Oregon's Willamette Valley sprawls between the Oregon Coast and Cascade mountain ranges, and “sprawl” definitely applies: the region is more than twice the combined size of Napa and Sonoma Counties. Yet the vast majority of its 11 nested AVAs and planted acreage is less than an hour's drive from downtown Portland. And there are some stunning vineyards and wines being made within the Portland metropolitan area itself, in scenic suburbs like Tualatin and Sherwood. With the exception of Chianti-Florence and Stellenbosch-Cape Town, it's hard to think of another major wine region so close to a city that's a major food and drink destination in its own right. 

This contiguity has obvious benefits, but has left many people thinking of the Willamette Valley as a day trip or tack-on to a Portland trip, rather than the other way around. Wine people should bookend a trip in Portland (some of my favorite wine-obsessed restaurants there include Arden, Canard, Coquine, Davenport, Le Pigeon, OK Omens, and República), but spend as much time as possible in the heart of Willamette Valley wine country. Besides visiting the source of some of the world's best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the range and quality of restaurants, lodging, and especially scenery are on par—at least—with any of the other great wine regions. 

For a first visit, orient yourself around the towns of McMinnville and Newberg-Dundee (which are separate towns, but just a couple miles apart). Without giving other parts of the valley short shrift, most of what you'll want to do, taste, and see is a short drive—or bike, or ride-share—from these towns. Long autumns and mild winters means every season has its appeal, including off-season prices for lodging, even before the sun starts to peek out and the greenery explodes in early spring. 

"I always encourage people to visit wine country in the fall to see the colors changing and fruit processing, but coming during the winter ensures a unique, intimate experience," says Ian Burch of Archery Summit. "Since traffic is generally down, there's much more time for tasting room staff to dive in deep."

Lodging

Located in a stunningly renovated century-old hardware store, The Tributary Hotel is both the most luxe and homiest lodging in the area. Vast rooms with soaring ceilings are appointed with local art, ceramics, bath amenities, even the made-in-Portland sculptural Ratio coffee maker with Newberg's Caravan Coffee. The included in-room breakfasts are almost comically elaborate, with sweet and savory items made in-house with ingredients from the property’s own farm and larder. Though its celebrated restaurant ōkta recently closed, guests can enjoy a tasting menu in the Cellar Bar.

The Vintages is a trailer resort consisting of 34 individual and completely decked-out mid-century trailers set among the rolling fields of Dayton. You can call it glamping to be modest, but the effect is somewhere between a private cabin and a roomette on the Pacific Northwest version of the Orient Express. It's a fantastic option for those on a budget—or, really, anyone who appreciates compact charm and indoor-outdoor living. Adjacent cabins here are a no-brainer option for a group. 

Inn The Ground is more than a cute hotel name: two thirds of the hotel is located underground, though the stunning hillside setting allows for ample natural light and gorgeous views from the spacious rooms. The architecture reflects the eco-sensibility of the property's Tabula Rasa Farms, dedicated to permaculture and regenerative agriculture. Take advantage of farm tours, and its eight miles of hiking trails.

Dining

"Farm to table" is a given in most Willamette Valley restaurants, even down to its food trucks, but few take it as seriously as McMinnville’s Humble Spirit, which considers itself a farm (Tabula Rasa; it’s opened by the same folk who own Inn The Ground) that happens to have a restaurant. The culinary team's experience includes stints at the country's best restaurants—Eleven Madison Park and French Laundry, among many others—but prioritizes flavor over form in dishes like braised clams with housemade chorizo and beef liver toast, or a salad of heirloom tomatoes, husk cherries, and sugar cube melon with mixed basils.

"Humble Spirit defines itself not just by its talented kitchen and ambitious farm-to-table concept—they actually own the farm in Carlton where a large part of the food is grown and raised—but also by its service," says Andy Young of The Marigny. "They are just absolutely perfect."

Even if you just drop in for a drink at the bar (where bartender Patrick Bruce makes arguably the best cocktails in town), the chalkboard menu at McMinnville’s Thistle will make you stay for tomato-watermelon salad with vanilla salt and fish sauce vinaigrette, lamb shank with filberts (the local word for hazelnuts), green beans, and yogurt, or just to nibble on "bread and fat." A similarly unpretentious dinner vibe is a short walk away, past Eyrie Vineyards' McMinnville tasting room, in a converted warehouse turned culinary hub called Mac Market, in chef Kari Shaughnessy's Hayward. Here, a dry-aged beef tartare might come with sweetbreads, horseradish, and pickled peppers. Or find a fall squash served four ways: roasted with local chanterelles alongside pickled squash, a coffee squash purée, and garnished with the toasted seeds. 

Not yet a year old, Pinch has become the new McMinnville favorite. Partners Emily and Paul Bachand have created a cozy but chic place with fern wallpaper that recalls the flirty fern bars of the 1970s West Coast. You'll often see industry people here chatting, and sharing bottles, with neighboring tables. "Pinch is killing it with its charmful, cozy atmosphere and menu," says Archery Summit's Burch. "I've never had a meal made by Paul that I haven't enjoyed, and the wine selections are thoughtful and not your typical lineup."

