Bravuro Cellars

Newberg tasting room located at: 108 S College St, Newberg, OR 97132

Steve Saxton was born and raised in Albany, left Oregon in 1983, and came back every year after. He met Luci in 2005 in California’s Central Valley, and the two started making wine together in 2009 under their own name. What they loved were hot-climate, full-bodied reds — the kind Oregon essentially doesn’t grow.

So they did something nobody else here has: they moved to the Willamette Valley and brought California fruit with them. The Newberg tasting room opened in 2016. They’ve since added a vineyard property in the Amity Hills, where they’re also planting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, though even that is reportedly headed in a bigger direction.

The name means the display of great daring, and also great technical skill and brilliance in performance. Both apply.

The list is remarkable for this valley: Old Vine Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc, Barbera, Ancient Vine Carignane, Ancient Vine Cinsault, Tannat, Alicante Bouschet, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Bordeaux-style blends, and a Ruby Port. Small batch, hand-crafted, and every bottle individually numbered.

They sell direct only — no distributors, no stores, no restaurants, and they say never. Everything moves through the two tasting rooms and their website. Pricing is flat across the range, deliberately, so guests choose by taste rather than by cost. Guests mention that policy almost as often as the wine.

Recognition has followed. Fodor’s Travel Pacific Northwest named them a featured Oregon winery. Choice Wineries put them at number six on a list of the ten best wineries in Oregon, drawn from more than 900. The 2018 Petite Sirah took Double Gold at the McMinnville Wine Festival.

The Newberg room on College Street is open daily and works as an easy walk-in. The Amity vineyard is the destination version — weekends only, with a koi pond, Adirondack chairs among the vines, four mountains on the horizon, and a covered fireplace area for cold days.