Oregon Wine Visits, May 2026 – Part 1
I was planning a road trip to visit friends in the Portland area again this year, and just as with my visit with them three years ago it created the opportunity to visit some Oregon wineries. As a bonus this year, another couple of friends who moved from the Bay Area to a house near the town of Newberg in Willamette Valley shortly before my trip invited me to stay with them for a few days, so I expanded my original itinerary for that. The result was that on this trip I had the chance to visit more wineries and on a more relaxed schedule than last time. I contacted a handful of vintners and managed to make seven appointments for this trip, one in Portland and then six more spread out over three days in Willamette Valley.
I enjoy road trips so I planned a two-day drive to the Portland area. I left Oakland on a Thursday morning and drove to Roseville, Oregon on the first day. I got into Portland the following morning and spent some time in the city’s Pearl District. I stopped for awhile at famed Powell’s Books, which bills itself as the world’s largest independent bookstore. Their four-story City of Books location in Portland covers an entire city block and has over half a million books, both new and used. After that I had lunch at nearby Backwoods Brewing, and couldn’t pass up their Burger & Beer Combo lunch special – a tasty cheeseburger and fries plus a pint of draft beer for less than $20. I wasn’t due to arrive for awhile at my friends’ place in Camas, Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland, so I made one more stop, at Division Wines, a wine bar and bottle shop I’d visited before in the southeast part of the city. I had time to relax there and enjoy a three-wine tasting flight from Division’s very well-selected list. I picked an Aligoté, Timorasso, and Brachetto, all very nice with the Timorasso being my favorite of the three.
Even with Friday afternoon commute traffic, it was a pretty easy drive across the river to my friends Jon and Ling’s place in Camas. After a delicious home-cooked dinner with them and a light breakfast the following morning, we got ready to head back into Portland for a visit to an urban winery there, Teutonic Wine Company.
Teutonic Wine Company
The first visit on my trip to Oregon wine country was at Teutonic Wine Company, one of about eight urban wineries in Portland. I was accompanied by my friends Jon & Ling from Camas, Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland. I’d visited Teutonic with them three years earlier, and they wanted to go back there – that sounded good to me! Jon drove us, and we pulled into the small parking area in front of the winery. Stepping inside, we saw my friend Wes – he’s in Portland for a week or so just about every month, and his visit coincided with my trip there so he met us at the winery. We were welcomed into the tasting room by Colleen Nielsen – she’s officially their Tasting Room Associate but unofficially their Tasting Room Wrangler and Storyteller! In addition to working in the tasting room, she’s also a graphic designer, and she designed the newer Teutonic wine labels as well as labels for other wineries. Jon, Ling, Wes, and I took a seat at one of the tables and Colleen told us about the background of the winery.
Owned by winemaker Barnaby Tuttle and his wife Olga, Teutonic was established in a series of small steps over a number of years. The name is a tribute to Barnaby’s initial inspiration – the wine region of the Mosel Valley in Germany. Barnaby had been the general manager and wine buyer for a Portland restaurant, and in 2002 a German wine importer brought in 14 Rieslings from the Middle Mosel for him to taste. He was impressed with how different they tasted from one another, and how the soil of each vineyard influenced these differences. He not only bought all 14 Rieslings for the restaurant wine list but resolved to learn how to make wines that expressed their terroir as well as those German wines did.
In 2005 Barnaby and Olga took the next step when were offered the opportunity to plant a vineyard on a friend’s property in Alsea – located southwest of Portland, it’s about 20 miles from the ocean at a spot where cool marine air flows in from the coast. Although the Tuttles had no vineyard experience up until that time, they learned on the fly and on a shoestring budget, helping with friends to plant and farm the new two-acre vineyard, mostly with Pinot Noir along with some Pinot Meunier and Pinot Blanc.
For the next few years, Barnaby experimented at making small quantities of wine for friends, but with the first crop from Alsea Vineyard on the way in 2008, he decided it was time to learn how to make wine at a commercial level. He left the restaurant business and took a job working in the cellar of a winery in Carlton in the Willamette Valley. The Alsea Vineyard wines from that 2008 vintage were the first for Teutonic.
Since that inaugural vintage, Barnaby and Olga have expanded their production to about 5,000 cases per year, with 20-25 different bottlings each vintage. Their winery space is adjacent to the tasting room, and can be seen through the glass panels of the overhead door between them. The Teutonic vineyard sources are all organically-farmed (though not all are certified organic) and they prefer to work with older vines at cooler, higher-elevation sites. They also insist that all of the vineyards they work with are dry-farmed, using no irrigation – Teutonic is a member of the Deep Roots Coalition that promotes dry-farming for vineyards. They’ve continued to make wine from Alsea, while also sourcing their fruit from Willamette Valley, Columbia Gorge, other Oregon wine regions, and even California for one particular grape variety.
