Tualatin Estate Vineyard - Forest Grove, OR

Tualatin Estate Vineyard is located in Forest Grove, OR. If you are from the Portland area, this is about a 30 minute drive from Beaverton down Highway 26. Coming here reminded me of how wine tasting used to be in Oregon before Oregon's wine industry blew up...laid back and simple. 
It is owned and operated by Willamette Valley Vineyards (WVV) and features their wines. As a frequent guest at WVV in Turner, OR, we decided to try out this location simply because it was closer to our home. As soon as we arrived, they allowed us to choose the table we wanted to sit out. There were tables indoors and a few tables located on the deck around the main tasting room. But the best area was in a field encircled in trees with tables scattered, allowing you to take in the beautiful view as you tasted.

We chose a table that was located right at the edge of the vineyard. It was perfect! Their tasting menu featured mostly wines that were produced from grapes grown at this location. It was fun to notice the differences between wines produced from grapes in different locations. For instance, I'm not a huge fan of Chardonnay in general, and don't care for the Bernau Block Chardonnay, but tried the Tualatin Estate Chardonnay and enjoyed how clean and crisp it was.
PictureView from our table of the vineyard and surrounding coastal mountains.
Another difference between tasting at this location was that they offered very simplistic food options. From a card on the table, you can scan the QR code and find choices of three different cheeses, two different meats, and crackers. The cheese are all from a local cheese company called Willamette Valley Cheese which is one of our favorite local cheese companies. We chose a cheese, meat, and crackers based off of our servers recommendations. They were delicious and the perfect accompaniment to the wine.

The whole time we were there, we never felt rushed or pressured. It was so enjoyable to sit back, have plenty of space around us to feel like we were by ourselves, really experience the wines. Our server was also very knowledgeable about each of the wines and very honest about them, which was refreshing. We left knowing that we would definitely be back and probably frequent this location more than the original Estate.