Portland's Oldest Urban Winery

Hip Chicks do Wine is the labor of love by owners and winemakers Laurie Lewis and Renee Neely. Their passion for wine was sparked by numerous visits to wineries and vineyards throughout Oregon. One day while enjoying a picnic (with wine of course) on the back of a pick up truck overlooking a vineyard one of them turned to the other and said, "We should make wine!". The other replied "It can't be that hard, men do it all the time!". From that moment on Laurie and Renee threw themselves headfirst into all things wine--reading books, making wine in their apartment, getting part time jobs at area wineries and taking winemaking classes. And of course that did LOTS of wine tasting.

The two fashioned a ten-year plan to start their venture which quickly turned into a five-year, two-year and then why not start now? In order to finance their adventure they ran up all their credit cards and put a second mortgage on their house. In the fall of 1999 they purchased enough grapes to make 500 cases of wine. The two of them haven't looked back and continue to share the winemaking producing 2,000-3,000 cases of wine annually.

But about that name.......

Laurie and Renee wanted to make wine fun and approachable. Through their research (remember all that wine tasting?) they felt that Oregon was taking wine a little too seriously. So they wanted a fun catchy name that you wouldn't forget after you had that bottle the night before. A couple of chicks making wine and making it for the people. Hip Chicks do Wine was born.

Grapes we work with:

Pinot Gris                            

Viognier                              

Muscat                                      

Phoenix

Pinot Noir                                  

Tempranillo                                      

Cabernet Sauvignon                

Merlot                                

Syrah

Malbec

Cabernet Franc

Petit Verdot