Seufert Winery selected as one of Oregon’s top indie winemakers

“Think Sundance meets wine tasting.”

The annual Portland Indie Wine Festival recently announced the 2007 wineries and wines which have been invited to the festival. Seufert Winery’s first release, the 2005 Pinot Noir Coleman Vineyard (McMinnville AVA), was chosen as one of the best in the state.

A national panel of 12 wine experts tasted and selected the best wines. The judge panel included Lisa Shara Hall of Wine Business Monthly magazine, Harry Peterson-Nedry winemaker at Chehalem, and Alice Feiring wine writer at The New York Times, Forbes, and Fortune Magazines.

Seufert pours their 2005 Pinot Noir on Sunday, May 6th at the event in Portland’s Pearl District. Tickets are available online on the festival’s website.

We'll see you there.

Wine Futures Prove Popular

We recently participated in the McMinnville Wine and Food Classic, and Portland’s Spring Beer and Wine Festival.

We only have one wine in the bottle right now, and that makes for a shallow product offering at festivals. So I took barrel samples of our 2006 Pinot Noir’s to these festivals. We have 5 different single vineyard designated Pinot’s in 2006. Each one of these is distinctly different. The source vineyards are located in different appellations (AVA’s), and each one has a unique story.

I put the wine in unlabeled bottles, and placed them on our festival booth table in front of descriptive placards. We offered a tasting sized flight of all five wines accompanied by our descriptions. The guests loved this. Some would work through the wines relatively quickly, while others lingered and learned. Every now and then someone would spend an hour with us –getting into detailed discussions about each wine.

We had a corner booth at the Portland event which was great because during the busiest times Delaney and I had up to 8 groups tasting barrel samples at the same time. Our voices were shot, but it was fun. Plus, we sold a fair number of wine futures. One aspect of this that works really well for festivals is that people don’t have to carry their purchase around the event.

Seufert Winery Approved for Winemaking in Dayton Oregon

Earlier this year we purchased a modest older warehouse in Dayton Oregon. We planned to use it for wine storage and as a space for wine tasting and special events. And, in the best case scenario, we would like to make our wine there.

Dayton Oregon is a charming historic town located between the wine centers of Dundee and McMinnville. However, they have no wineries inside the city because their land use codes don’t permit wine production. We went out on a limb and purchased the building anyway. After the deal was done, we petitioned the city to grant us winemaking permission. That permission was granted during a recent planning commission meeting.

We’re in the process of retrofitting the building to meet our needs. The renovations won’t be complete until crush season approaches. However, we’re going to open for the Memorial Day Weekend open house. Join us for free wine tasting all weekend, and a free “Miriam’s Well” concert Saturday evening.

We’ll be open May 26-28th from 11am to 6pm, and the concert is Saturday evening, May 26th, from 6-8pm. See our website for complete details and for our new address. Also visit Miriam’s Well to preview their music.

We'll see you there.