Shallon Winery

{ 2005 03 30 } The Shallon Winery I have to tell you about one of my favorite places and people. It’s Mr.Paul VanDerveltd‘s Shallon Winery. Born in Seaside(!) because his mother wanted him born there, he went to school in Astoria and eventually graduated from Astoria High School before going on to Reed College. He had to leave after his first year when his father found out that Reed was red1 and left to serve in the Navy during Korea and eventually came back to Astoria to take over his father’s construction company. He proceeded do to many things, one of which was to spend over a million dollars of grant money from the University to make a whey wine. Paul says, Whey wines: As far as I know, I had the first good tasting commercially produced whey wine in the world and still produce the only whey wine. These wines should be good for you; they should have the vitamins, minerals, and some of the protein that milk has. Several universities have in the past spent a great deal of grant money trying to make wine from the whey, and have essentially failed (I don’t get any grant money). If you come to his winery, he will give you the full tour, practiced and rehearsed to perfection. So practiced that if you come a few times, you will start learning your role and play it as well as you can. Sometimes he will tell you about the Black Raspberry wine and sometimes he won’t. Sometimes he will offer it to you and sometimes he won’t. Its a rare treat – he will take out consecrated silver cups and pour a tiny bit of wine that is inky black and unfathomably deep. Paul says, Wild BLACK Raspberry: A dessert wine too precious to even mention, the berries picked one at a time in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest! Talk about precious desert wines like Chateau d’Yquem at $200 a bottle, but they are available. This you can’t get. If I ever have any, it’s $85 for 375 ml. And then depending on his mood, maybe reflective or maybe a bit sad, he will tell you about his close friend (“an out of work fisherman like so many of them here”) that would go into those woods alone for weeks at a time and bring back those black raspberries and tell you that he was murdered two years ago(2) and how the cops* thought he was just a vagrant and let him go and how he (Paul) will keep his picture on his mantle to remember him and will never make that black raspberry wine again. Go back and look at the mantle on the far left. 1. The old sense of red as in commie red (funny how words change their meanings) [↩] 2. it’s always two years [↩]

My husband and I visited Mr. van der Veldt winery, and we enjoyed every bit of the experience. The tour and the stories were very informative and the owner is such a sweet gentleman. His recipes are unique (using whey? Never heard of it) and he deserves way more popularity. Must visit in Astoria!

Shallon is an aquired taste. We were not prepared for the "experience". Call first and read all the reviews. We visited his establishment about 2 years ago but after reading the reviews I felt I must give my two cents. The first hint I recieved that this tour was not going to be ordinary was just trying to gain entrance to the building.... Paul is an original, does EVERYTHING his way. You cannot just walk in and purchase, you will be required to tour and taste. I would strongly suggest you do not bring children. Plan on staying at least an hour. My wife and I were grateful for the experience and found Paul to be a likeable fellow that is very proud of his product. He is a craftsman and his artistic passion for his product comes through. Quirky, awkward, entertaining, and interesting are my best desciption of this experience. We will always remember this vacation due to our visit with Paul. We did not purchase his products but I did enjoy tasting his "Chocolate Wine"..... If you have the time, you must experience this tour at least once.

This was an amazing experience. Give yourself a little time and enjoy this man and his knowledge. His wines are so unique. Stop in whole you still can!

Paul is a vocal autobiography of his unique talent, personality, and winery. the product is remarkable, the environment unique, and Paul is a special vocal purveyor of HIS craft. I enjoyed and appreciated the adventure, and the wines are perfection to many. love the blackberry too, miss the peach from once upon a time.

Enjoyed the winery tour with Paul. He is quite the conversationalist and we spoke at length. We had some very unique and tasty wines. We liked the cranberry and lemon meringue the most.

Being native Oregonians, my wife and I chose to spend the weekend experiencing Astoria. After reading the unique story of the local business, we started our trip off by visiting Shallon Winery and were VERY pleased that we did. I see by the published reviews that the few people who wrote poor reviews are from those who didn't choose to honor and respect Mr. Shallon's plan-- his demonstration that he's fine-tuned and repeated over 77,000 times for visitors! Being a one-man operation, guests need to understand and appreciate that--in order to receive the full, uninterrupted "show"--visitors who arrive while Shallon is finishing his free demonstration to the previous guest(s) may need to wait a few minutes before he can give you his full, undivided attention as he desires. The wait is well worth it, as are the wines-- only $23 to $42 per bottle. I admit that my wife and I are not very experienced when it comes to wine-tasting, but Shallon's unique style of classic wine production is like no other that we've experienced or even heard of before. I'm not going to give away the content of Shallon's presentation, but I'll just say it's definitely worth scheduling during your next trip to Astoria. Regarding ADA access, the main entrance to Shallon requires guests to climb a 10-step exterior staircase. If you need assistance--like those who use a walker, cane or a wheelchair--call Shallon ahead of time so he can clear a path inside the upper doorway off Duane St.

Buying wine here is not just shopping, it's an experience. I feel sorry for anyone that doesn't understand that or read up on this place before going. The 90 year old chemist that runs this fine establishment does so with love and pride, his wines are his masterpieces and finest creations. Like any artist he does not willy-nilly release them but take you through the process of their creation from conception of the idea to fruition of the final wine. I absolutely adore this place, it's wine, it's stories and it's proprietor. My only great concern is that he does not seem to have an apprentice and so the beautiful exquisitely unique recipes may be lost on his retirement.

