While it’s primarily a wine shop, this spacious store in St Johns doubles as a small wine bar for in-person imbibing of by-the-glass pours or full bottles. There’s a strong emphasis on Oregon wines, as well as a good selection of imports, mainly from Europe. With a friendly owner and a relaxed environment, it’s a popular haunt for residents of St Johns, and worth the trip for those outside the neighborhood.

Offering indoor and outdoor dining, a bottle shop, and wine delivery, this sultry, deep-blue stunner of a wine bar and restaurant is truly a jack of all trades. Thursdays through Sundays, diners can find pasta and light Italian fare from chef Patrick McKee, with restaurant pop-ups filling the space on other days. Throughout the week, diners can also find an exceptional collection of natural wines, from Willamette Valley heavy-hitters like Swick to elegant Slovenian whites. It can all be enjoyed there or taken home.

A pseudo-rock-and-roll wine bar, Les Caves is also the home of both Ovum and Golden Cluster wineries — two hard-hitters in the Portland wine game. Its intimate, subterranean 18-seat space was not all that conducive to the distanced, ventilated dining that the pandemic required. Because of that, the wine bar went through a stunning transformation, building a patio that managed to capture the underground feeling of the bar while still providing airflow with stone walls and a ventilated wooden ceiling. At Les Clos, as it’s called, diners can still find the bar’s excellent grilled cheese sandwiches along with the array of Pacific Northwestern and imported wines, including obscure varietals and styles rarely found elsewhere.

From the No. 14 bentwood bistro chairs to Francophile wine menu, the brand-new Heavenly Creatures whisks patrons away to the lovely, sophisticated wine bars of Europe without leaving Northeast Portland. Created by chef Aaron Barnett and sommelier Joel Gunderson, the team behind St. Jack, this elegant, classy wine bar and bottle shop feels like a softer, more intimate version of the beloved French bistro. Although full bottles can be purchased to enjoy on-site (with a $15 corkage fee), the focus is on by-the-glass pours of producers that would normally only be available by the bottle. The Old World wine regions of France like Burgundy are the highlights, but the Willamette Valley and South American countries like Chile make notable appearances. Diners won’t be left hungry either, pairing their pours of Loire Chenin Blanc or Slovakian orange blends with potato chips and Camembert “cheese whiz” or grilled Iberico ham with anchovies, chamomile, and mint.

After a rocky start full of shifts and pivots during the pandemic, this rosé-hued hideaway on Northwest 23rd seems to have hit its stride. Visitors can enjoy the hidden, covered patio or the indoor space with a bottle of wine or something from the smaller, but thoughtfully developed glass pour menu. There’s always some rosé, chilled reds, sherry, sparkling wines like pét-nat, funky oranges, and extremely affordable house white and red pours, making Bar Diane an excellent spot for wine lovers on a budget. On the other side of the spectrum, the bottle list is often packed with cool, intrepid producers from nearby and afar — Cutter Cascadia and Cantina Furlani all often make appearances, available to drink at the bar or take home.

Arden closely rides the line between a wine bar and a full-fledged restaurant, especially with its themed dinners and wine-tasting pop-ups which often feature local and visiting winemakers. After subbing in takeout and delivery at the height of the pandemic, in-person dining is fully back in its gorgeous, plant-filled space and heated outdoor patio. Along with its menu of Pacific Northwest fare, dining in means an opportunity to try the wide range of wines offered by the glass and bottle, and Arden’s team often focuses on diversity within the winemaking world, offering really cool and rare bottles from Willamette Valley and Old World winemakers.

As beloved for its stunning balcony view overlooking East Burnside as it is for its wine collection, Noble Rot makes for an excellent date night, especially in warmer months. Aside from its bountiful wine collection, the upscale restaurant grows produce on the rooftop, which goes into much of the menu. Walk-ins are welcome, but making a reservation is the best way to go, especially for larger parties or during the summer.

