Celebrating Independent Wines at Portland’s Indie Wine & Food Festival

Independent winemakers are springing up all over the world, but no where else is this more evident than within the wine beltline of California, Oregon, and Washington, with regional vintners and restaurants descending on Stumptown’s east side Saturday for the seventh annual Portland Indie Wine and Food Festival.

Thanks to a marvelously useful fold up “program” and map (trust me – I get a bit critical of the useless ones) many wines were sipped and swirled during the event, including pours from Anam Cara Cellars, Big Table Farm, Capitello Wines, J. Scott Cellars, Lumos Wine Company, Madrone Mountain, RR Winery, and Youngberg Hill Vineyards. Complementing the wines were an assortment of bites from a dozen of Portland’s finest restaurants, with Beaker & Flask’s Ben Bettinger, Nostrana’s Cathy Whims, and St. Jack’s Aaron Bennett all manning their booths with food in hand. After a round (or two) of tastings, my favorite wines from the afternoon: Tyee Wine Cellar’s 2009 Estate Gewurztraminer, Apolloni Vineyard’s 2008 Columbia Valley Conti di Val Seriana Soleggio, and Seufert Winery’s 2009 Coleman Vineyard Pinot Noir, with Riffle’s beet cured chinook salmon, St. Jack’s pig’s head rillette with apple butter, and the Cheese Bar’s grilled cheese sandwiches rounding out my food picks of the night. I might’ve snagged a few of Moonstruck truffles as well.

~Jennifer Heigl

*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender