Square Deal Wine Company
2321 NW Thurman St
Phone: 503-226-9463
Fax: 503-497-9463

Cheese shop located inside. Dan Beekley.

Storyteller Wine Company

We sell great wines that have a story to tell. Drop by the store Fridays from 4-9PM and Saturdays from 10-7PM to buy, taste and talk wine. The rest of the week we're scouring the planet looking for interesting wines that we can offer you at more-than-interesting prices through our newsletter. And we ship. Just think of us as your wine clubhouse, but without any hard-to-remember secret handshake.

Storyteller Wine Co.
5511-B SW Hood Avenue
Portland, OR 97239

P: 503.206.7029
F: 503.206.7032
T/F: 1.800.753.2531


Cork
corkwineshop.com
Owner Darryl Joannides refuses to sell anything he hasn't tasted personally. His shop features scores of selections from small-producing wineries, the best deals hailing from lesser-known regions of Spain and Italy. Check out Darryl's wall of Spanish reds from Jumilla and Toro for some amazing bargains. (2901 NE Alberta St., 281-2675)

E&R Wine Shop

Ed Paladino and Richard Elden are the proprietors of this cozy, eponymous Southwest wine shop. Though Italian wines are E&R's special niche, Paladino makes an insane (i.e., incredibly full) trip to France the beginning of each year. And Elden is the shop's Oregon wine expert. (6141 SW Macadam Ave., 246-6101)

In just a few years, E&R has rocketed to the top ranks of Portland wine shops. Bookish Ed Paladino and bearish Richard Elden pack a one-two punch as the shop's owners, and their passion for the business is everywhere, from their well-chosen and surprisingly deep choices from around the world--especially Italy--to their idiosyncratic opinion- and info-packed newsletter and a host of other innovative marketing ideas. E&R is Portland's place to beat.

Best gimmick: The Critical List, a selection of wines you may return for a credit of half the retail cost if you don't care for them, for whatever reason, no questions asked.

Every Day Wine

A cozy bottle shop and wine bar, with any of the store's 400 selections available by the glass. Friendly owner Beth Boston worked for Oregon vintner Sokol Blosser before nabbing the keys to this neighborhood haunt in 2003. Patrons can bring their own food, and in true Alberta Street fashion, dogs are welcome. (1520 NE Alberta St., 331-7119)

Great Wine Buys
greatwinebuys.com
Features 12 wines each month for less than $10, with free tastings Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. The owner is a young bicycle enthusiast, so it's no surprise the place draws a youthful crowd. (1515 NE Broadway, 287-2897)

Around 2000, John Kennedy and Dawn Bolgioni took over this Northeast Portland stalwart. At the time, perhaps the youngest wine shop owners in Portland, they're attracting a more youthful clientele in addition to neighborhood regulars. The front of the shop is stocked with a broad array of West Coast wines, but intrepid shoppers will venture back to where Kennedy's real passion lies, in the smaller Southern France, Spain, and Italy sections.

Parlez-vous du vin? Kennedy abandoned a quest for a French literature Ph.D to take over Great Wine Buys, and many of his witty wine notes--the best-written in the city--show it.


Liner & Elsen
www.linerandelsen.com
This Portland standby has an impressive inventory, ranging from dirt cheap to sky-high—and everything in between. (2222 NW Quimby St., 241-WINE)

No one envied Bob Scherb the challenge of filling the shoes of wine retail pioneers Bob Liner and Matt Elsen (who now comprise Galaxy Wine wholesale distributors) but he's made the shop his own. After a much-needed move to a larger space on NW Quimby, the shop is newly focused and amazingly deep. From great buys under $10 to stratospheric premier cru Burgundies, the shop has well-chosen candidates in every category, and it's an especially great resource for Alsatian and German/Austrian whites.

Top of the line: In the Portland market, Liner & Elsen's assortment of top-flight, first-growth Bordeaux is unrivaled.


McGinn's Russell Street Wine Merchants
www.mcginns.us
Down the hill from busy Mississippi, this shop's "Altar to the Broke" showcases a revolving selection of about 30 wines priced at less than $10. Although owner Jerry McGinn's preferences slant heavily toward the Old World, there are plenty of well-priced American, Australian and South American bottles. Tastings are held on Thursdays at 5:30 for $8, all day Saturday, or whenever Jerry feels like cracking open a bottle. (807 N Russell St., 280-2845)

Oregon Wines on Broadway
www.oregonwinesonbroadway.com
The best place to sample fine Oregon wines by the glass. (515 SW Broadway, 228-4655)

Oregon Wines on Broadway is almost exactly as advertised: a great inventory of Oregon wines-- with a judicious number of Washington reds thrown in under the radar. With high ceilings and lots of glass fronting onto tiny Morgan's Alley, the atmosphere is both elegant and informal, catering to tourists, business people, and a coterie of regulars.

Try before you buy: The shop's remarkable cruvinet offers 30 Oregon Pinot Noirs and six "full-bodied reds" by taste or glass.

Portland Wine Merchants
www.portlandwinemerchants.com
Roy Olson has been helping Hawthorne imbibe since 1993, and he claims to sell more Portuguese wine than anyone on the West Coast. There's almost always something cheap and unusual on offer here. (1430 SE 35th Ave., 234-4399)

This comfortable shop just off Hawthorne is like the Island of the Lost Toys of Wine. Besides a fine selection of wines from around the world, PWM specializes in odd, unusual, or forgotten bottlings at amazing price points. It makes the shop a great place to be adventurous: they won't all be Châteaux Margaux, but even if you've never heard of them, the pricing makes it easy to experiment and put wine on your table every day.

Trade secret: Some shops buy special barrels direct from producers and pass some of the savings to consumers, but PWM has raised this practice to an art form, bottling some fine producers under its own label at reasonable prices.


Square Deal Wine Company

Dan Beekley directly imports hundreds of wines, primarily from Europe, and with the majority priced between $12 and $16, Square Deal lives up to its name. (2321 NW Thurman St., 226-9463)

Vino

Bruce Bauer's shop is the Sellwood neighborhood's best, with loads of deals from Spain, France and Italy. Bruce holds drop-in tastings for 10 bucks on Friday nights and free all day Saturday. (1226 SE Lexington St., 235-8545)

Vinopolis

A labyrinth of wine that's confusing to navigate but has a selection that's tough to beat. (1025 SW Washington St., 223-6002)

Woodstock Wine & Deli
4030 SE Woodstock Boulevard, 503-777-2208
10am-7pm Monday-Saturday, 10am-10pm Friday
www.woodstockwineanddeli.com

This Eastmoreland-area deli and wine shop has built a devoted following, most notably among Oregon winemakers--the store's wine steward says 60% of his extensive Oregon inventory comes direct from the wineries themselves. The shop boasts a fine international assortment, too. Ask about cellared wines: after 16 years in business, they've accumulated quite a collection.

Fee free: You can buy a bottle of wine without paying a corkage fee and enjoy it with deli fare in the spacious seating area.