Nearing its 20th anniversary in a restored Victorian house in Newberg, The Painted Lady is still a must. The tasting menu puts a fresh spin on iconic Oregon ingredients, like miso custard with Dungeness crab, gnocchi with morels and blackberry-braised pork, or Oregon Wagyu with Oregon black truffle and a gratin of fresh porcini and potato. The wine list, which usually has more than 50 Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs, often includes back vintages sourced from the winemakers' own collections. 

The Joel Palmer House in Dayton has the largest collection of Oregon wines in the world (around 95 percent of their 600-plus label list is from here, dating back to vintages from the early ‘90s). And, perhaps since Pinot Noir pairs so well with them, mushrooms have become the restaurant's calling card, with foraged mushrooms featured year-round on both their "Mushroom Madness" and "Oregon Omakase" menus. 

As for winery meals, most wineries will offer cheese and charcuterie with tastings (bonus points if they source cheese from Dundee's Briar Rose Creamery), and many will allow outside food, but a few have on-site chefs making proper meals.

Among the exceptions: Amity’s Antica Terra, which makes some of the most confoundingly ethereal wines outside Burgundy. Chef Timothy Wastell's "A Very Nice Lunch" is one of the best culinary experiences in the region. It's a leisurely tasting menu with six wines and dishes that change constantly. Think local chicken roasted over local oak with local Lapins cherry, local Tropea onion, local chanterelles, and Oregon's famed black truffle—you get the picture. Other options there include the eight-wine Collective Tasting with paired snacks, and Table In The Trees, a picnic at a 200-foot long poured-concrete table. Both offer the same quality food with wines that—in a rare but welcome move for a winery—include benchmark and rare wines from around the world that have inspired the winemaking team. 

Almost every ingredient of Soter Vineyards' remarkable "Provisions" tasting menu comes from their own biodynamic farm and vineyard, the 240-acre Mineral Springs Ranch in Carlton. (The occasional exception are things like oysters.) Pairings, like the dishes, change weekly with the farm's microseasons, and a host guides you through the wines as well as the farm and winery's history. 

Pizza

Portland has been twice voted America’s best pizza city, and the like of the New York Times has highlighted individual spots like Lovely's Fifty Fifty, Hapa Pizza, Cafe Olli, Apizza Scholls and Ken’s Artisan Pizza. So it follows that in Willamette Valley you get a similar obsession with quality—but without the expectations and geekery that can ruin a beautiful slice. 

McMinnville’s Honey Pie's bacon-date-mushroom-hazelnut pizza is fantastic, but the order should be the monthly pie benefiting local charities, like a recent one with local bratwurst, sauerkraut, and a mustard cream sauce that sent donations to the Willamette Valley Cancer Foundation. "Just like your momma didn't" is Pizza Capo's tagline, which fits pizzas like pear and hazelnut with speck, gorgonzola, and sweet onion purée. The wines at the spot in McMinnville straddle Italy and WIllamette Valley, with eight craft beers and ciders. Wooden Heart, in Dundee, attached a wood-fired pizza oven to a 1964 trailer, which somehow turns out salads, pastas, and full entrées in addition to pizzas like lamb merguez and feta with a pile of vegetables (and a dozen local glass pours). Carlton's Park & Main offers much more than pizza, though the wood-fried locally-minded pies are a highlight: try the white pie with garlic cream, wild mushrooms, and homemade ricotta. Wines—local and otherwise—are sold at retail prices to go, or to drink with your meal with no corkage fee.

Bars

With over 750 wines and around 20 by the glass, HiFi Wine Bar in McMinnville is a great stop to taste local wines alongside global benchmarks and hard-to-find allocated labels. “You’ll likely be sipping next to winemakers and industry insiders who know where to find the good stuff," says Jay Boberg of Nicolas-Jay. He also recommends not missing the impressive record collection—”just ask the nearest sommelier to throw on anything that catches your eye." 

Also in McMinnville, the Blue Moon Lounge opened as a soda fountain in the 1920s, relaunching as a bar when Prohibition ended in 1933. "It's the quintessential town dive bar—good affordable food, stiff drinks, and open both early for breakfast and late for trouble," says The Marigny's Young. "They also have a generous corkage policy. I can’t say enough how fun it is to bring a bottle of cru Beaujolais in there and have it with a patty melt."

Nature

Take a break between wine and food tasting to soak up the green, with leisurely walks or more challenging hikes in proximity to the vineyards and wineries. The region is also emerging as a destination for innovative winery architecture, at forward-thinking tasting rooms like Furioso Vineyards, Corollary Wines, Ambar Estate, Abbott Claim, Rex Hill, and L'Angolo Estate. One of the more unique hikes starts at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey, just 15 minutes from Dundee or McMinnville.

"Definitely stop at the Trappist Abbey and hike to the top of a beautiful ridge for an incredible view of Mt. Hood," says Remy Drabkin, the mayor of McMinnville and winemaker for Remy Wines, whose diverse range centers around Northern Italian varieties that do exceptionally well in the Willamette's climate and soils. "Respect the monks as you arrive and remain silent until you're in the woods. It's about 45 minutes to the top for me." Beforehand, she recommends grabbing sandwiches from Dundee's new Merenda Italian Deli to enjoy while tasting at Remy Wines' 1900s farmhouse. After hiking up an appetite, she suggests heading into McMinnville: "I've been loving the mezze platter at Cypress, the fried green beans at La Rambla, and the happy hour at Pizza Capo."

Take your cue from Henry David Thoreau. He said: "I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west  . . . We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure."