Learn more about Hip Chicks do Wine

Laurie: We started making wine in 1999 but we didn’t open the tasting room portion until the summer of 2001. We got into the Oregon wine industry initially by being avid wine lovers and weren’t really satisfied with working for corporate businesses. We started looking for ways that we could work with wine. We started taking classes at Chemeketa Community College when they first started their Winemaking Program and got part time jobs at other Oregon wineries while increasing that wine tasting consumption significantly. After doing some soul searching and research over the course of two years we decided wine making was really where our passion was at. We made wine at home in little five gallon batches and we liked it, our friends liked it and decided that that’s what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives. In 1999 we purchased a few tons of grapes and made our first wines. Our startup was financed by credit cards, cashing in our 401Ks and getting a 2nd Mortgage on our house.

Why did you decide to be an urban winery instead of in the valley?  

Laurie: I think that the commute was a big thing. We didn’t want to move out to the valley, we didn’t want to live in the valley. It’s a beautiful place but when we started making wine 22 years ago, diversity was not a word you heard anywhere, especially not in the wine industry. The idea of two lesbians living in some small-town making wine and raising their son wasn’t very appealing to us. It didn’t seem very welcoming. But on the flip side, I moved to Oregon because I wanted to live in Portland. Also, I’ve always seen Portland as the gateway to Oregon wine. People come to visit Portland because they get excited about the wine and food scene in Portland so naturally, we felt that meant there was a place for us in the city. It’s just amazing that all these years later to have as many wineries in Portland that exist that weren’t here when we started.

Do you have a favorite non-profit or cause your winery supports? 

Laurie: We have a couple. The one we’re most currently supporting is Esther’s Pantry. It’s a division of Our House of Portland and provides food and clothing to individuals living with HIV and AIDs. But over the last 16 months they expanded their services to provide food for anyone who needed help during the pandemic. With the wildfires last year, they actually did fundraising efforts and were driving food and personal hygiene and cleaning supplies down to different areas affected by wild fires multiple times. They truly blow me away.  We’ve been doing fundraising for them annually in December for the last ten years, and doing food drives and things like that, but in the last year we’ve taken on reaching out to our wine club members and community members to help us collect more donations on a more regular basis and folks have really stepped up to help us buy personal hygiene items that don’t get donated. This year our Pride Wines we’re donating a portion of every bottle sold to Esther’s Pantry. Due to our customers support we were able to purchase personal hygiene supplies in July that will stock their shelves for two months. We still have some Pride Wine left so we hope to sell it all by the end of 2021 and make another donation before the end of the year.

We’re also the sponsor for Pride Northwest, we’ve sponsored them for the last 14 years and donated wines for Pride specific events. This year they didn’t have a festival, so we donated wine that they used for the Queer Film Festival. Hopefully we’ll be able to get back to having in-person events next year and increase that donation.

Hip Chicks do Wine is open for wine tasting
Fridays: 2pm – 6pm
Saturdays: 112pm – 6pm
Sundays: 12pm – 5pm
4510 SE 23rd Avenue. Portland, OR, 97202
Reservations are not required for groups under 6 but they are requested.

To hear more about Hip Chicks do Wine be sure to check out our Social Media pages and you can find a link to them on our website.