Artist Block

Anna Sweet dropped out of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and spent her time in working artists’ studios instead, learning from the people doing it. She moved from New York to London to work for the fashion photographer Rankin, became a multimedia artist across photography and sculpture, and eventually landed in the Dundee Hills — where she opened Artist Block in May 2023 with a 2,000-square-foot studio underneath the tasting room.

The wine is made by Bree Stock MW, the only female Master of Wine in Oregon, sourced from organically farmed sites across the Willamette Valley in small lots. The labels are pop art and the names are deliberately irreverent — Rainbow Juice, Thicc Sister, Woo Juice, Cha-Ching Cha-Ching, Yummy Yummy Yummy. Several tasting tiers are offered, including one that pours Stock’s own minimal-run wines from coveted valley sites, and one that sets Artist Block against Burgundy and Champagne. Fees are waived at purchase thresholds for either wine or art.

The gallery is the other half. Around a hundred original works from emerging artists worldwide hang on gallery-white walls, curated by Sweet and gallery director Emma Schmitt, with a rotating artist in residence working in an open studio for three months at a time. Frosted donut sculptures, a one-of-a-kind Triumph Scrambler in the entryway, downtempo music, and a black curtain you walk through into the pop art room.

Then there’s the programming, which is where the place fully commits. Kittens and Wine, born when Sweet socialized two new Bengal kittens alongside the resident cat Andy Warhol, booked 500 tastings. Tattoo flash weekends have happened. As Sweet puts it, the more obscure and weird and fun it can be, the better.

Food comes from Merenda Deli in Dundee rather than an in-house kitchen — a smart call, since the charcuterie boards get consistent praise.