Pairings Portland Wine Shop & Bar — Restaurant in Portland

This is a very unique little shop. My wife & I were in Portland for our honeymoon last week and, while eating dinner across the street at The Sudra, we noticed this place and decided to stop in for a look. They don't just sell the wine. They help you experience it. We ordered a flight of three (a rose, a red, and an orange which neither of us knew existed before). Instead of simply dropping off the samples, the young lady working there (whose name sadly eludes me as I write this) coached us through how to get the most flavor out of each taste and her tips really made a difference. It was also very cool to see the wines categorized in unorthodox fashions like wines for various moods, astrology, and numerology and also selections with a pop culture theme like Star Wars or Game of Thrones. Even though I'm not much of a wine drinker, I appreciated the experience of what this shop had to offer and it's over...

Last night we had a small company holiday event at Pairings Portland. Jeff curated an amazing interactive wine pairing experience for us. Seven wines were individually paired to key personality traits of each attending team member. The team was then tasked with tasting the wines (and with some help from Jeff's insightful descriptions) matching each wine to its associated team member. The entire experience was very well orchestrated and extremely memorable and entertaining. Not only did we learn a lot about wines and wine tasting, it was a powerful team bonding event. Jeff's humanistic approach to experiencing wine is educational, approachable and inspiring. All that, and we got to enjoy some really delicious and complex wines!. I will definitely be back for more, and would highly recommend Pairings Portland to anyone interested in experiencing wine - from newbies to...

Perhaps not the most exciting bit of praise, but what consistently strikes me about Pairing's is that they're simply doing wine right. In an industry which has a tendency to be – for want of more polite wording – massively pretentious, Pairings manages to make wine a welcoming experience. The burden is not on the customer to navigate; rather the kind, enthusiastic, and well informed staff work to put the right bottle for you in your hands (while still allowing you to browse undisturbed, if you so wish). Such is their commitment to democratizing the well-gatekept world of wine that they offer weekly livestreams wherein bottles are paired to musical acts and television shows, all while inviting you to taste along. If you are looking for excellent wine at excellent prices, sold by excellent people,...