Hauer of the Dauen Winery

Great winery! Nice pinot! Very reasonable prices. Picked up a couple bottles to go. Not fancy but very beautiful area close to McMinnville. My glass was never empty. Every time I turned around my glass was full with a large pour! Carol is so kind, she has a big heart. Make sure you include this on your stop and tip well. :) Would be a fun place for an event.

Part of what I enjoy about a winery when wine tasting, besides the wine of course, is the ambiance, amenities and the persons working at the winery.
The ambiance here is sterile. You taste in an offshoot of the cold barrel room; definitely a no frills setup. Amenities, you ask? Well, there are none. If you need to use the ladies room you will be directed to outdoor port-​o-​potties. They are not zoned for indoor plumbing, which is a shame. Lack of indoor plumbing is a deal breaker for me especially when it is freezing-​ass cold outside.
The fellow who was our host, he was very friendly and gave good pours. Most of the wines were just ok. However, the 2009 Chardonnay bubbly was outstanding. We took home a bottle of that as it is only available at the winery and supplies were dwindling.
Other than the one variety, the bubbly, I would not venture out to this winery unless I was in the neighborhood. I prefer fancier digs with indoor plumbing.

Everything is relative. I’m sorry to see so much hatin’ going on here for these hard working people. Yes, the facility resembles a farm (which is what it is), more so than a built-​with-​California-​money tasting room atop prime Oregon property.
It’s not fancy.
Nor are the wines, or their presentation of them, perfect. But they have one or two which are really good. Which is par for the course with most wineries, regardless of price tag. The Gewürztraminer is a favorite of ours for Thanksgiving. And their dessert riesling is just damn yummy.
The hours are very limited during harvest season: noon to 5pm Sat/​Sun, or by appt. We pulled in early, unaware of their hours, and a young man caught my attention as we were turning around — he’d quite literally come from a field to open the tasting room and help us. Their 05 estate blend is a light yet full bodied, well balanced red wine that will go with just about anything. Good general table wine.
I was happy to buy four bottles from the young man who told us the family’s history, coming from German a few generations ago, settling there and working the land in various ways. They sell their grapes to some of the bigger names in the area, and also farm a number of other crops for canning, etc.
Their family IS the Willamette Valley, and I value that a little. Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy sticking my pinky in the air and getting snobby at a wine bar where half the price of a $ 50 bottle goes to cover the mortgage on a million dollar view. But I keep things in perspective.

We went here while on a wine tour. It was an… experience. Lawn chairs, 15 wines and porta potties for $ 4. The wine was… interesting. Maybe 1 or 2 tasted somewhat reasonable. I’m no wine expert, but these were not premier wines. It receives a two because the price is great and if you don’t take wine tasting too seriously it can be a funny, wacky experience. Also, if you go here first, wine the rest of the day will taste amazing.

Run away!
There’s a reason you can taste like 15 wines for $ 4 — none of them are any good.
Oh, did I mention there are no bathrooms, just porta potties? What an ugly building and ugly location. Sorry!
We tried several whites and none of them were even chilled!
I don’t really know what’s going on with this place. Plastic lawn chair furniture as seating and crackers that tasted like cigarette butt.
If you have any respect for yourself or for wine, stay far, far away.

Porta Potties and wine go together like… Wait… Nope, I got nothing.
Things that also don’t go together? Plastic lawn chair furniture inside a tasting room. Or pouring wine while wearing a hoodie. These things do not inspire confidence in the wine, which while it may have been deserving of the Oregon State Fair (and Florida State Fair???) medals, was overly sweet and the pinots watery. This place could be quirky and fun, but that wasn’t what they were going for.
The person serving us, who was friendly and kept good track of what everyone was sampling, also gave the tiniest pours we had seen all day, so I’m not even sure I can trust my analysis of the wine.
Save your $ 4 and taste elsewhere. Preferably somewhere with plumbing.

We had a good experience here. The wines are not fantastic; they’re inconsistent year to year and some are just strange. The tasting room does not invite you to stay long (plastic lawn furniture is not comfy) but the owners are a hoot.
We had a good pinot noir and an interesting white pinot (which they call «Blessed Innocence»). It’s not swill be it’s definitely not Drouhin.

This is a good example of wines not aging well. I guess it’s hard to age well when you’re not too good from the start.