Oak Knoll Winery

Been here only two times but both times have been amazing. Really friendly service and the wines are great! If you’re into dark and/​or sweet wines this is the place for you. They have a good mixture of both types.

My husband and I come as often as we can.
Everyone we’ve met there has been nice chatty and just down to earth.
Ive learned more about wines from them what I like and dislike.

My husband and I are Club Members and get up to Oak Knoll as often as our schedules permit us to. They have the BEST wines and are not like 95% of the other Willamette Valley wineries that serve one Pinot Noir after the other until you can’t tell the difference anymore. Each Oak Knoll wine has something exciting to offer your pallet, they offer great Pinot Noir and Cabernets along with numerous delicious semi sweet and desert wines that keep us coming back. Special shout out to Kim their Manager and their Wine Specialist Christina, you ladies are helpful, knowledgable about your wine, down to earth and have such a great sense of humor. It’s nice knowing we can just relax, enjoy and be ourselves there, nothing pretentious or snobby at Oak Knoll, just a great winery with delicious wines and great people who truly enjoy what they do. The winery is located in the country, the tasting room is cute and cozy, the people always have a good time there and the prices are very friendly on the wallet. This is our go to winery, try it, you won’t be disappointed.

Most wineries have the dress always nicely look but this place is way more down to earth, and has amazing wine. Niagra, toasted cow, concord, deviant are all amazing.

Oak Knoll is a very small winery with a small tasting room set among the hills outside of Hillsboro. It’s cute, quaint and old fashioned. Definitely not a big or fancy place, but there is a nice selection of wines, most of which are sweet. The winery has a mascot cat that was roaming around while we were there, so not a great destination if you’re allergic to cats. The tasting fee is really low compared to California.

Beautiful area, a total hole in the wall on an un-​expecting road, but isn’t that where all great wineries are?! Service was great and knowledgable along with the barn cat being very friendly. Loved the lightly oaked Chardonnay, not just typical Oregon Pinot Noir selections! Will go again when in the area!

Vast selection at a great price. We visited a few wineries and this was the best selection. For $ 5 you choose 6 wines to taste. You have about 20 to choose from. If your new to wine tasting this is a great place to go. I wish they had a larger tasting room. All the other wineries had a great tasting setup but a small selection of wines. Other wineries were $ 10-​$ 20 to taste 5 – 6 wines. We bought several bottles here.

This is very close to home (how lucky are we?!) :) We absolutely LOVE the drive out there. The staff is always pleasant and knowledgeable. And, during the summer months we pack a little snack, do a little tasting, and head out to the pavilion with the guitar and sing some tunes and enjoy a bottle of their wine. (We even draw a few fans sometimes lol) We love Marjorie and the events they hold for the wine club members (pick up dates). When they hold large events, there is plenty of parking on a grassed area. There is shade and grass area with picnic tables too.
The Frambrosia has always been a super hit with us, and we have consistently enjoyed their Pinot Noirs ever since ’99~The White Toasted Cow is interesting, but since we’re considered ‘red wine drinkers’, we tend to like the Deviant better. All in all, their wines are pretty darn good. Oh yeah… when they have events in the storage building, sometimes Lucee the Basset is there. We have something very kewl in common. We both have different colored eyes ;)) We bonded from the get-​go!

Love this place! Keep going back and taking friends!

The least pretentious winery in the Willamette Valley. Beautiful location, laid back tasting room, plenty of wine to choose from and you get to built your own tasting menu for only $ 5. This isn’t going to be a premium wine experience, this is more of an ‘everyday wine’ vineyard. I can’t afford to drink $ 60 Pinot’s every night, so I like to stock my pantry with Oak Knoll wine.

Absolutely love this place! We stopped by on a whim and ending up leaving with multiple bottles and a membership. I have nothing bad to say about this gem. Cheap tastings and they don’t skimp on the pours like most places. Peggy in the tasting room was so friendly and helpful. She didn’t pressure us at all to buy which we loved. Definitely worth the stop!

