Domaine Serene Winery
6555 NE Hilltop Ln, Dayton, OR 97114
Website: http://www.domaineserene.com/
An outdoor patio at Domaine Serene
Domaine Serene is located in Dundee Hills off Breyman Orchards Road near several other wineries. The entrance is directly across from the entrance to Domaine Drouhin. This is probably the most prestigious winery I visited in Oregon. As my friend and I drove up to the winery we had a beautiful view of row upon row of vines. The winery is housed in a Mediterranean style building. There is a nice outdoor patio in front of the entrance to the tasting room with a few tables and umbrellas. There is another outdoor area and wine bar to the side of the building. One of the defining features of the winery is a large sculpture of a wooly mammoth that looks like it is made of sticks. Our hostess explained to us that it represents the history of the area where wooly mammoth bones were once found.
Sculpture of a wooly mammoth
Ken and Grace Evenstad started Domaine Serene in 1989 and named the winery after their daughter Serene. They have been receiving 90+ scores for their Pinot Noirs since they produced their first wine in 1990. The five-level gravity flow winery was completed in 2001 and opened its tasting room to the public in 2005. Domaine Serene has helped to bring recognition to Oregon wines in the media and to the rest of the wine world.
This winery is one of the more popular wineries in the area. When I visited, both the indoor and outdoor tasting bars were full and there were a couple of group tours coming through while we were there.
Tasting bar at Domaine Serene
The indoor tasting bar is not very large fitting about 6 people side-by-side. The rest of the room can seat several groups of people. The room has wood flooring and wood paneling on the ceiling with several tables and chairs for seated tastings. Since it was so crowded when we came in and there was no space at the tasting bar, one of the servers behind the bar offered for us to take a seat and she came to our table to do the tasting. We were offered two tasting options, a Classic and a Reserve tasting. The Reserve tasting is a little pricey. It was double the price of the Classic tasting, but I chose to pay the higher price because I wanted to try some wines I wouldn’t find back home. I was pleasantly surprised when the server brought over a dish of food to sample with the wines. It made the Reserve tasting more worthwhile in my opinion. Plus, I ended up only paying the price of the Classic tasting because I purchased a couple bottles of wine.
Their wines are excellent. The Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir is their flagship wine and has won lots of awards. I have tried this wine before and think it’s a great Pinot Noir. I enjoyed the white wines as well. My favorite wine from the tasting was the Rockblock Syrah. I was sad to hear that they are going to stop producing it, so I took a couple of bottles home with me. The hospitality we received was great despite the number of people there! The girl who served us was very friendly and did a nice job explaining each wine to us. This winery is well worth the visit but expect a crowd.