The Most Interesting Wine Scene in the US Is in Oregon’s Willamette Valley
The fast-growing wine region is still relatively chill, with a winemaking community that’s uniquely diverse and full of fresh ideas.
A vineyard in the Willamette Valley.
Photographer: tomwachs/iStockphoto
The most popular spot in McMinnville (population 34,000), in the heart of Oregon wine country, is a renovated shoe grease factory that’s now called Mac Market. The food hall has several restaurants, a bakery and a gourmet grocer.
It’s here that I meet Remy Drabkin, the 42-year-old mayor, for pizza and to chat about how she got into politics. Drabkin isn’t your typical mayor of a small agricultural town. First, she’s queer. Second, she’s been a winemaker since 2006, known for her Italian-style reds that include an estate lagrein (a red grape native to the valleys of South Tyrol). At her 30-acre property and farmhouse tasting room in the Dundee Hills, she’s planted 7 acres; she also sources fruit from other vineyards.