Winemaking at Teutonic is low-intervention, and Barnaby has experimented with less-common – and sometimes highly imaginative – techniques for some wines. These can include pressing red grapes immediately to make “white” versions of the variety, fermenting white grapes on the skins, co-fermenting white and red varieties, using a “pied de cuve” technique for maintaining a supply of native yeast for fermentations during a harvest season, and sharing flor yeast (a yeast that sometimes develops on the surface of wine in a barrel) from one barrel to another. All of the fruit they bring in to the winery is fermented with native yeast. White varieties are all fermented and aged in neutral oak, to provide more texture to the finished wines than stainless steel tanks would do. Most reds are fermented in small bins, and also aged entirely in older barrels. In general, the Teutonic wines are higher in acidity and lower in alcohol than many, and Barnaby’s restaurant background led him to understand that higher-acid wines tend to go better with food. A number of top restaurants throughout the country carry Teutonic wines on their lists. The winery’s program for sourcing fruit and making wine explains the motto printed on the back label of the Teutonic wine bottles – “Old & Cold, High & Dry, Wood & Wild.”
In addition to their Teutonic wines, Barnaby and Olga have recently launched a new wine project, simply called Tuttle. The names of the Tuttle wines reflect the family name’s connection to Norse mythology. The name’s original meaning was “Thor’s Cauldron” – according to the Tuttle wine label, this was “a legendary vessel that brewed an eternal flow of libations.” Tuttle wines that have been bottled and released recently or will be bottled soon include four different Pinot Noirs (“Aegir”, “Fjalltindr”, “Blood Custard”, and “OND”), Pinot Meunier (“Njördr”), Riesling (“Lerwick"), Chardonnay ("The Walrus"), Grüner Veltliner ("Jörd”), and White Pinot Noir ("Sea Custard").
I spoke with Barnaby by phone a few weeks after my visit to the Teutonic tasting room to get a better feel for the new Tuttle project. He said that the winemaking methods and resulting wines are distinctly different from Teutonic, so it made sense to put the Tuttle wines out under a new label to avoid confusion. Fruit for the Tuttle white wines spends about four days on the skins prior to pressing, and the juice is intentionally oxidized at that stage to help avoid later unwanted oxidation in the wine and to improve stability. They go entirely through malolactic fermentation and are aged in barrel on heavy lees for two years, undergoing bâtonnage during that time. As with the white wines, all of the reds are fermented with native yeast that comes from each vineyard and is maintained by their pied de cuve. Nearly all of the red wines are made with stem inclusion, they receive extended maceration before being pressed, and some have a little new oak influence in their barrel-aging, which is also around two years.
I asked Barnaby about what led him to make the Tuttle wines differently from the Teutonic ones. As with much of his work with wine, it had its basis in wine’s relationship with food. He’s partial to gamey meats – such as the Ring Neck Pheasant that’s been represented on a number of Teutonic labels, including their very first – and he wanted to make more wines that showed an umami character that he felt would go with dishes such as those. He also said that he likes to experiment, to “take creative energy to another place” as a way to continue learning. Barnaby said that the three keys to the Tuttle wines are “Time, Terroir, Texture.”
Colleen started our tasting with two Rieslings, the variety that Teutonic is best-known for – but these were both definitely “outside the box” Rieslings! First was the 2025 “Raspberry Mushroom” Columbia Gorge Riesling. The fruit was sourced from Pear Blossom Vineyard, located in the Underwood Mountain region on the Washington side of Columbia Gorge, at an elevation of around 1,200 feet. The winemaking for this bottling was quite distinctive, as the Riesling was pressed along with Pinot Noir skins. The aromas matched the winemaking, displaying floral and citrus character plus bright red fruit undertones, with plenty of juicy acidity. Next was the 2025 “Candied Mushroom” Crow Valley Vineyard Riesling – this came from the southern Willamette Valley near Eugene. Another distinctive wine, this was made intentionally from botrytis-affected fruit, and it was pressed after about five days on the skins. This had the elements you’d expect from Riesling – stone fruit and citrus, floral notes, as well as a distinctive umami quality, with zingy acidity and just a hint of sweetness on the long finish. Teutonic has called this wine the “umami tsunami” and it’s an apt description!
We continued with the 2022 “Dangereuse d’Aquitaine” Columbia Gorge White Merlot. This was also sourced from the volcanic soil of Underwood Mountain in the Columbia Gorge. The juice was pressed almost immediately in a Vin Gris style, so there’s little color to the wine. The name comes from Barnaby’s feeling that the vineyard area reminded him of Aquitaine, and the wine is named for the Duchess of Aquitaine. The wine showed stone fruit and tropical fruit aromas with spice in the background, medium weight with a pleasant finish.
Colleen next poured us the 2024 Crow Valley Vineyard Gewürztraminer, with fruit sourced from vines that are nearly 50 years old. The aromas were classic Gewürztraminer, with lychee, stone fruit, and spice notes, medium bodied with vibrant acidity balanced by a touch of sweetness on the finish. We followed that with the 2024 Crow Valley Vineyard Red Wine – a co-ferment of 85% Gewürztraminer and 15% Pinot Noir, this spent about one month on the skins before being pressed. Surprisingly, I felt that the smaller Pinot component took the lead on the aromatics, featuring bright red fruit and floral notes with the Gewürztraminer lychee component in support, with a medium-light mouthfeel, lively acidity, and a long tasty finish – definitely a fun wine.
