Chateau Lorane

Chateau Lorane’s wine bar must be the longest in the state. It has to be in order to accommodate so many wines and so many fans. Groups of visitors form “tasting pods” sometimes two or three deep around friendly tasting-room staff. There’s a steady level of loudness as people react to a wine or laugh at something the pourer has said. At Chateau Lorane, WineTrail trekkers enter a fun zone of wine exploration.

Hands down, Chateau Lorane produces more wines — red, white, mead, fruit, and dessert — than any other winery in Oregon. Don’t plan on a drive-by tasting experience at this winery. You might want to budget an afternoon, because you’ve entered the Bermuda Triangle of wine tasting. The owners of Chateau Lorane, Linde and Sharon Kester, are the reason behind the great variety of wines to taste. From the winery’s beginning in 1992, their goal has been to produce wines to meet every taste. Consequently, whether you like dry, off dry or sweet, you are sure to find wines that you like. Whereas most wineries in this part of Oregon focus on pinot noir and pinot gris, at Chateau Lorane, the pinots get lost in an avalanche of choices, some of which will no doubt be new to many visitors. It’s little wonder that the winery’s slogan is “Come for the wine, stay for the view.”

Here’s a sampling of some of the rare varieties available to taste: Huxelrebe, cascade, chancellor, Leon Millot, Durif (aka petite sirah), pinot meunier, gamay noir, and baco noir. Many a WineTrail enthusiast comes here to experience these wines, because they simply don’t have a month to drive around Oregon in search of these rare beauties.

But rest assured, Chateau Lorane pleases the taste buds of visitors with more traditional palates, too, offering Burgundy, Bordeaux, and other familiar European appellations. You can taste your way through such favorites as merlot, cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo, syrah, and pinot noir (many of them designated as “single vineyard”) and not even realize that the winery offers unusual varieties, such as other fruit and dessert wines.

No matter what wine strikes your fancy, budget time to take a glass (or a bottle) to the outside deck, where you can sit amongst tall fir trees and enjoy a private lake below. Yep, a private lake, and it’s all part of the charm and great variety that greet visitors to this extraordinary winery.