oregon wine country list for other locations. Luckily I live less than ½ mile away and can visit on foot often.

Stopped in for our first Willamette tasting. It’s the first winery you get to basically and they’re the ones who made the Chehalem AVA. Also they have a few vineyards, including Actually surprised a bit by the Riesling (perhaps I bought into the press regarding Oregon not having a dominant white a little too much). Just off dry, but tasting without the overly petrol/​erasers that some get (I’m a bit of an old-​world palate, but I draw the line at erasers). Pinots ranged from OK to Very good. The 2009 reserve had all the stuffing (red fruit, chocolate, earth, baking spice) with decent structure (more some over-​ripe pinots from ’09) and fairly refined tannins made it also a stand out. Chards were a bit variable, but part of that is just going with the vintage (they make wine that represents the vintage, which I like).
Very hospitable staff. They even gave me a box for the plane ride back!
Tasting: 1 riesling, 2 chards, 3 pinots
Price: $ 10/​person (1 tasting comp’d per $ 50)
Appointment: NOT required
Overall: Solid tasting room. Given their history, it’s worth a stop on your way in or leaving.

Their Sext wine is very nice and I would have bought some but I was informed that the $ 19 price on their price list was an error and the actual price was $ 24. They made no attempt to correct the error or offer the wine at the listed price.
I decided to shop elsewhere. I have to wonder how many people were charged the higher price without being informed.

Out of the 5 wineries I visited in the Williamette Valley, Chehalem was my favorite. High quality wines for reasonable prices.

We popped into the Chehalem’s tasting room for a little SEXT on our wedding anniversary earlier this month. SEXT is Chehalem’s remarkably good, barely spritzy, bright Riesling that can make any celebration more festive. We’ve enjoyed every release year of this beautifully acid balanced wine with just a lilt of sweetness (think Moscato d’Asti styled with Riesling grapes). This vintage was no exception.
Wait! What did you think I meant?
As we sipped the SEXT, my hubby and I reflected on the fun and work, of the agreements and disagreements across multiple decades of married life. And we agreed that heaven forbid we had to jointly choose only one Oregon winery to purchase from for of the rest of our lives there would be no basis for marital discord. Because we would both make exactly the same choice. Chehalem.
Why would our fav be Chehalem? There are several reasons.
1. HISTORY OF FINE WINE MAKING: We think Chehalem has for a long time made some of the finest wines in the Willamette Valley. We reflected again on what a good choice Chehalem as «only» would be as we enjoyed a bottle of 2006 Chehalem Ridgecrest Pinot Noir with friends over dinner last week.
2. GOOD RANGE OF VARIETAL OPTIONS: As a winery Chehalem offers so many great varietal options. When many other vintners in the Valley focus on a couple of varietals, most often Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, Chehalem has evolved with many options all of superb quality. Several Pinot Noir, of course, and Pinot Gris too (produced in two styles, tank and barrel fermented). But also Chardonnay (also two, barrel aged and all stainless), Gamay Noir, Riesling (dry and off dry), Pinot Blanc and Gruner Veltliner.
3. LONG TIME CUSTOMERS: Our Chealem preference may be partly borne of the affection of long relationship as Chehalem was the first Oregon winery we discovered in the late 90’s when relocating north as retirees (or maybe refugees) from Northern California. We joined the wine club at Chehalem then and remained members for several years. We enjoyed not only drinking and collecting the wines and attending the wine events, but getting to meet the owner and wine maker, Harry Peterson-​Nedry, who has to be one of the all time class acts in wine making.
4. THE PEOPLE: Wine maker and co-​owner Harry Peterson-​Nedry was responsible for Chehalem helping to break new ground in Willamette Valley wine making, as in planting and bottling Riesling, as in making stainless fermented Chardonnay (INOX). He has also overseen vintage after vintage of remarkably good Pinot Noir With experience in the valley dating back to the early 1980s, he has also been a tireless advocate for responsible stewardship of wine country resources.
If leadership sets the tone, all of the staff at Chehalem are singing from the same sheet of music. As a customer and wine drinker, this is simply a delightful place to do business. (And in water seeking it’s own level, we’d point out the Chehalem and Stoller partnership is a darned delightful thing for the Stoller winery’s focus is the same.)
5. THE TASTING ROOM: The new-​ish tasting room (opened 2009?) on the edge of downtown Newberg is a charming place to be, no matter the weather or time of year to taste and buy wine. Bright, welcoming, unpretentious, well run by staff that knows their stuff, with tables to sit and sip. Associated paved lot makes parking convenient. Tasting room is level in and all on one level for easy accessibility for wine drinkers who roll as well as those who walk.
THIS N THAT
a) Tasting fee is $ 15 and refunded with $ 50 purchase.
b) Consider joining Chehalem’s wine club for the many advantages it provides, not the least of which is they put on some of the most interesting and fun club member events of any winery anywhere. You may find some wineries that work as hard to make the wine club membership meaningful but you won’t find a winery that works harder to get it right for their members.
c) Sign up at the web site to get Chehalem’s newsletter. Some of the most informative reading about wine making and wine. A gem.

