The Portland Wine Bar [August 2019]

Welcome to Portland!! If my memory serves me correctly, we have a pretty busy day ahead of us!! Thanks to my extensive and genius itinerary planning, combined with Katies trust and ability to follow said itinerary, we were able to get it all in… including The Portland Wine Bar!! After visiting Multnomah Falls, [which was totally amazing, and highly recommend] we dropped Shawn off at our hotel for the afternoon. We headed to downtown Portland to our first stop, which could be nowhere else then the infamous Voodoo Doughnuts. We had captain crunch and fruit loop donuts [among several others] to get a little sugar rush!! Haha

We were [thankfully] able to find a central parking spot so we could walk to all the locations that we wanted to visit because… did I tell you about the giant red four door pickup truck we were driving around in!? LOL Next we stopped into Powells Books: Used and New Books. I found it weird that the books were described as “used and new” instead of the familiar “new and used” but after-all, we are in Portland!! I have never seen so many books all together in one place before, it was a book nerds dream!! Ok, let’s move on to the reason we are all really here... The Portland Wine Bar!!

Mark Proden, owner and winemaker of The Portland Wine Bar got his humble beginnings in 2006, starting in Los Angeles. After retiring from his first career, an Air Force pilot and engineer, he started doing some cooking. He would then pair his meals with wines from all over the world. He soon discovered the Oregon Pinot Noir and loved it so much that he decided to attend viticulture school in Salem, Oregon. In order to perfect his Pinot, he and some of his classmates founded the Bodhichitta [a Sanskrit word that means "to give of yourself to others."] Winery.. a not-for-profit winery where they donate all their proceeds to charity!!

Once Mark finished school, he went to the Hawaiian Islands. At this time he took an engineering job that would fund yet another winery that he opened on Kauai!! Then in March of 2012, he opened The Portland Wine Bar. I loved it immediately, for as you can see from the photo below, Mark’s black lab [named Pinot... go figure LOL] is the wineries mascot!! Pinot is on the wine label, the wine glasses [as seen below] and he is now on the front window!! Above you can see the old window display of a wine bottle, but I bet Pinot really draws people inside!! Mark and Pinot can be seen walking around downtown on any given day. [Awwwww!!!]

Going a little off topic here, do you see "the winery at manzanita" on the label and glass!? Interestingly enough, Mark was looking for a new winery venue and the beach in Manzanita, Oregon [where he and Pinot often took walks] popped into his mind. He remembered the beautiful sunsets here and went on to open the Winery at Manzanita in 2015. I didn't put it together until [literally] just now, but during another one of Katie's EPIC visits, [in 2021] we were riding around the side streets of Canon Beach searching for adventure and we rode past this exact winery. [how freaking cool!?] I remember doing an illegal you-turn to go back so we could park and check it out!!

The photo below of all the wine glasses with Pinot's image was the only picture I took. Needless to say that I will not be doing a blog about the Winery of Manzanita since I practically am giving you two wineries for one in this blog!! Hahaha!! Let me snatch you back to the present, where we are sitting at the bar in The Portland Wine Bar. You can choose a glass or bottle from the wine list, or from a selection of wine flights. They offer roughly 20 different wines in the tasting room. There is something for everyone, from a delicate Pinot Noir [of course] to crisp whites, rose, and big bold reds. I love that all the grapes from their Pinot Noir wines come from Black Dog Vineyard!! [hello... Pinot!?]

Wine tasting flights are my favorite!! I love to try just a taste of multiple wines. I think it gives you a chance to taste something you may not ordinarily order. In some cases you can try wines that are way out of your budget, like when they offer a taste of their reserve label. [this usually means that the wine is aged longer, is a better quality, and always more expensive] Mark believes that small fermentations of small batch wines yield the highest quality and best tasting wines. Today, The Portland Wine Bar is more than just a wine bar, it is also tasting room, and a wine storage facility. These are temperature controlled commercial wine lockers to store your pricey wines in!! [needless to say, I do not have one!! Haha]

Let me tell you a little bit about the photo below… I don’t remember exactly what our conversation was, but when I went to take our obligatory selfie, Katie was making this face!! Hahaha!! I told her that if she kept it up I was going to post it. She made it even weirder [and maybe a little bit creepy] so I simply had to capture the moment!! We rounded out the evening at an extremely cool little speak easy, one that pays tribute to the neighborhood & the year prohibition was repealed... it was called Circa 1933!!

In the morning, we will start heading back to Enumclaw. We’ll be making one more pitstop to visit the beautiful Mt St Helens volcano. I would love to tell you all about it next week but... it’s not a winery!! Hehehe 

Wine with Wixy will be having a different visitor in town next week... my sister, Lisa Yoder!! Among other things, we will be headed back to the islands!! If you can believe it, we just so happen to come across a different winery!! LOL

Cheers to you my wine loving friends, and TTFN!!