Cute place to get a bottle and picnic on the soft lawn.

Their Pinot Gris is just sooo refreshing… I’m relaxing with a large chilled glass of ’06 Pinot Gris right now. Hey. I just learned that my friend Esther has been to the same location, glancing to the side of this review! Neat stuff—
Founded in 1970 by the Vuylsteke family, OK specializes in the Pinots, and is also known for their framboise dessert wine, called Frambrosia. Picnic area
Little did I know that Oak Knoll’s location is so close to my good friend, who lives in the beautiful, rustic part of Hillsboro. I’ve been drinking their wines for a time, and I feel that they excel in these light, sweet Pinot whites.
Gotta stop by soon and, like Esther, order off their dessert tasting menu.
A lovely glass… I’d pour you some if you were here, as I just opened a new bottle =)

I recently stopped by Oak Knoll while cruising down highway 219, a winery whose reputation is for producing approachable wines. Oak Knoll is well known for their sweet wine production but they also make a few drier styles of wine. What I wasn’t aware of is that they have been in production since the 70’s and do a substantial case production (in Oregon) of about 25,000 cases a year. The tasting room is located in what was once a cow milking facility at an old dairy farm. However gone are the days of the white liquid produced by mammary glands of mammals in exchange for a white juice produced by their artistic vision and through the body of a grape. Outside the grounds are well kept and offer several picnic tables to enjoy a glass of wine on. Since Oak Knoll has a relatively high wine production by Oregon standards they can be found in several markets across the state. I assume their most notable and widely distributed selections will be Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and berry wines. Inside the tasting room is fairly simplistic with a minimal space, oak shelving and a bar. The tasting fee is only $ 5 and they allow you to choose 6 wines. I tasted a broad range of wine except for ones that weren’t open, instead of talking about every wine I’ll mention the one’s I enjoyed most.
First I was pleasantly surprised by their 09 Pinot Gris ($ 12) which showed off characteristics similar to a Gewürztraminer. This wine had a pronounced floral quality along with lemon zest and grapefruit mid-​palate and a surprisingly spicy finish. At only $ 12 a bottle I think this is a great warm weather wine that can be enjoyed by a range of drinkers. Next was a 2010 Rose of Pinot Noir ($ 12), this wine had an intense color because of prolonged skin exposure exhibiting strawberry and mineral notes but I did feel it was a little too tart on the finish. Finally they have three vintages of Pinot, I preferred the 05 Reserve. It’s very rare to see wineries selling an 2005 vintage, apparently that’s because of their philosophy which is to age them longer so that they are ready to drink once released. Of course this is still subjective from person to person but the 05 did feel like the most well rounded, structured wine and for ($ 29) the price isn’t astronomical. They also produce two big reds whose fruit come from the Rouge Valley but I only tasted the Syrah ($ 28). It was ok, it had a good fruit profile but lacked any sort of depth. Although if it’s a juicy fruit laden wine you’re looking for it may be right up your alley. Lastly if you’re a fan of sweet wines this may be the perfect fit for you because they offer 9 variations! Now there’s a BIG difference between a dessert wine and a sweet wine. Dessert wines that impress me exhibit elegance, texture, and balance. Fruit or sugar added wines are produced more for taste preference amongst anything else and unfortunately most of what I tasted here was the latter. The Niagara for example is a wine I have heard of but never tasted, the manager informed me she can’t keep it in stock so I said «what the hell». Eh, I was wrong, it tasted like the remnants of a flat Welches grape soda, I could barely stomach it. Overall I think Oak Knoll will appeal more to less experienced wine drinkers or those that prefer simpler, fruitier wines.

