SE Wine Collective Serves Some of the Best Wine in the State, With Food to Match

It serves as a clubhouse of sorts for the Oregon progressive wine scene that welcomes all.

(Sam Gehrke)

2425 SE 35th Place, 503-208-2061, sewinecollective.com. 4-9 pm Monday, 4-10 pm Wednesday-Friday, 1-10 pm Saturday, 1-9 pm Sunday. Happy hour 4-6 pm daily: $2 off all glass pours and carafes.

Established: September 2012

If there's a defining facet of Portland's wine scene, it's intimacy: Many of the winemakers live and work here in the city alongside us tipplers, which means if you're drinking at the right spots, you will inevitably belly up alongside one at the bar. Nowhere else is this more true than at Southeast Division Street's SE Wine Collective, a clubhouse of sorts for the Oregon progressive wine scene that welcomes all. Some of the best winemakers in the state have worked or are currently working in the Collective's shared winemaking facility, and a lot of the wine you order in the cozy bar space was made on the premises. The crowd is relatively well-to do, with wine-production hands mingling with well-heeled wine ladies and couples on dates.

(Sam Gehrke)
(Sam Gehrke)

But even with all the great wine, the food program threatens to steal the show with items like a four-deep deviled egg flight ($7) featuring a beet with caraway, Mama Lil's peppers, smoked trout and a crispy prosciutto egg so voluminous you're forced to deconstruct it in sheer wonderment. Pair that with Division carbonic syrah ($7), a racy blood-rush take on the grape with hidden depths—like a club makeout sesh with a poetry Ph.D. 

Bar story: Division winemakers Kate Norris and Tom Monroe fell in love with Oregon wine, packed up their car and drove across the country to Oregon just to start a winery.

Drank: Bar Guide 2017

Welcome to Bar Guide 2017 | Where To Find a Copy of Bar Guide 2017

The 100 Best Bars in Portland | How We Selected Them

Bar of the Year 2017: Bar Casa Vale

2. Century | 3. The Know | 4. Lombard House | 5. The Old Portland

Portland's Party Patios, Porches and Rooftops | Scumbag Breakfasts, Ranked

$6-and-Under Happy Hour Burgers | Portland's Finest Restaurant Bars | Late-Night Happy Hours | $1 Oyster Happy Hour Deals | Best Bar Pizzas | Dope Discount Nachos | Fancy Jell-O Shots | Tapas

Where to Play Shuffleboard | Pinball | Pool Halls

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.