Ken Wright Cellars Tasting Room

Way overpriced for mediocre wine. $ 20 a taste and $ 375 for a 6pack. I would pay it if the wine was good. I won’t be back.

Not the place for me… they don’t credit the tasting fee towards the purchase, which was a surprise upon purchase. The wine was good but not outstanding and the woman behind the counter was clearly irritated with our party when I announced I wasnt interested in the pinot tasting if the wine could only be purchsed in a six pack. Too pretentious for me… and there wasnt any great scenery to redeem it.

Years ago a bottle of Ken Wright triggered my now decade long addiction to Oregon Pinot Noir. The tasting room was pretty basic, but Jesse was a great resource. I found a number of fantastic wines that I took home with me. Also right before I left I tried their newer label Tyrus Evan and was similarly blown away. By then I had already purchased more than I expected, so I’ll have to try that one again some other time. The best wines on offer could only be purchase in half case increment (6 bottles) so if you’re not hard core, this place might not be for you. However I remain a very big fan.

Ken Wright is a force of winemaking in the Willamette. I’ve had several Ken Wrights that are superb.
That having been said … the woman who helped us here was beyond pretentious. She described every single one of the vineyard-​designated bottles EXACTLY the same way. $ 20 for a tasting? Are you joking?
What’s even funnier (sadder) is that the two vintages that were rated the highest were sold out. The other four were being poured here. They were all rather austere and tightly wound. The woman who was pouring described them as tannic.
Sorry, love, I don’t mind a bit of tannin in my cabs but in a pinot?
The last straw was hearing that the minimum purchase of the vineyard-​designated bottles was six. Six? You sell out of the two highly rated vintages and you try to stick it to your wine loving public by trying to «move» the designations that aren’t moving?
Puhlease. Never. Be. Back. There are so many other great places here that a) don’t have the attitude, b) don’t have the clear lack of knowledge to be pouring in the first place and c) don’t require a six bottle minimum.
Go check out Soter, White Rose or others that exude the Willamette aesthetic.
This place is more like some of the places that think very highly of themselves in Napa.

I’m gonna confess I didn’t know who Ken Wright was until two days ago. Maybe you don’t know either, but it is about time you did. He makes some great Pinot Noir and Tyrus Evan (named after the middle names of his two sons) is his label for his Clarets, Syrahs, Malbecs and Cabernet Francs. For a short time, they have some of the Ken Wright Pinots to taste. It’s pretty rare when you go somewhere and like everything or nearly everything, but the wine here is very good and very much on the high end side of things. Mostly out of the Walla Walla and Southern Oregon region, our group raved about nearly everything that was poured for us and we were even fond of the crackers. My boyfriend and I loved the Syrahs the best, but some of our friends ended up with some bottles of Claret. Most the bottles were in the $ 30 range, but the quality is very high.
If you come to Carlton, I recommend stopping here first and then proceeding to the other tasting rooms on Main St. With plenty of parking, the tasting room is very cute and decorated with wine barrel furniture such as Adirondack chairs and bar stools. The staff is friendly and knowledgable and the pours were generous (which I was grateful for as they were $ 2.50 a taste). For a higher end facility, this place was far from pretentious, they kindly suggested that two people could share a flight and it was perfect. They even stayed open a little late for us as we finished up our tasting and pondered our purchases. Everyone in our group left extremely impressed despite our much lighter wallets.
Overall, highly enjoyable and highly recommended.