I love this place. I’ve been coming here for years and have always found the staff to be friendly and not in any way snooty. I really like that about Oak Knoll! You are treated as a valued guest. They really seem to enjoy giving newbies a really fun and nonjudgmental first tasting experience. No attitude like some of the «fancier» wineries. This is a down-​home family winery, like they all used to be in the valley at one time.
Oak Knoll has a huge selection of wines to choose from. If you can’t find anything you like, you just haven’t given it much of a chance here. If you like sweeter wines they have an excellent Riesling and a Niagara that will hit the spot. If you are more of a red wine drinker (like me) you will LOVE their Cab. It’s absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, so many people agree on that that there is very little of it left, hence the $ 42 price for a bottle. I paid for one though. Just had to have it. They also have a Barbera which is pretty rare around here and a nice Sirah as well.
I’m really excited for this year’s summer concert series to begin. These have been a lot of fun over the past couple of summers. I go out there with my parents and sister for almost all of them. I just hope they don’t get too popular. I like it the way it is!
They are open every day of the week, including weekends. Many holiday weekends they have live music and light appetizers as well.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot! They are also VERY dog friendly as well. I bring my pup with me most of the time and play fetch with him out on the front lawn while sipping my fave wine. Now it just doesn’t get much better than that.

Beautiful location, but the tasting room doesn’t have much character as other wineries I’ve been to. Typical tasting program — $ 5 for 6 tastes, you check boxes on a menu dim sum style. Their dessert wines are especially tasty… plus, the Riesling is the wine of the month (July 2010) right now and is on sale for $ 7!
The lawn outside is great for holding events or just taking jumping photos. =)

Acidic, watered down, brown, rusty color… an essence of balsamic vinegar… nothing else to say…

Just to update my review, that I wrote 2 years ago. I want to add that I have since joined the wine club, so yes, I am still a big fan. If you check out the website, Oak Knoll hosts some incredible events, and I have never had a bad experience here.
Beyond the excellent service I get everytime I go, the wine is my favorite. The difference between an estate and vineyard is a vineyard has to use the grapes they grow. The advantage that Oak Knoll has in being an estate, they get to ick the best grapes and use them for the wine.

Oh… bad, bad, bad… will not be back. Now I don’t profess to have a palate of any kind but I didn’t taste one thing I liked. Not only was the tasting host a bore, but I’d opt for boxed wine or Two Buck Chuck over anything Oak Knoll any day. Overwhelmed by a tour bus was the excuse for the poor service… a tour bus? If you’re not used to that after 30+ years in the wine business, you don’t deserve to be.
Was that mean?
Maybe it’s been a bad year… I really hope so.

The Willamette Valley in Oregon is like the Napa Valley in California, only without the crowds and thimble-​size pours, and a great place to taste the best of Oregon wines. Everything is so GREEN and we were lucky to be visiting on a sunny day and the winery grounds are beautiful.
One of the 4, 5, 6 (?) wineries we visited (I lost count) was Oak Knoll, a family-​run operation for over 35 years. The two women in the tasting room on the day we visited were really knowledgeable and friendly (one even confessed to being a «California Transplant,» originally from Fresno) and it was only $ 5 to taste 11 of the wines. Beware: the tasting room is also full of other goodies and knickknacks you never knew you needed. Besides a case of wine, I left there having bought some Christmas gifts too — — only 68 days left til Christmas ya know!!!
Like any other winery, there were good wines (IMO), and some not as good. And it is true Oak Knoll, makes some sweet ones and I’m not necessarily a fan of sweet wines (except dessert wines) but the one I was most intrigued with was the «Niagara» and this one has a «cult» following.
If you’re into grape/​varietal history at all, the Niagara grape is a true native American (Labrusca) varietal because it grows so well in the cooler Oregon climate. It’s not so much sweet as it is «grapy,» probably why it’s grown primarily for grape juice, with a really intense nose. Needless to say, we bought a bottle to have during the upcoming holidays with some local cracked crab — to quote RR «YUMM-​O!»
Speaking of dessert wines, try the Frambrosia, it’s made from 100% Oregon raspberries and is not overly sweet. Imagine it paired with something intensely chocolate. .. I’m swooning!!!
Anyway, if you are in the Oregon Willamette Valley wine region, go out of your way to visit Oak Knoll Winery, you won’t be sorry.