Eyrie Vineyards

I went to Eyrie last weekend with two friends during a stop in McMinneville. We were all really REALLY disappointed.
Wine tasting can be perceived to be a bit pretentious. In Oregon wine shops are a dime a dozen and I’m not cranky as long as I’m treated respectfully as a customer. There are many tasting rooms in Oregon that don’t charge to taste wines. I understand the need to charge for tastings since many wine tours come around with customers that don’t buy anything and just want to get a buzz on. I buy wine. But the experience has to make it worth my while. I expected to pay for my tasting. What I don’t expect is to pay $ 20 to taste SIX wines. Using simple math, this amounts to about $ 3.33 per taste which is the same cost of a THIRD OF A GLASS of mid-​range wine. Not a quarter-​ounce pour.
Additionally, while the tasting room was well-​lit, it was drafty and cold. The staff were apathetic and uninformative.
Fortunately my afternoon was quickly brightened by a visit to Dominio IV right down the street — I’ll be sure to skip Eyrie next time.

We’ve been to Oregon once before, as well as to Napa and to Washington for annual wine tasting weekends. So we’ve visited dozens of wineries and experienced all sorts of service levels. With that being said, most wineries are generous with their pours — not to say they pour large glasses, but if you want to try something they have open, or have a second taste before you purchase, they accommodate you. The employee helping us (I didn’t get her name, but she was working 10÷23÷15) actually forgot one of our wines. And before you ask, no, we had not been tasting anywhere else that day, we were in full control of our faculties. And it was an easy catch — she was serving us in order and we were tasting I believe chardonnays of consecutive vintage, so we were looking forward to attempting to distinguish between the two, as one does. Well much to our surprise we skipped the second and went right on to the next one. When we mentioned this to the employee (did not try to embarrass her) she denied that she had missed the pour, multiple times, but basically treated us like «the customer is always right I guess». We got the pour anyway, why give us the side of attitude too? They had been very busy with a loud group when we walked in so mistakes happen, it really wasn’t a big deal but she definitely made us feel like liars. I can’t overstate how damaging this can be when typically those visiting wineries have their first experience with you in the tasting room, and you’re contesting customers over a one ounce pour just because you’ve never made a mistake in your entire life. There are plenty of amazing experiences to be had even just in downtown McMinnville, so at least you won’t be surprised if your service is subpar here — you’ve been warned. Their wine is quite good and it’s interesting to try some of their vintage pours, much older than most wineries, so I’m purely dinging them on service but it was a very unsettling experience.

The absolute most rude man or person for that matter working at a winery I have ever met, joined club a few weeks ago, try to tell me I was not allowed with my German Shepherd and than said if I joined wine club a few weeks ago there was nothing new to taste! I am canceling my membership!

Inviting tasting room in what felt like the outskirts of a small town. The wines were okay, but not my favorite in the area. Our experience was probably hampered by a crowded tasting room that day. The staff appeared a bit overwhelmed, and I felt a little overlooked. Pass!

Fantastic service, great stories and a personal family touch. You could tell there was a real passion behind their work. Pinot Gris was very good, I had to bring a few bottles home.

Not a great experience unless you bring a solid gloss of pretense. The wine is nice, but there’s a lot of great wine in Oregon. Was charged $ 10 for three tastings of current release despite their tasting menu listing it at $ 5. Tacky. Especially when I purchased bottles.

So it could have been that because this place was so hyped up, I was a tad disappointed. I opted for the Pinot flight, because mainly because tey were the first ones to plant Pinot in the area, I just HAD to experience that. I wasn’t overall crazy about the wines, to be quite blunt. They were good, but I had many more great Pinots on this trip. The tasting room ws nice and the service good, but I have to say I was a tad disappointed in the wines.

First U.S. winery to produce pinot gris; theirs is very good
Excellent estate pinot noir
Host, Jacque, is exceptionally knowledgeable about wines

Eyrie’s winery and tasting room are still located in a quaint little part of downtown Mcminnville. It’s away from the vineyards, but a must visit. The founder, David Lett, was the first to plant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris (PG also first in the US) in the Willamette Valley. And they’re been at the forefront of Oregon wine ever since.
Jacques was our host, and was very knowledgeable and friendly. He talked to us not only about Eyrie’s wines, but also about the other places we had visited that day. Truly an ambassador for the area. The wines were great overall. I liked the Pinot Gris– nice fruit and a pleasant spiciness. The Chardonnay was a similar profile but with added richness and depth. The Pinot Noir was excellent– my favorite being the 2006 Reserve Estate Pinot– very musky with great fruit and a profound earthy depth.
They had wines across several price points– offering a little something for everyone. I found the 2007 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir to be a particular bargain– $ 27 for a wine that holds its own at twice the price.
A great time– recommended.

