St. Innocent Winery

A fun location in a great AVA! Very refreshing whites as well. The ladies running the bar were fun and approachable.

Visiting wineries in the area with friends on 1÷25÷2015. Beautiful winery, but as soon as you walk in the tasting room we felt like we were disturbing the two employees who were there. The man who helped us was very unengaged with us and we felt like were bothering him. Never once did we get smile out of him. We did decide to taste the wines, which the wines were very good. But when you pay $ 10.00 and $ 15.00 for tastings, you do expect a good pour on each wine.
Unfortunately we will not be coming back, there are too many wineries in Oregon that greatly appreciate your business and company.

Preface: I realized after reading the Unilocal reviews on St. Innocent and other Willamette Wineries how imperfect the Unilocal star ratings are. When I go to a winery, it’s for the wine and not the service, architecture, pours. But not everybody collects wine and definitely opinions vary on this subject, so here are my thoughts.
Wine: 5 stars
Location/​architecture: 4 stars
Pours: 4 stars
Price: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars
Of the 10 wineries we visited St. I was the only one that I became a club member. Their wine are an exquisite expression of Willamette Valley at a very reasonable price. There new tasting room was comfortable and very pretty, The pours were reasonable The helper was personable, but it is the wine that shines.
Their Chardonnay (top level) was the best Oregon Chard I’ve had. Their pinots were exceptional from Shea to Temperance. They all showed ageability and grace. Definitely a burgundian style I liked Shea, but Temperance and Zenith were not far behind.
Only complaint, the pourer did not know the new Southwest Airline regs on checking in wine at the terminal. Hey, mistakes happen and it didn’t have a negative consequence. My warning, ship the wine home from the winery, don’t carry wine on the plane and don’t try to check it.
This is a must winery for the wine lover.

Tucked into a beautiful location in Willamette Valley wine country, St. Innocent was such a pleasant surprise! The woman who helped us with our tastings (sorry, can’t remember her name but she had red hair) was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. She chatted with us about the wine, the location, and other stuff. I just don’t agree with other reviews that tasting room staff was «stuck up». I found them to be laid back but professional and kind! I continued my quest to take advantage of Alaska Airlines’ promotion that Oregon wines were flying for free, and bought a Cuvee and a Pinot Noir for special occasions. The Cuvee during tasting was amazing and I can’t wait to have a reason to open mine!

Nice wines and awesome estate. Great service too

The wines were good and location is BEAUTIFUL however the pourer (young lady kinda heavy set with glasses) was rude and uninterested in us being there… too bad because we are on a quest looking for a new wine club 8(

My hubby and I have been buying and drinking St. Innocent wines since the late 1990’s. We find them to be reliably enjoyable and good price point for the quality. We visited tthe old tasting room several times when it was located in a sort of industrial park in Salem but had not been to the new tasting room at the Zenith Vineyard location until this past April. We made our second visit last week (late June).
I share the above for context because I think it helps to know something about the reviewer when reviews are so disparate for a location. As they seem to be for St. Innocent.
All is not perfect here, but there is more to like than not in our experience of two visits.
TASTING SET UP
About half a dozen pours in a $ 5 tasting fee flight. A very reasonable fee and the wines are always good to sample.
A big drawback from our view is they will NOT allow a flight tasting to be shared. Since my hubby and I often travel with just the two of us to wineries and he is almost always the designated driver, we appreciate being able to share a tasting flight. Also, since I sometimes have no interest in this wine or that one as part of a flight (although he is always interested in them all), sharing is a good thing for us. But not possible here. We were with another couple this time and this no sharing policy really turned them off.
On the plus side, the fee is refunded with purchase of only a single bottle. When so many valley wineries are moving to $ 10 or even $ 15 fees which are not refundable or require as much as six bottle purchase for refund, St. Innocent’s policy here is «thumbs up».
TASTING ROOM
We like the new tasting room, although we agree with those who suggest the entire building is laid out in a way that does not necessarily invite you in. But once inside we think it is a pleasant place to be. There are also a few tables outside the tasting room to sit and enjoy wine or a picnic on nice days.
On both visits the tasting room staff have been über friendly and knowledgeable. They are enthusiastic about what the winemaker is doing and eager to share information and answer questions. They seem considerably more sophisticated in approach than many of the tasting room hosts at other wineries in this area, where the approaches are more warm perhaps. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing here, it is just a different styled thing.
For accessibility planning, tasting room is level in from the parking lot (which has several spaces of accessible parking) and accessible throughout, including the loo.
WINES
Like many valley vintners, St. Innocent produces a plethora of Pinot Noir. That varietal made up four of the flight of six this last time and typically by the time I am at my third winery (which this one was on this day), I am «Pinot Noired out».
I passed up sampling those, in particular since I’ve enjoyed a number of St. Innocent’s good Pinot Noir over the years. My husband had the full flight and enjoyed them all but in particular the Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir.
They were also pouring Pinot Blanc and I’ve always appreciated that St. Innocent was among the first to produce this underrepresented and great varietal in the Willamette Valley. It may no longer be the best Pinot Blanc produced in the valley (for my palate, Four Graces gets that nod) but it is still a good Alsatian style Pinot Blanc.
This time the tasting flight started out with a new wine for them. A very light colored rose of Pinot Noir called Oeil de Perdrix («Eye of the Peacock»). I wondered if folks involved in naming decisions might not want to have consumers too much think of Sebastiani’s old standard White Zin named «Eye of the Swan» in the naming and that’s why they put the name in French. :-) That said, and with the disclosure I am not a fan of rose in any form, this was a very acidic, citrusy wine that could be very interesting for summer sipping and it is a lovely color in the glass.
SHHHH…DON’T TELL ANYONE THIS SECRET! :-)
For those who, like us, grieved when winemaker Mark Vlossak decided to stop producing St. Innocent’s wonderful vintage dated sparkling wine after the 1998 Demi-​Sec Reserve was released in 2007, there may be reason to rejoice. We understand Mark has about fifteen cases (2006 vintage?) methode champenoise sparkler (Blanc de Blanc this time?) in the hand riddler with a release date forecast sometime as early as next year.

