The Setting Wines

The Setting Wines was founded by friends Jeff Cova and Noah McMahon, and the wines are made by Jesse Katz. Katz is one of the most decorated young winemakers in America, and in 2021 a single six-liter bottle of The Setting’s Cabernet Sauvignon sold at auction for one million dollars — the highest price ever paid for a single bottle of wine.

The Oregon chapter came in 2021, when they bought a Newberg property previously known as Le Puy Inn, renovated it completely, and reopened it in May as The Setting Inn Willamette Valley. A tasting room followed inside, and in 2023 they released their first Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, drawing on Yamhill-Carlton fruit.

The tasting room is unusual for the valley in what it pours: Willamette Pinot Noir and Chardonnay alongside their Sonoma County and Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. That makes it one of very few places here where you can taste serious Oregon and serious California side by side from the same producer.

The setting matches. Ten acres of hillside overlooking Chehalem Ridge, planted with lavender rows, Cypress trees, fruit trees, and a small vineyard guests can walk. There are courtyard firepits, a bocce court, and a 2,000-square-foot barn converted into a den with club chairs and a big screen. Goats, horses, and cattle graze the neighboring farms.

The inn has eight guest rooms, each with a different layout — some with balconies, some with soaking tubs, some with window seats. Breakfast is delivered to your room each morning: craft pastries, cured meat, fruit, and fromage blanc from Briar Rose Creamery in Dundee, with flowers throughout from Pollinate Flowers in Newberg.