Moving along to Pinot Noir, we tasted the Tuttle 2023 “Aegir” Oregon Pinot Noir sourced from Alsea Vineyard. The Tuttle label art features stylized runic letters – a nod to the connection of the Tuttle name with Norse mythology. The back label notes that Aegir was an “old Norse sea god known for brewing and hosting lavish parties” – sounds like a good person to know! This had light color with red fruit, earth, and a savory herbal note, with fine acidity and moderate tannins yet a fresh character on the finish. Colleen also poured us the 2022 “Zenczak Rouge” Zenczak Vineyard Pinot Noir. A newer vineyard source for Teutonic, Zenczak Vineyard is located at a cool Willamette Valley site. The wine had a more earthy and spicy character along with cherry and citruspeel notes with medium weight and plenty of structure.
Another unusual co-ferment, the 2023 Willamette Valley Red Wine is 50% each Trousseau Noir and Gamay from Abbey Road Vineyard near Carlton. With earthy black cherry and spice aromas with savory undertones, and a bit more texture on the palate than the Pinots, it finished with fine tannins. We wrapped up our tasting with the 2022 “Bacalao” California White Tannat, from another red grape variety made like a white wine. The fruit for this came from California, but Teutonic is no longer getting it from this site and they’re on the lookout for an available Oregon source of Tannat. This had aromas of stone fruit and a touch of tropical fruit, with a hint of flowers, a touch of tannin, and a bit of sweetness on the finish.
As mentioned above, the winery produces a large number of bottlings – even more now with the Teutonic wines as well as the new Tuttle wines – and the lineup can change from year to year. In addition to the wines we tasted on this visit, other recent wines have included Silvaner, Traminer, additional Riesling and Gewürztraminer bottlings, Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chasselas, Muscat, Viognier, other Rosé and Vin Gris bottlings, additional Pinot Noir bottlings, additional white and red blends, and a sparkling no-dosage Riesling. Nearly all of the wines are single-vineyard bottlings. The winery and tasting room have been in their current location just east of the Willamette River in southeast Portland for about ten years. The tasting room has hours from Thursdays through Sundays, and reservations are recommended.
Teutonic was the only Oregon winery I stopped at on this trip that I’d been to before, and I enjoyed it just as much if not more than on my previous visit. Colleen was a fantastic host, both knowledgeable and entertaining. Having worked in a number of urban wineries I always appreciate visiting them, and especially when the wines are as good as these were. As I’d found on my earlier visit to Teutonic, I loved the unconventional and imaginative wines – they’re distinctive and very well-made. All of the wines we tasted were delicious and food-friendly, most should be ageable, and they’re well-priced for the quality. My favorites on this visit were the 2025 “Candied Mushroom” Riesling, 2024 Crow Valley Vineyard Red Wine, Tuttle 2024 “Aegir” Pinot Noir, 2023 Willamette Valley Red Wine, and 2022 “Bacalao” White Tannat. If you’re in the Portland area, a visit to Teutonic is highly recommended.
After our visit to Teutonic, Wes needed to take off, and Jon and Ling suggested having lunch on the Vancouver, Washington waterfront. I’d had a meal with them on the waterfront when I’d visited in 2023 and it’s a fun and popular spot, with many of the restaurants having a beautiful view across the Columbia River. There are five or six wine tasting rooms there as well, mostly for Washington wineries. So heading there sounded like a great idea, and Jon drove us across the river and into the Vancouver waterfront area. We had lunch at WildFin American Grill, and I enjoyed my meal there – a lunch combo with two fish tacos plus their Superfood House Salad (kale, cauliflower, organic grains, roasted sweet potato, with vinaigrette dressing). WildFin’s draft beer list includes options from a number of Northwest breweries along with their own line of beer, and I had a four-beer WildFin Beer Sampler (Blonde, Hefeweizen, IPA, Amber) to go with my lunch. Everything was very enjoyable, and we had a table right by the large windows looking out over the waterfront and river.
Jon, Ling, and I had a relaxing Saturday afternoon looking around the old Fort Vancouver grounds near the waterfront. On Sunday morning we took a pleasant hike around Round Lake in Lacamas Park not far from their home, and that evening we enjoyed a dinner at a place Jon and Ling had recommended, Neustra Mesa in old downtown Camas. It was a good choice, and my fish taco and small Southwest Salad (mixed greens, pico de gallo, avocado, roasted corn, black beans, tortilla strips, chipotle ranch dressing) plus a local beer really hit the spot.
I’d enjoyed a fun visit to Teutonic in Portland with Jon, Ling, and Wes on the first Saturday of my Oregon road trip as well as a very relaxing Sunday with Jon and Ling. I was ready to spend the next three days with my friends Steve and Tina in Willamette Valley, visiting more wineries in that well-known wine region.
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