{ 2005 03 30 } The Shallon Winery I have to tell you about one of my favorite places and people. It’s Mr.Paul VanDerveltd‘s Shallon Winery. Born in Seaside(!) because his mother wanted him born there, he went to school in Astoria and eventually graduated from Astoria High School before going on to Reed College. He had to leave after his first year when his father found out that Reed was red1 and left to serve in the Navy during Korea and eventually came back to Astoria to take over his father’s construction company. He proceeded do to many things, one of which was to spend over a million dollars of grant money from the University to make a whey wine. Paul says, Whey wines: As far as I know, I had the first good tasting commercially produced whey wine in the world and still produce the only whey wine. These wines should be good for you; they should have the vitamins, minerals, and some of the protein that milk has. Several universities have in the past spent a great deal of grant money trying to make wine from the whey, and have essentially failed (I don’t get any grant money). If you come to his winery, he will give you the full tour, practiced and rehearsed to perfection. So practiced that if you come a few times, you will start learning your role and play it as well as you can. Sometimes he will tell you about the Black Raspberry wine and sometimes he won’t. Sometimes he will offer it to you and sometimes he won’t. Its a rare treat – he will take out consecrated silver cups and pour a tiny bit of wine that is inky black and unfathomably deep. Paul says, Wild BLACK Raspberry: A dessert wine too precious to even mention, the berries picked one at a time in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest! Talk about precious desert wines like Chateau d’Yquem at $200 a bottle, but they are available. This you can’t get. If I ever have any, it’s $85 for 375 ml. And then depending on his mood, maybe reflective or maybe a bit sad, he will tell you about his close friend (“an out of work fisherman like so many of them here”) that would go into those woods alone for weeks at a time and bring back those black raspberries and tell you that he was murdered two years ago(2) and how the cops* thought he was just a vagrant and let him go and how he (Paul) will keep his picture on his mantle to remember him and will never make that black raspberry wine again. Go back and look at the mantle on the far left. 1. The old sense of red as in commie red (funny how words change their meanings) [↩] 2. it’s always two years [↩]

My husband and I visited Mr. van der Veldt winery, and we enjoyed every bit of the experience. The tour and the stories were very informative and the owner is such a sweet gentleman. His recipes are unique (using whey? Never heard of it) and he deserves way more popularity. Must visit in Astoria!

Shallon is an aquired taste. We were not prepared for the "experience". Call first and read all the reviews. We visited his establishment about 2 years ago but after reading the reviews I felt I must give my two cents. The first hint I recieved that this tour was not going to be ordinary was just trying to gain entrance to the building.... Paul is an original, does EVERYTHING his way. You cannot just walk in and purchase, you will be required to tour and taste. I would strongly suggest you do not bring children. Plan on staying at least an hour. My wife and I were grateful for the experience and found Paul to be a likeable fellow that is very proud of his product. He is a craftsman and his artistic passion for his product comes through. Quirky, awkward, entertaining, and interesting are my best desciption of this experience. We will always remember this vacation due to our visit with Paul. We did not purchase his products but I did enjoy tasting his "Chocolate Wine"..... If you have the time, you must experience this tour at least once.

This was an amazing experience. Give yourself a little time and enjoy this man and his knowledge. His wines are so unique. Stop in whole you still can!

Paul is a vocal autobiography of his unique talent, personality, and winery. the product is remarkable, the environment unique, and Paul is a special vocal purveyor of HIS craft. I enjoyed and appreciated the adventure, and the wines are perfection to many. love the blackberry too, miss the peach from once upon a time.

Enjoyed the winery tour with Paul. He is quite the conversationalist and we spoke at length. We had some very unique and tasty wines. We liked the cranberry and lemon meringue the most.

Being native Oregonians, my wife and I chose to spend the weekend experiencing Astoria. After reading the unique story of the local business, we started our trip off by visiting Shallon Winery and were VERY pleased that we did. I see by the published reviews that the few people who wrote poor reviews are from those who didn't choose to honor and respect Mr. Shallon's plan-- his demonstration that he's fine-tuned and repeated over 77,000 times for visitors! Being a one-man operation, guests need to understand and appreciate that--in order to receive the full, uninterrupted "show"--visitors who arrive while Shallon is finishing his free demonstration to the previous guest(s) may need to wait a few minutes before he can give you his full, undivided attention as he desires. The wait is well worth it, as are the wines-- only $23 to $42 per bottle. I admit that my wife and I are not very experienced when it comes to wine-tasting, but Shallon's unique style of classic wine production is like no other that we've experienced or even heard of before. I'm not going to give away the content of Shallon's presentation, but I'll just say it's definitely worth scheduling during your next trip to Astoria. Regarding ADA access, the main entrance to Shallon requires guests to climb a 10-step exterior staircase. If you need assistance--like those who use a walker, cane or a wheelchair--call Shallon ahead of time so he can clear a path inside the upper doorway off Duane St.

Buying wine here is not just shopping, it's an experience. I feel sorry for anyone that doesn't understand that or read up on this place before going. The 90 year old chemist that runs this fine establishment does so with love and pride, his wines are his masterpieces and finest creations. Like any artist he does not willy-nilly release them but take you through the process of their creation from conception of the idea to fruition of the final wine. I absolutely adore this place, it's wine, it's stories and it's proprietor. My only great concern is that he does not seem to have an apprentice and so the beautiful exquisitely unique recipes may be lost on his retirement.