My step mother ownes a small wine store and while on vacation i asked here where i should go in OR wine country. This was the suggestion she gave me. We planned on buying serveral bottles of wine after a tasting.
The winery ground where very nice. The new tasting room was nice and well light s well. My problem is that they had 2 people tasting and one said they would be with us in a second.
It was not busy at all. 2 small groups and us. I watched the others get taken care of for 10 minutes. A total of 8 people where in the tasting room with us. We waited a bit longer with no offer of help, I was quit frustrated because the second group was not ready for tasting. The first goup was buying a case of wine. I watched the gentlemen cleared and wipe the counter in front of me and then did not offer a tasting flight or to help us after we had been waiting for for some time. After not being helped we left. I planned on spending a 100 bucks or so after the tasting, but based on the lack of any service i will never buy there wine or tell anyone to come here. We hit several wineries on our visit and every time where given excellent service at all of the others.

I have been to this vineyard twice now and will not make the same mistake for a third visit.
The first time I went with 3 friends to give a few of their reds they are known for a go. Their tasting room staff seemed very stuck up and like they could care less so we did not stay long. I did not bother to taste since if it were up to me we would have left pretty immediately.
The second visit I did not realize my friend made a reservation for a tasting tour here because I did not recognize the name. When we pulled up I kept my mouth shut figuring that the last experience was an off day and that this time would be great since it was our third vineyard and we were having such a lovely day. When you step out of your car you are greeted by such a beautiful view.
My friend let them know we were there and we were just a touch early. A woman came storming out and started asking my friend all these questions like she was being interrogated then proceeded to say that no one bothered to write down our reservation but she supposed they would accommodate us. She then made it VERY clear to us that we were going to have to pay our $ 5 tasting fees in advance and kept going on and on about it treating us like criminals. I hardly think a person who cannot afford a $ 5 tasting fee is going to afford the gas alone to drive through wine country for the day. It was ridiculous and three of us at this point were about ready to tell this woman off and leave. She makes sure to get the $ 5 from each one of us (honestly, several people did it with their credit cards just to be assholes because she was being that much of a hose beast).
We were ushered, barely, down stairs and greeted by this amazing man who was the only saving grace at all seriously. If he was the only person I had encountered I would be giving this five stars because he really was the only person working at this place who is worth a damn. All of us learned a crazy amount about wine making and different types of wines. He was wonderful with his pours and his introductions to each of the wines. I will say in here as well that I really enjoyed quite a few wines we tried and some of our group did buy wines but several others of us refused because we were back to that woman. She brought us down a plate of breads and cheeses etc that one of the guys in our group purchased for everyone and acted nice for a few moments but wow, just wow…

Picturesque, stunning, elegant and exclusive. Some of you probably can’t wait to visit while others should steer clear. This winery in the Eola-​Amity Hills close to Salem is a cross between a modern French château and upscale country club. In some ways, I found the extreme elegance a little off-​putting.
It is funny, because I am someone that doesn’t mind a little glitz, but in this case, I found the environment too sterile. In fact, this location seemed more focused on weddings and less on the wines. While we were there several couples came to tour the property for their special day. The banquet room and grounds for a ceremony are très chic so I definitely see the appeal.
The tasting room was scheduled to open at 11:00a, but the host didn’t arrive until 11:20a. The selection of wines was impressive — 8 wines in the flight for $ 5, but the explanation was the most ‘on script’ of the places we visited on our wine tour.
The wines are excellent and it is a beautiful place, but I guess I was just looking for a little more soul.

These are the «safest» wines I ever had. It is like the Switzerland of wines. They are very well balanced but so subtle as if not to offend anyone. They don’t have any strong opinions, or convey any messages. In other words they have no soul!!! I would definitely give a bottle to the person that claims they hate red wine, because I am sure they will love any of these wines. I can’t say I don’t like them, or can’t say that I absolutely love them, but I would definitely not refuse a glass.

This is one of my husbands and my favorite wineries. Their pinot noirs are still «reasonably» priced and the spread that they put on for Memorial Day and Thanksgiving weekend is by far the best in the Willamette Valley. Mark, the wine maker, is always out and about and offering barrel tastings and we can’t wait for their new tasting room to open this Memorial Day (2008). Their wine has great structure and their single vinyard Shea Pinot is one of our favorites (must be aged!)