At the gleaming, circular bar at the front of this Burnside spot, visitors order glasses of globetrotting reds and restrained-but-still-expressive skin-contact blends, waiting on plates of foie gras dumplings or oysters with chili fish sauce mignonette. Celebrated sommelier Andy Fortgang picks out an impressive selection of both domestic and European wines, with a tight-but-mighty glass pour selection and a lengthy bottle list. Fortgang has a penchant for French wines, and Canard offers many by the bottle; however, Oregon pinot-heads will appreciate the bar’s selection of “hometown pride” pinots. Guests who are particularly enamored with Fortgang’s taste can purchase bottles at Flor Wines, an excellent bottle shop from Fortgang, Canard’s Gabriel Rucker, and Little Bird Bistro’s Sergio Licea. Canard is open for indoor and outdoor seating.

Squeezing up to the blue-topped bar in this narrow, minimalist space, drinkers will find exactly what they love about Nil.’s next-door sibling bottle shop, Ardor: an exciting mix of the obscure, cult-y, and up-and-coming in the natural wine world. Colorful lighting and thumping DJ sets further set the club-like, hip, and happening mood. If the compact indoor bar area is too congested, join the crowd milling around outside and grab a seat at one of the picnic tables while enjoying a bottle or by-the-glass pour. New options pop up regularly, always with something new to discover and obsess over.

Along with Nil. and Ardor several blocks up, Sunnyside wine bar Company is helping Southeast Belmont become Portland’s go-to avenue for atmospheric natty wine. Capturing the casual, chill vibe of a friend’s converted hang-out garage with cinderblock walls, patterned rugs, and fold-down chairs, stand-out touches like a glowing, backlit countertop menu and elegant, non-traditional stemware elevate the space to a sleek, sophisticated garage-style bar and bottle shop. With fresh by-the-glass options each week from Georgian oranges to Oregon reds, as well as full bottles to-go or to-stay, diners can also grab bar snacks like furikake Chex Mix and chicken katsu nuggets from the Snackies food truck outside, Plus, visitors can catch regular entertainment like Vino & Vinyl evenings. Company offers indoor and outdoor seating, rolling up its garage door on nice days to open up the indoor dining area.

Award-winning sommelier Brent Braun of Castagna busted out his collection of the good stuff when OK Omens opened in the summer of 2018, but he did so with an eye toward affordability. The bright, breezy wine bar and “neo-bistro” offers an astonishing collection of wine-geek bottles at reasonable prices. Summertime sees open-air dining on the outdoor patio lit by overhanging string lights, while in winter, diners retreat indoors to the sleek and stylish plant-filled dining room. Riesling lovers will find OK Omens a hard place to beat (there’s a full section entitled, “Good Lord, I think we need some help drinking all this riesling”), and the bar’s separate lists of wines “on the wild side” and “of a more classic disposition” ensure that wine drinkers of all varieties will find something they’ll love.

This Southeast Clinton bar from local wine celeb Dana Frank is a seafoam-tinged, super-contemporary hotspot for natural wine. Frank was at the forefront of efforts to keep Portland’s wine bar scene alive in the face of COVID-19 restrictions and calamitous wine tariffs, and for a while was forced to convert her bar to a wine shop. Thanks to an elegant new outdoor seating area, she and her crew are back to what they love best—chatting with visitors about the cool natural wines they’re drinking. Those looking for snacks can find some from the likes of Olympia Provisions, cult-fave cheese shop Cowbell, and Japanese grocery Fulamingo.

It’s honestly surprising it took Portland as long as it did to open a dog-focused wine bar, but Cellar Dog is just that. The stylish, industrial dining room and patio cater to dog owners and dog enthusiasts, and the glass menu is small but distinctive, highlighting primarily Oregonian and Californian producers. With its Wines That Align initiative, each glass purchase gives back in some way or another, whether it’s donating to LGBTQ+ organizations or benefitting endangered animal conservation. Diners can drink to a good cause while letting their four-legged friends get some fresh air.