About Drink With Us
My name is Lauren.
And I built this for you.
Newberg native · 20 years in the valley · Owner, Minthorn Mercantile
This is for the person who has read every article, watched every reel, and still feels like they're missing something about this amazing place we call home. I've set out to create the ultimate guide to our region, from an insider's perpective. Happy planning!
The insider's guide
The Oregon Wine Country you’ve been reading about — the coveted, celebrated, world-class version — is only half the story of what makes this region a global destination. It’s the half that photographs well and fits neatly into a top-ten list. The other half is harder to capture, but it’s the reason people come back. The other half is the people who've made this region what it is today. The dreamers, the makers, the doers, the Oregonians.
Twenty years in the valley
What I’ve watched them build
I’ve worked these lands. I’ve shaken the hands of the farmers, the winemakers, the cooks, the shop owners who show up every single day and do it again — in weather that doesn’t always cooperate, in dining rooms that aren’t always full, in seasons that ask everything of you and give back slowly.
We are more than a bottle of wine. We are a region of hard work celebrated day after day.
The farmers here didn’t plant these vines because it was easy. They went against every reasonable piece of advice to grow the most fickle grape on the planet in a region known for difficult weather — and then did it again the next year, and the year after that. Thanks to those early pioneers, we have one of the top wine regions in the world and I'm excited for you to visit.
That devotion is everywhere in northern Willamette Valley, if you know where to look. This site exists to help you look.
Why the articles aren’t enough
The knowledge that lives in a place
Here’s the problem with most Oregon wine country guides: they’re written by people who visited once. They’ll tell you the famous names. The flagship wineries. The restaurant that won the award.
That’s useful — but it’s the same list everyone has. It doesn’t tell you which winery you can visit where you meet the winemaker, or which road is the best way to get here from the airport, or which food cart is a foodie destination.
That knowledge lives in twenty years of conversations at a shop in downtown Newberg, in the hands I’ve shaken and the harvests I’ve watched come and go. Drink With Us is where that knowledge lives now.
How to use this guide
It starts with one question
The question I get asked every week is: where should I go wine tasting? My answer isn’t a list. It’s a question back — what kind of trip are you having?
The answer changes everything about where you should go. Pick your experience and let me fill in the rest.
one more thing
Every day is a great day to visit
I say this to people in the shop constantly, and I mean it. The valley in harvest season is golden and alive. Winter is quiet and intimate — cellar season is when Pinot was made to be poured, by a fire, without the crowds. Spring brings bud break across the hills and the kind of green that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Summer means long evenings on open terraces with the light lasting until nine.
The weather here is part of the experience, not a reason to wait for a better forecast.
Come as you are. We’ll take care of you.
What you’ll find here
The full experience, not just the tasting rooms