English Estate

English Estate’s owner/winemaker Carl English rolled the dice and decided to offer premium wines in a box. That’s right, that same box that got a bad rap 20 or 30 years ago. Cheap wine in a box translates into bad taste in the mouth. However, imagine if you could have premium cabernet sauvignon or pinot noir one glass at a time over a period of months and the taste would never change. How? Because, thanks to a bag within the box, those nasty little oxygen molecules don’t touch the wine. For those wine drinkers who enjoy a glass of wine a day, the bag in a box just might be the right solution.

But English Estate Winery takes the bag concept one step further by offering a bag in a beautiful box, or BIBB. And indeed the outer wooden box shell with the attractive engraving presents a look elegant enough to adorn Emeril’s kitchen. Each box holds 3,000 ml of wine, or the equivalent of four bottles of wine. No worry of corkage here—there ain’t no cork. Nevertheless, for those among us who love the bottle-opening ritual and its obligatory popping cork, English Estate Winery offers all its fine wines in a bottle.

Housed in 1913 dairy barn, Vancouver, Washington–based English Estate Winery is the closest vineyard and winery to Portland. Many of the wines offered are estate wines made from grapes (especially pinot noir) harvested from their own vineyard, Gravel Mine Vineyards. Other grapes come from nearby vineyards that enjoy the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers and the special terroir of the Columbia River Gorge.

With a red barn providing a bucolic background, the winery grounds offer an out-of-the-ordinary respite from the urban world. Speaking of respite, English Estate has a growing community of fans known as the English Estate Purple Thistle Wine Club whose mission is a simple one: to have fun and celebrate life. To give an example, the “Dogs of English Estate” offers a photo op for wine-loving club members and their dogs. Woof!

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  English Estate was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the Southwest Washington WineTrail on page 168!