The Wine Cellar is currently located behind Mazatlan near Murray & Cornell

Featured Business
The Wine Cellar
by Virginia Bruce

Erin Palmer's Wine Cellar is a favorite destination for many of her regular customers, who stop in every week or so to replenish their cellars, discover new favorites, and spend some time tasting wine and laughing and chatting with Erin and other customers. But there are still a lot of folks who haven't discovered the shop, tucked away as it is behind Mazatlan Restaurant in the Cedar Mill Place center at 13486 A NW Cornell. If you like wine and want to learn more about it, you should definitely make the effort to find this shop.

Erin says that the favorite part of her job is teaching classes and hosting tastings. The tastings are a great deal for just $10 per person, especially since it is free if you make a purchase. Tastings are held almost every Friday from 4-7 pm, and she often has a casual tasting on Saturday as well.

Erin Palmer pours a sample of a local red for some of her fans

The most popular class is "Seven Things Everyone Should Know About Wine," which is the basic class that imparts an understanding of the terminology of wine and the etiquette of tasting. "I want people to feel comfortable with wine—ordering and buying it, talking about it, enjoying it. I think many people get stressed because there's so much to learn, but really everyone's taste is different, and I want people to have confidence in expressing their perceptions and preferences," she explains. The class also covers the basics of what makes different varietals unique, along with principles of food and wine pairing, wine making techniques, and regional influence.

Other class topics include "Understanding Pinot Noir," "Ports of Portland," "Low Tannin Reds," and occasional special events like a Valentine's Day Date Night. Classes typically run $39 per person and are 90 minutes long. The more specific classes let Erin impart her knowledge of the history of the particular type of winemaking, viticulture (grape-growing), production, and one of Erin's favorite subjects, pairing wine with foods.

Some whites and bubblies are kept reaady-chilled

Class descriptions and schedules are on the shop's newly redesigned website, portlandwinecellar.com. She sends out a weekly newsletter by email, and she also has a recently-launched Facebook page—Erin's Wine Cellar—that she keeps updated with recent arrivals, news about events and feedback and conversation with her clients. For the month of March if you like her page or check in when you're in the shop, she will donate $1 to the Sunshine Pantry.

"Part of the reason that we're doing that is that we want to make sure people can keep track of us if we move the shop," she says. As we mentioned several months ago in the News, the building her shop is in was purchased by Walgreen's early last year. Erin has a few years left on her lease, but as a prudent businesswoman, she has been on the lookout for a good new location in the Cedar Mill area. "The majority of our clients live in the Cedar Mill and Beaverton area. We're looking forward to a resolution of the real estate issues, but either way, we're having great fun and great success with our business and have every intention of staying in the area. Not only do we value and enjoy our clients, but after a decade of building the brand in the area it would be crazy to start over somewhere else."

Careful and clever labeling makes the wines easy to choose

The shop carries many wines from Oregon, Washington and California, with a heavy focus on Oregon. "About twice a month our tasting features local winemakers," Erin explains. "We love that opportunity for our local small businesses to meet our neighbors. The only restriction we have is that we prefer not to sell wines that are available in the grocery store. We do that not as a criticism of the grocery stores, but rather because we know that in order to get people to make a special stop to see us, that we need to be different than what they see at their local grocer."

"We have amazing relationships with dozens of very-local wineries. In fact, we even have a "locals" holiday party with Thistle (of Gaston), Sol de Uco (made in Argentina and owned by a family that lives in Beaverton), and Seven Bridges out of downtown Portland. We value those relationships so much," she says. She also uses local food shops to provide snacks for some of their events, including Enchanted Cupcakes and The Libertine Deli.

The shop is licensed by the OLCC as a "bar" which allows them to offer casual tastings and classes. Erin says, "OLCC rules are pretty easy to understand and to obey; generally I don't find we have too much interaction with them. They are certainly always on my mind, but I've never had a difficult relationship with them."

She explains that, "on Friday nights we do sell wines by the glass. Anytime that we're open people can purchase wines by the bottle and enjoy them at the shop. We serve our wines in Riedel glassware and have several comfortable places to sit and visit or read. Currently we don't offer any food; however, we do encourage our guests to bring "picnic" foods with them. The only restriction we have is that food shouldn't have a strong aroma that might interfere with the fragrances of the wine."

