If you’re looking for a date night idea in Portland, try out a Sunday School wine class!
Ever feel totally intimidated by wines? My wine tasting descriptors are usually things like “tastes like salami” and “it’s too sweet for me.”
But I love wine, and I always want to learn more about it, but sometimes it can feel really overwhelming to get in with the wine crowd. That’s why I really enjoyed my experience at Sunday School.
Sunday School Wine (deemed “sunday school” for adults!) is a Portland wine class aimed at making learning about wines a little more accessible and approachable. I recently attended their Orange Wine class with a friend and had such a great time that I wanted to share a little more about it.
Mallory Smith was working at a Portland bottle shop, when she kept getting complaints about there being no wine education for “normal” people. They weren’t looking for anything fancy; they just wanted to understand what they were drinking a little better.
Smith’s partner in Sunday School Wine, Martin Skegg, had been working in the wine industry for quite some time as a wine columnist for the Portland Mercury. When he started working part-time at the same bottle shop, they bonded over wine and started dating.
Soon, Sunday School Wine was born, starting with their first class in 2017 on rosé. The response was so positive that they never looked back.
During our class on Orange Wine, Mallory and Martin did an awesome job mixing real, applicable information and history with humor (and super fun sketches!) to make an entertaining afternoon.
We sampled five different orange wines with some little nibbles in between for $45. The classes rotate at different places around the city; our class took place at Dame Restaurant in NE Portland.
Their favorite places in Portland to grab a glass?
-Mallory: Bar Rione. They have an awesome Italian wine list, and I love the “carpe diem” option where you can pick any wine from the bottle list and just buy a glass. And mostly I love the casual, Italian-y vibe. Also…OK Omens…they have wine shots!
-Martin: Les Caves… love the space, and sometimes they have geeky stuff. Sardinehead…their all-natural wine bar is fun. Division Wines…the breadth of the stock and the great priced glass pours. (I concur with the Division Wines pick…SUCH generous pours, and the staff is incredibly knowledgable and friendly.)
Tips for budget drinkers and tools to invest in?
Tips: We’d say, always buy European. As a general rule, a cheap European wine is going to taste a lot better than a cheap wine from the States. Look for wines from France, Italy, Portugal or Spain. Portuguese wines are especially good value because they mostly have crazy blends of their own indigenous grapes that no one knows how to pronounce. People are scared of them because they don’t know what they are, but they are often delicious.
Tools: Getting air to wine (by decanting or aerating) does make most wines so much better. But don’t buy anything fancy. There is nothing wrong with a big mason jar or a jug. The only tool that we think is super important is a good corkscrew. Most are over-engineered, over-priced, and dumb. The one you need is very simple and called the “waiter’s friend.” (In our ebook that you can download on our website we show you the the simple trick on how to use it perfectly.)
What they’re drinking right now?
Mallory: Oregon Chardonnay has been striking a chord in me recently. The best examples hit all the perfect Chardonnay notes (no pun intended!). They are both rich and fresh, full-bodied but bright, and have everything from baking spices and shortbread cookie and lemon curd to green apple and hibiscus flower.
Martin: Always drinking riesling. From anywhere and everywhere. Sweet, dry, doesn’t matter.
Find more of Sunday School’s upcoming events here: SundaySchoolWine.com. Sign up using the code MERLOT for 5% off your class.
On June’s schedule: The Badass Ladies of Champagne, Uncovering the Secrets of Rosé, and Sparkling Wine Part II: Offbeat Bubbly Adventures.
They’re also testing online wine classes…sign up here to be a part of their pilot program.
More Date Night Portland ideas:
Pop-Up Cinema at Hotel de Luxe