Oregon’s wine industry is gearing up for the annual Memorial Weekend in Wine Country.
Over 150 Oregon wine makers are opening their doors to the public this weekend. Traditionally, Memorial Day was when the wines were first released, the first time anyone got to taste them, and a lot of wineries did something special.
Anthony King, President of the Willamette Valley Winery Association, says it was a way to get into a cellar that you normally wouldn’t get into and meet the wine makers and owners. Anthony says because there were fewer wineries 27 years ago when Memorial Weekend in Wine Country started, you had to stand in giant crowds to get a taste.
That tradition has spread all over the valley since, and now there’s a diversity of different events that are wine related to do over the weekend.
King says something brand new this year is a 6-foot Willamette Valley vineyard map, with as many wineries as possible that they could fit on it.
To see the map and a list of all the wineries participating, visit willamettewines.com.