What a charming little tasting room… I really enjoyed the owners/​staff. Very gracious hosts — I had taken a client to Oregon Wine Country for the day and this is the one spot we both bought multiple bottles. I could have kicked back here all afternoon, but that was not an option becuse of our schedule. Compared to many other wineries we had visited, we were greeted like old friends and taken very good care of.
I will definitely be back on my next wine country day.

We only had a chance to hit up three wineries during this trip to Willamette Valley and this was our favorite.
The winemaker and the person helping us (Dan?) were both extremely helpful. Their wines were nice and varied and we very seriously debated getting a case shipped to SF.

Chehalem wines are worth the splurge for sure! Their Pinots are nice and smooth, I’m not a huge Pinot fan, but theirs I definitely like. A friend of mine is a huge Pinot fan, and he really liked their wine too. Their Chardonnay is also one of my favorites… ask for Marge when you go in, she is the wine goddess @ Chehalem… she knows it all and has great recommendations as well!
The tasting room itself, is cool, industrial like… some art and good tunes playin. Not a snobby stuffy wine tasting room like some others!

I’ve done a lot of tasting in the Dundee, Yamhill-​Carlton, N. Willamette Valley area, but somehow never made it to Chehalem. This trip, just yesterday as I write this, was to experience new places.
My friend and I got to Chehalem just at opening on a cold, snowy/​rainy saturday morning. We were the only guests so we had the undivided attention of Margaret the winery’s direct sales manager. We were greeted by the tasting room’s two beautiful dogs as well :)
The tasting room is located in the heart of Newberg, very conveniently located just off 99. With the large sign (see photos here) it is hard to miss. The interior is spacious yet intimate and done in what I am calling that sort of ‘Portland retro/​loft modern’ style. We liked it.
The wines are delicious. Sure I could say they were superb which would be true but pretty much I drink wine because it tastes good, sooo. It has taken me five years to appreciate Pinot Noir. I will definitely be adding several of the Chehalem vintages to my small list of favorites.
Margaret was incredibly knowledgeable about Chehalem wines, and, gave some great recommendations for other non-​pinot reds. She was enthusiastic, welcoming, and engaging. Both of us thought she was a great representative of the winery, and, we will be happy to return to Chehalem to chat with her again.
I especially liked the 2008 Stoller, and, a surprise taste of their Riesling.
Oh, and get that recommendation for the Taco truck around the corner because that place rocks. Who knew that pinot was good with spicy pork tacos? It is! ;)

Please note that the prior reviews are a bit outdated.
The Tasting Room is located in the heart of Newberg, right on highway 99, and it is open daily from 11:00a to 5:00p. You have two options for tasting: a basic flight flight for $ 5 or their reserve wines for $ 10. Like most of the places we visited, they won’t charge you a tasting fee if you purchase some wine.
We decided to sample their reserve wines and while I would have preferred to be at the vineyard, the tasting room is a beautiful modern space. The wines are excellent and unlike most other wineries in the area, they are known for the quality of their white wines as well as their pinot noir. I particularly enjoyed the pinot gris which isn’t cloyingly sweet.
The winery itself is only open for special events.