She began learning about food and wine at an early age. "My mother has trained as a chef in many parts of the country and world, and my father is a collector of wine. Beginning at age 15 I was working in restaurants and retail and loving it. Despite going to college and trying a more mainstream corporate career path, I missed working with the public," she says, and so when she moved to Portland from Eugene, after getting her degree, she found a way to put her experience and knowledge together to start her own business.

She started about 12 years ago as a wine buyer and cellar manager for restaurants and businesses, such as attorneys and investment firms, that keep extensive cellars. She ran that business from her Rock Creek home, but eventually it got too invasive, and she found her present location and opened it as a shop in 2003. She still works with her restaurant clients, writing menu descriptions, suggesting wine pairings for new menu offerings, and wine buying, and buying and the occasional cellar inventory for corporate clients.

She had a wine bar and shop on the east side for a few years, but says, "I found that splitting my time and attention between the two shops was ineffective and I sold that in 2009."

The shop is a pleasant space that includes comfortable seating for classes and parties, where the walls are lined with wine cabinets that are well-labeled by type of wine with plenty of specific notes such as "Erin's favorite," "Fun & Funky whites," and suggested food pairings. Most of her wines are in the $15-30 range, but as the recession eases, she is able to stock more high-end choices as well. She tries to have some wines for every taste and budget.

Wine accessories and even a red-wine stain remover!

As everyone in retail knows, you have good weeks and bad. "The most challenging part of my job is anticipating the natural cycles of business. Even after a decade of doing this, I find myself panicking at an unusually slow week or worrying about a less-than-stellar event. It's hard to remind myself that not every event or every tasting will be amazing," she says. But she uses that stress to keep on improving the details of her shop, and that also keeps the business fresh and exciting for her.

In addition to spending time in the shop, she is in demand among her clients to provide wine for parties and weddings. She loves doing these, and sometimes does a "wine challenge" dinner party where the guests will bring dishes and she comes up with the perfect wine for each.

When she started out, she spent a lot of time going out to wineries and building relationships with her providers. Now, she says, " I find most of my wines by tasting wines that are brought to me. For example, I might notify the people who sell wine to me that I'm in need of three cabernets that sell for $20-30, and they make appropriate recommendations. Also, some of my best placements in the shop have been a result of recommendations by clients."

"Of course, it would be silly to be right in the wine country and not go do my own research," she continues. "I try to get out to visit a few wineries each month. That's a great way for me to better understand what makes a particular winery's selection special. Occasionally I can even parlay my "research" into a date night or weekend getaway with my fantastic husband."

She lives in the Cooper Mountain area with her two middle-school-age kids and her husband who works in data management for the Yahoo! facility in Hillsboro. Her parents plan to move to Portland eventually and she looks forward to them helping out at the shop.

She has two regular helpers. "Doug Jones is a retired physicist. He's worked at the shop for six years and is our "fill in guy." He's just the kindest guy you'd ever want to meet. He fills in when I'm gone for my kids' school activities and vacations."

"Laurie Elkjer is our office manager. She handles the website, classes and events, and general organization of the business. Laurie has been with us for five years and is also a part-time chicken farmer."

The shop is a pleasant space that includes comfortable seating for classes and parties, where the walls are lined with wine cabinets

"One of the natural side-effects of having a small business is that everyone wants donations for their awesome charities," Erin says. "However, we are a tiny little business and can't afford to simply give everything away. What we came up with was to develop a program we call "Sip for Service." This allows us to say yes to many more non-profits by allowing them to host private wine tastings and sales at our shop. We donate the shop and the wine for tasting, and the non-profit sells tickets to the event. They keep 100% of the ticket sales, and we still get to sell some wine to their guests to take home. Our only real rule is that they must be an inclusive group who seeks to better our community through positive messaging and action."

They also host private parties at the shop. "Our private events are catered to each group and are a blast! We've been doing private parties for ten years and love them. We theme them based on the group's needs. We've been hosting holiday parties, business functions, gourmet groups, birthdays and anniversary parties for years. Our focus on local wines has even landed us events with groups of tourists and international business travelers."

The Wine Cellar is located at 13486-a NW Cornell Road at the SW corner of Murray and Cornell, behind Mazatlan. Their website is portlandwinecellar.com, phone is 503-643-5655. Regular hours are Monday: 10:30-2:30; Tuesday-Thursday 10:30-6:30; Friday: 11-7pm (tastings: 4-7 pm) and Saturday: 10:30- 6:30.

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