Bull Run Distillery
The tasting room pours a 16-year-old American whiskey finished eighteen months in a Domaine Drouhin Pinot barrel, bottled at 100 proof. The flight is $20 for five and comes back to you if you buy two bottles. Six people fit in the room at once.
Why go
Bull Run finishes its whiskey in barrels that came out of Willamette Valley wineries, and it prints the paperwork. One release is sixteen years old with eighteen months of that in a Seguin Moreau cooperage barrel from Domaine Drouhin, bottled at 50%, and the label carries the barrel number.2 Lee Medoff fronts the distillery's own tastings.2 The Portland room sits on NW Quimby, and there is a second tasting room down in Carlton if you are already in wine country.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the flight. Twenty dollars buys five pours of your choosing, and the money comes off a purchase of two bottles or more.1
- Order: a Pinot-finished bottling, because that is the thing this distillery does that a Kentucky one cannot.2
- Avoid: arriving with kids or a dog. Neither goes in, and with six seats a walk-in can wait.1
Good to know
- Hours: Thursday to Sunday, noon to 6pm.1
- Booking: they take walk-ins, and they confirm a reservation by phone or email. A party of six or more should call ahead on 503-224-3483.1
- Bottles: buying a bottle does not need a reservation, and they will serve you even when the tasting room is full.1
Verdict
could-visit — The barrel programme is the reason to go and the distillery documents it properly: sixteen years old, eighteen months more in a Seguin Moreau barrel out of Domaine Drouhin, 100 proof, barrel 179 printed on the label. A $20 flight that comes back to you against two bottles is a fair deal in a room that holds six people. It stays on this rung because nobody outside the distillery has told us what the whiskey tastes like, and a producer's own spec sheet is evidence of what was done rather than of how it turned out. The tasting room opens Thursday to Sunday, noon to six.