Winderlea Vineyard & Winery

If you want to enjoy Pommard Pinot and a view stop here! Awesome architecture and great wine!

Beautiful view but extremely rude man met us before we even went in. Will not go back!

Very rude. Went in with a group and were told we needed an appointment. Glad to see they are doing so well and don’t need business. On to the next winery.

I love the architecture of this place and the view from the balcony area. We went to 3 wineries on our day trip and spent the most time here. The guy that was pouring the wines and the owner who designed this beautiful winery were both very pleasant people. I could sit and sip their wines here all day long. They have a beautiful dinner table as well where they host dinner in the summer time. I would love to come back and experience that as well.

I can’t say enough good things about this winery. I’ve been a member for about a year, and without fail every time I stop by, I am treated like family. Winderlea makes amazing wine and has even more amazing company. The owner, Donna, is often in the tasting room helping out, which you don’t see everywhere. Don’t leave Dundee without stopping here!

Great view, great service, easy parking, great contemporary space.
To be honest, I can’t really remember the wine at all! Let’s just say that nothing I tasted was exceptionally good or exceptionally bad.

When walking in, the first thing you notice is the awful smell coming from the storm drain. Next as you enter in, you see a chic place, a very neat layout, and a breath taking view on the balcony. We were approached my a woman who asked us how many were tasting? We said we had a birthday party of 16. She asked if we had a reservation. We noted that we did not, however we were in the area excited to try their wine. She said oh you should have made a reservation. We apologized that we didn’t. There were about 3 other people in the winery, and we were asked to take our guests to the gravel area to taste our wine. She was not very welcoming and was very snotty to our group. I have been to several wineries who promote their wines with exceptional customer services. For the $ 20 tasting fee, you would anticipate the service to be friendlier and welcoming. There are several other wineries in the area and unfortunately this one will not be on my list to revisit in the future.

The wine was good and the view was lovely and the tables are a nice place to sit and taste. It was pretty busy for a random weekday and the staff was not as warm as other places, but they were efficient enough. The space is a little more cold and industrial than elegant, but it does have a/​c and great view. I think the wine was good, I did buy a bottle of red, but it was towards the end of the wine tasting afternoon and at that point what I really needed was a nap and not more wine. 4 stars because they had a lot of reds.

After tasting in Willamette for over a week, the Winderlea Chardonnay, 13′ was by far one of my favorite whites and possibly some of the best North American Chardonnays I’ve ever tried.
Very «stony, slatey» Pinots as well. I forget the vineyard for the one pinot but it was literally like licking a piece of slate… this is a good thing. That «ain’t» no Russian River jam bomb.

Two stars for the gorgeous view of their vineyards. One star for their surly service and wines. Sorry folks — this one is a pass for me.

Rude service, very expensive and pretentious. With so many beautiful wineries with the nicest people, there’s no need to stop in this one. The wine is also not very impressive.

This is a great stop. The tasting room has a great view and is a very unique building. The staff have all been very friendly and the wines very good. When people come to visit that have not wine tasted in the area, I generally try to get them here and get them down the road to Alexana as part of the wine tasting loop that I’ll take them on.

Expansive and contemporary balcony viewing and tasting atop the Dundee Hills!!! Amazing, amazing. We came on a hot 80s autumnal day to taste their range of reds.
Winderlea’s profiled wines do not fit my palate. Their Pinots are complex, spicy, tannic, and big. Not really my style. Hints of cocoa and leather titillate you? As does higher end price points? Then this is bingo and jackpot for you.
We shared one tasting, which I recall being $ 20. Coming for the view alone: worth it.
Pourers border on the bougie and snob, as I assessed that weekend afternoon. Space inside and on the balcony: sublime. Sweeping hills. Too beautiful for words.

beautiful location and great service! we came here on a Tuesday right as the doors were about to close and the gentleman who was pouring was kind enough to let us still have a tasting.
we were given lots of great info on the pinot and eventually became members. the views are spectacular and the facilities are so clean and modern.

Don’t go here. Customer service on Saturday was terrible! The first time I was here, service was minimal which was fine as we purchased two bottles of wine to sip and sit. Our second and final visit was less than mediocre. They would not sell our party of three a bottle to open and drink on their patio as they «just don’t do that». Ok? They would sell flights to us. We were getting snotty treatment from the woman employee. The old man with the accent said he’d sell us a bottle to take-​away. He said he’d keep it cold until we were ready to go. We _​were_​ready to go. And we should have. But we bought a bottle of their Chardonnay. He said it was chilled and put it in a bag. When we got to a place to drink it, the bottle was warm. They did not give us a chilled bottle. If we hadn’t opened it, we would have returned it.
Bottom line: There are many wonderful wineries on Worden Hill Road. Don’t waste your time at Winderlea. Trust me.

Beautiful sunny March + wine tasting and you can’t get a much better day!
I was with a large group and low and behold we stumbled upon Winderlea and am so excited we did!
It is a very modern looking tasting room. Clean lines, clean colors, wonderful and knowledgeable staff. It isn’t a very large place but their outdoor areas more than make up for it. Wonderful patio and seating with one heck of a view.
Their flight is $ 15 and you get a taste of 5 different wines. The first was a delightful white/​chardonnay. Slightly fruity with just the right amount of sweetness.
The rest will all Pinot Nior and were quite good. The Imprint was my favorite.
Bottles of wine here will cost you on average $ 38 but they are certainly well worth it and many of their batches are limited.
I highly recommend coming here along your wine tasting trip. It is a gem of a place and the staff make you feel right at home. Their wines are excellent!