How many first’s can you put in a review? First commercial Pinot Noir planting and bottling in Oregon, First commercial bottling of Pinot Gris, not only in Oregon, but the entire new world, first bottling of Pinot Muenier in Oregon, first bottling of Muscat Ottenel outside of Europe and the 1975 pinot noir was my first introduction to vinifera wine… wait when did this become about me?
Eyrie Founder David Lett graduated from UC Davis with a degree in winemaking and a desire to make Burgundian style wines, typically marked by restraint and finesse. The hot summers in California tended to produce too much sugar in Pinot Noir and the other classic Burgundy grapes, which created wines that could only be described as featureless fruit bombs (Think Gallo Hearty Burgundy). having traveled in Europe and sampling the wines of the Burgundy and Alsace regions, David knew what he was looking for in the way of a climate to grow grapes that produced the flavors he was looking to produce in his wines. He selected Oregon’s Willamette Valley and the rest, as they say, is history. His former UCD professors thought he was nuts, they thought our climate here was too wet and cold to ripen grapes, so I guess it was fitting he leveled a former nut orchard to plant his grapevines. Thank God for stubborn, far sighted people.
It is hard to imagine what the Oregon wine industry would be today had it not been for David, there most assuredly would be people making wine in the Willamette Valley, I doubt it would be as famous and successful as it is today.
But enough of history, how about the wines? The estate Pinot Noir, year in and year out is good, the benchmark for Burgundian style red wine, the Reserve Pinot Noir is worth the few extra bucks and my favorite with Lamb, the pinot gris is soft, restrained and easy on the palate, the estate chardonnay is good, but for a few extra bucks, get a bottle of reserve chard, lay it down for a few years and taste what Mother nature can really do with grapes and a little bit of Oak-​Stunningly delicious, I like mine with wild mushroom soup.
The tasting room is modest by any standard and cozy. The people here are all knowledgeable of the wine and wine-​making process and happy to share that knowledge. Prices are reasonable and I would suggest asking about the wine club, it’s a very good value.

This is my favorite winery we’ve visited, because not only is the wine delicious, and some bottles accessibly priced, but they teach you so much about the history of wine making in the Willamette Valley — Eyrie is where it all started. And they’re not pretentious at all — they treated us (2 twenty somethings looking for good buys) with the same level of respect and enthusiasm as the spendy vinophile seniors in the room. If you’re touring the Willamette Valley, this is a must.

I had a tasting with them at the Cavallo Point Cooking School in Sausalito, for the Allison hotel that is opening next year (
) What is superb was having the owner all to myself for about 10 minutes, in an environment that was absolutely more about *THEIR* wine than the tasting room full of gaggling tourists trying to get an eloquent buzz about their day. We were really allowed to chat, and I could grill him.
For Oregon, this is basically the grandaddy of all wines. While many had grapes that were being planted in the mid 1980’s (both Napa *AND* Oregon) for a mid 1990 crush, these guys have been growing wine since the days of nothing but beans… I think their first vine went down in 1965, with 1970 showing the word’s first Pinot Gris… and by 1975 competing in France against other Pinot Noirs.
David and Jason Lett have really started, and followed through, creating the first wine out of Oregon’s hills that is worth seeking, and definitely worth aspiring to. Well done guys.

If you want some great pinot noir and don’t want to go to a pretentious winery, you should definitely come here. The tasting room is not very big but it has a very homey feeling. They normally close at 5pm and we arrived at 4:30 and were the only ones there. We stayed til 5:45pm and Mike didn’t rush us out at all. Jason Lett, the winemaker, showed up just when we were about to leave. Jason signed 4 bottles (1 for each of us). How cool is that! We had such a great time talking with Mike and getting our education in wine. He recommended a few great places which we tried the next day too. We will definitely come back here the next time we’re back at the Willamette Valley. Of the 7 wineries we visited in our 2 day trip, this was definitely the best winery!!! Their wine is quite reasonably priced too! Buy a case and get 10% off with the tasting fee waived.

As a disclosure, my parent’s next door neighbor works for them. However, Eyrie makes some really excellent wines. Again, it is the Willamette Valley-​they make pinot noir and pinot gris. But it tastes really good and they do not overprice their wines. Their wine is really drinkable but it is worth it to pay more for the reserves. Their reserves are much much better and not a huge amount more in price.