Classes & EVENTS
Drink to learn. Learn to drink.
event calendar
Need a date night? A new hobby? Something to break the monotony of the work week? Join us for classes taught by Sarah, Dave, and industry friends. We’re dialing down the pretension and judgmentalism, and leaning into the fun of tasting wines and learning about how they came to be. You’ll find all our classes and events over the next few months, and we update this page regularly as we add things to the schedule!
FOUNDATIONS
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If you have a foundational understanding of how wine comes into existence, and a grasp of the most essential concepts that surround wine, then it’s time to dive into wine tasting. Wine can (and should!) be mysterious, but we’re going to provide you with a firm foundation to understand—and thereby better enjoy—the wines you drink.
Before exploring the various areas of aroma and flavor profiles, we’ll talk about the key structural elements that compose a glass: sweetness, alcohol, acidity, and tannin. Alongside a little bit of science and a dose of psychology, we’ll provide tips and tricks to navigate the choreography and mechanics of tasting.
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If you’ve come to appreciate how wine can elevate a meal, but want to understand how wine and food interact–in both desirable and undesirable ways–then this is the class for you. As we taste through our flight, we’ll be investigating how these wines interact with various food components (salt, fat, acid, and heat, as it were). We’ll empower you with the resources to ask the right questions of wine stewards and sommeliers when you’re looking for the perfect bottle or glass to accompany your meal.
Just for fun
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No doubt that skin contact and rosé wines have been experiencing a renaissance in recent years. While many of these wines tend to be gluggable delights, there are certainly more structured and complex wines that have been around for many centuries. We’ll be diving into the whole spectrum of skin contact wines, from the hyper-traditional to the new-fangled experimental, and discussing vinification techniques for each wine in our flight before getting into a guided tasting.
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Contemporary international tastemakers have largely consolidated opinions about what makes a great red wine: boozy, rich in dry extract and glycerol, heavy with fruit and oak. Fortunately for those wine lovers with more eclectic tastes, many talented makers around the world resist homogeneity and preserve historically-prized grapes that produce light wines of mineral and spice character, aromatic punch, and high drinkability. Substance without weight, complexity without ponderousness, these and other gravity-defying sensations are on offer for the adventurous.
A native New Yorker, Oliver Longwell caught the wine bug in 2012 after a number of years working in government and politics. He has worked for leading wine retailers in New York and Los Angeles, with a particular focus on organically-farmed and natural wines. Oliver is a Certified Sommelier by the Court of Master Sommeliers and works as a freelance wine consultant. He enjoys experimenting with fermentations, especially ciders. He and his wife moved to Northeast Portland in 2021 and welcomed their first daughter in 2022 and second daughter in 2024.
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Natural wines are a major phenomenon in the wine world; such wines emphasize the influence of terroir on grapes, and low-intervention winemaking processes. This said, the world of natural wine can be terribly confusing, so we’ll be debunking some myths and addressing what makes a natty wine so “natural”. Given that producers of natural wines tend to be on the smaller scale because they rely so heavily upon hands-on (rather than purely mechanized) labor and vinification techniques, our flight will get into stuff that very well might shock and surprise your tastebuds (for better or worse!).
EUROPE
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Italy is a country of a whopping 20 different wine regions, each of which developed its own gastronomic, linguistic, cultural, and oenological traditions throughout the centuries. Ancient tribal cultures pre-dating the Greeks and Romans were the first to cultivate the vine throughout the peninsula, helping to set a foundation for the millennia of winemaking that followed their existences.
Over the past few hundred years, several red varietals have risen to prominence as the “noble” grapes of Italy. This class will be an exploration of these wines, as well as the histories that gave rise to their prominence. We’ll be tasting through iterations of Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, and Aglianico in their most famous expressions to understand what makes them so captivating, for reasons good and bad!
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Join Aric Wood, the founder of Archetyp Wines, a local importer and distributor focused exclusively on wines made from Alpine regions across Italy, Austria, Germany, France, and Switzerland. Across these countries, over 500 varietals are grown in 120 Alpine valleys, and we’ll be exploring a wide swathe of the grapes and styles that are emblematic of the heroic viticulture that’s existed for many centuries.
Not Europe
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In honor of Oregon Wine Month, we’re nerding out about the world-class Pinots and Chardonnays of Oregon; Ever wonder why the Willamette Valley has so many danged AVAs? What could possibly merit these distinctions in a relatively small region? We’ll be getting into some of the best wines that Oregon has to offer, talking about soils and microclimates of each sub-AVA within the Valley, and how they distinctly affect the wines made from their grapes. Dave will be bringing some truly special bottles from his own cabinet of curiosities that are not distributed to the retail market, so expect bonus pours!
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While Oregon is most famous for Pinot and Chardonnay, in recent decades experimentalists have been planting grapes that are native to the more obscure (and sometimes classic) regions of Europe. These are, admittedly, the varietals that get us especially riled up when it comes to local wines, given that they’re vinified in such limited amounts. Join us on an expedition through the most exciting things happening in the Willamette Valley and Columbia Gorge!
SPECIAL TASTINGS & EVENTS
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Join us on Friday, May 3, as we welcome Lizzy Esqueda of Mijita Wine Co., Diana Schultz of Augustina Cellars, and Cynthia Thompson of CAT Cellars.
We’ll be tasting through a wonderful diversity of varietals and styles from these wonderful winemakers, ranging from more uncommon whites thru bigger Columbia Valley reds. Bottles will be available to take home!
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On Saturday, May 11th, OEL is pleased to host Mario Bagella, from northern Sardinia. Mario will be pouring and talking about several of his wines. Here’s some information about Mario and the place that he calls home, from local importer Strade Bianche:
Mario is a second-generation winemaker, but his family has been growing grapes in Sorso on the island of Sardinia for as long as anyone can remember. He has taken it upon himself to move the winery and vineyard operations in a more natural direction. He feels that he has a responsibility to respect the land his family has called home for so many years. As Mario puts it, “I love making wine because it gives me the opportunity to express myself. For me wine is sharing, but above all it is a beautiful tool to appreciate the diversity, between people, vines and territories.”
Sorso is the place where the hills marry the sea on the Northwest side of Sardinia. Sorso is the capital of Romangia, the first territory of Sardinia to be colonized by the ancient Romans, which has always been the hub of agricultural production and trade in Northern Sardinia. The Bagella’s 12.5 acres of vines average 89-90 years old. The soils are predominately chalk and limestone. The hill the vineyard sits on creates a natural amphitheater that captures the ocean breezes, keeping the grapes from over ripening in the hot coastal sun.
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If you’re a Pinot or Riesling fan, this is an event that you don’t wanna miss. There are several importers whose wines we universally drool over, and the Wasserman family is at the top of our list. Technically speaking, they’re an exporter, as their headquarters is in Burgundy; of the dozen or so employees in the company, one lives abroad…right here in Portland! While Becky Wasserman single-handedly changed the landscape of Burgundian wines available in the USA over the past several decades, her family has been exploring producers (currently a mere 5!) in Germany and Italy in recent years, and have begun to bring yet-undiscovered producers to North America.
Join Timothy Davey—the most eloquent educator we know, probably because he was formed by Wasserman culture—as he and his colleague John Soares take us through Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), Riesling, and more.
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Information coming soon!