An unexpected stop. We were in the Dundee Hills with some time to kill. It was a pleasant surprise.
Great views to the West and South. Fancy modern tasting room. Pourers actually knew what they were talking about, and the juice? Oh yeah, excellent wine! Mostly Dundee Hills pinots, but they also had some fruit from a variety of places and were showing a McMinnville pinot as well. Also a surprisingly good chard blend and a covertly placed Brittan Syrah (2008 no less). Just the second time in two days I turn down the cool climate Brittan Vineyard Syrah, perhaps I just don’t have the patience to wait a decade to taste it again cause it’s got the chops to cellar!
The wines are mostly single vineyard pinots (so prices mostly run $ 38−48/wine). All crafted by Robert Brittan of Brittan Vineyards (if you’re a pinotfile check out that winery too!). And just to think these are 2010’s (cool vintage), if he get a wine with enough structure to be this tasty now look out for the 2012’s!
Tasting: 1 chard, 4 pinots
Price: $ 15 (donated to Salud! — a charity that helps vineyard workers get health and dental care, so obviously not comp’d)
Appointment: NOT required
Overall: Great tasting all around, staff was knowledgeable, wonderfully nuanced wines

We live in Austin and have always wanted to visit Portland and check out some Willamette Valley wineries. This past week we took advantage of Southwest’s nonstop flights and finally took the trip.
And let me just say wow, the Willamette has some kickass wine and wineries. Loved it.
Long story short, Winderlea was one of our first stops and Reid definitely set the tone for a trip full of great wine and other experiences. Once he found out what we were looking for he gave us a list of things we might want to check out and was incredibly helpful. We even made it into the IPNC Salman Bake which had been sold out for month’s before we arrived.
We’ll be back and we’ll definitely drop by Winderlea again. Great wines, great service and a beautiful view.

Winderlea’s tasting room was very busy the weekend of the Memorial holiday… but a great experience we had!
They are located on what I like to call «Winery Row» in the Dundee Hills. They are built right in the hillside and have the best view of the valley of any of the wineries in this area. The building is metal and wood, with lots of glass window, very contemporary inside and out, with a beautiful concrete deck to take full advantage of on summer days.
Since it was memorial weekend, we got to taste their wines along with meats, cheese, and patee. The staff is friendly and takes the time to tell you about the wine and where their grapes are grown. One of the winemakers was working the tasting table, and he was very interested in our thoughts on the wines we were tasting. Nice to see he cares about the product he is making! Their 2010 red was my favorite, although I can’t remember the exact name of it.
They do not have that «hurry up and taste the wine» feel here, it’s very relaxed and laid back here. So come for the tasting, linger on the patio, and mingle with their pups on a sunny afternoon… well worth it!

Our visit to Winderlea’s tasting room last week was our introduction to the wine. Both tasting room and wine were among the top four favorites of our three days of wine tasting using the Dundee Winemakers Passport.
WINERY FOCUS:
Boutique, limited production winery specializing in Pinot Noir. They also bottle Chardonnay. Per bottle retail prices range from roughly $ 36 for Chardonnay to over $ 70 for Pinot Noir. Under another label, Worden Hill, they are making cool climate Syrah. The latter was not at the Winderlea tasting room, but learning we are Syrah fans the hosts talked with us about it and we’re eager to try that as well when it is available.
TASTING ROOM:
Spare contemporary design which is elegant, in the technical use of the term, and welcoming. Harder to pull off than one thinks in that motif. Stunning views. Appeared that some of the windows could be rolled up in good weather. Seating both inside and outside on a deck if you want to stay and sip a bottle or glass.
TASTING SET UP /​WINES:
The fee here is steep, $ 15, and not refunded with purchase. It is the reason we had not been there before. For Passport holders the fee was cut in half. ($ 7.50). However, the tasting fee is not kept by Winderlea; all proceeds are donated to a medical program that provides free services to farm workers. A very good cause.
The tasting room hosts, Ryan and a very nice guy from Scotland whose name I did not catch, were six stars on a scale of five for sharing information about the wines and area. First class for welcome and knowledge.
Pours were four, two Chardonnay and two Pinot Noir. We liked all of the wines, but in particular. 1) a Winderlea Vineyard PN ($ 54) that we thought was perfect weight with a wonderful balance of fruit and earth, and 2) one of the Chardonnay ($ 36), which had just enough time in oak but not too much and had a sort of, to us, butterscotch on the nose. Typically our strong preference in Chardonnay is for all stainless fermenting, but this was really good we thought and it was our purchase.
ACCESSIBILITY:
Fully accessible. Level in door and tasting room is on one level throughout. Paved lot has one stall of accessible parking right outside the tasting room door. (Although a little tough to see as it does not have the standard blue signage, but a discreet emblem on the wall of the building.) Big applause for the fact that inside and outside seating have many standard table height options which are usable by everyone, unlike high perch bar height tables which are not.
BACKSTORY:
The owners are relative newcomers to Oregon’s wine making scene, coming to Oregon from Boston in 2006 to pursue passion of wine in second life stage careers after first careers in investment banking. The quality of the wine they are producing, the way in which the tasting room is set up and the community involvement they demonstrate all seems top notch to us.
TIP:
Friday lunches are offered at the tasting room from roughly July through September. Paired with wine, they are @$ 55. Seating for maybe a dozen people. Reservations required. Contact winery for details.