Declaration of Deliciousness

How Oregon wine country celebrates Independence Day

By Aakanksha Agarwal

Fourth of July in wine country rarely resembles a polished fantasy. Yes, there are bottles on ice and grills fired up in the distance. In Oregon, the holiday arrives when vines are surging through long summer days and growers continue to keep one eye on the weather forecast. It is a season of celebration, yes, but also one of vigilance and work.

Still, they celebrate.

Across the state, winery owners spend the holiday in ways that feel deeply personal and surprisingly unpretentious: neighborhood potlucks where rare library wines sit alongside cans of Rainier beer, community parades, burgers loaded with kimchi slaw, pork tenderloins on the grill, IPAs sweating in coolers and vineyard kids sprinting between the vine rows. Fireworks are increasingly approached with caution. But gathering together, opening something special and making time for family remain nonnegotiable.

We asked this simple question: What does Fourth of July actually look like at your house?

COMMUNITY AND CELEBRATION AT REMY WINES

“This Fourth of July, I will drink wines made by Indigenous, Black, AAPI and Latine producers,” shared Remy Drabkin, founder and winemaker of Remy Wines.

Drabkin, a McMinnville native who founded Remy Wines in 2006, has long pushed Oregon’s wine culture toward broader conversations around inclusion and community. In addition to building a winery focused on Italian varieties, she cofounded Wine Country Pride and became the first woman and first queer mayor of McMinnville.

Drabkin’s choice of celebratory holiday beverages connects her to the larger story of who contributes to American wine culture and the state of Oregon itself. “This is especially important at a time when some are trying to erase Black and Indigenous histories, and attacking immigrant communities,” Drabkin asserts. “In Oregon, those assaults are primarily focused on the Latine community, regardless of how many generations a person’s family has lived here.”

Drabkin sees the holiday as an opportunity to commemorate the diversity within the wine industry and our country. “I choose to celebrate the United States by drinking BIPOC-produced wines,” Drabkin declared.

What about Oregon summer traditions? “I love jumping in my blowup pool,” Drabkin admitted.

One annual tradition reliably anchors the season: Opera on the Lawn at Remy Wines. The winery’s anniversary celebration transforms the property into a gathering place for music, wine and community.

KIMCHI SLAW AND CELLAR FINDS AT CHO WINES

The hot dogs at Dave and Lois Cho’s Independence Day gathering in the Chehalem Mountains are far from standard cookout fare. Inspired by a favorite Pasadena spot, they come piled with fried eggs, kimchi slaw, furikake, sautéed onions, Kewpie mayo, pickled jalapeños and Mama Lil’s peppers. CHO Wines cofounder Lois also makes beef-and-pork smash burgers while their kids play in the vineyard and neighboring winemakers arrive with bottles saved for special occasions.

That mix of family, community and chosen traditions is fitting for CHO Wines. Dave, CHO’s winemaker, met Lois through church music. They busked together on the streets of Santa Monica before a chance encounter nudged him toward harvest work. Dave is Oregon’s first Korean American winemaker and the family opened their estate in 2024, after Lois left a decade-long career as a family nurse practitioner.

“We now celebrate with a neighborhood potluck BBQ where plenty of kids have space to run around,” Lois reported. “It’s less about what’s on the grill and more about who we’re with. We share bottles and stories. Typically, each winemaker brings a little something special, like library wines we rarely open.”

Despite common assumptions about wine country, not every beverage involves stemware. “Winemakers also love to drink beer,” Lois joked. “Dave happens to be a big Rainier fan. It takes a lot of cheap beer to make great wine.”

The threat of wildfires has changed many vineyard families’ summer rituals.

“Of course, we avoid fireworks at all costs,” Lois added. “There’s too much trauma from the 2020 wildfires.”

Instead, the family promises the kids driveway fireworks back home in the Portland suburbs. Once that custom took an unexpected turn when two busy winery owners grabbed a Costco fireworks box only to discover it was filled with oversized confetti poppers. The kids, Lois admitted, were less than impressed.

RIBS AND ROSÉ AT QUADY NORTH

Barbecue ribs, gardening and chilled rosé rank among Herb Quady’s holiday traditions.

“We keep things pretty simple,” Quady explained. “The kids are older. We don’t have to do fireworks anymore.”

Quady, founder and winemaker of Southern Oregon’s Quady North, keeps things intentionally low-key. Holiday weekends might mean wandering Jacksonville’s concert scene, spending time outside or staying home. Family favorites, including his wife’s crab salad, sit on the table beside sparkling wine, rosé and ribs.

PORK TENDERLOIN AND CAP FIZZ AT ILLAHE VINEYARDS

“It was my favorite holiday as a kid,” Brad Ford shared. “We always got together as a family and celebrated.”

Ford, winemaker and co-owner of Illahe Vineyards, grew up in Salem during a time when vineyards were still rare in the area.

“When I was young, we did not have a wine industry like today,” Ford observed. “It has evolved from a beer-drinking celebration.”

Illahe Vineyards, near Dallas, has a reputation for old-world experimentation, horse-powered vineyard work and a stubborn fascination with historical techniques. The family’s holiday celebration sounds ritualistic, too.

Every year, they visit nearby Independence, whose name practically guarantees an oversized Fourth of July celebration. After watching the parade, the family meets up with friends from Freedom Hill Vineyard before heading home.

Back on Mount Pisgah, Ford enjoys views of the Willamette Valley, opening bottles and watching fireworks from the deck.

“I like to grill pork tenderloins quite a bit,” Ford acknowledged.

The wine lineup follows a progression. Early in the evening, Ford reaches for Illahe’s Viognier and his “really easy-drinking” summer wine, Cap Fizz, a sparkling rosé. “And when it gets dark, we move on to Pinot.”

PINOT BLANC AND BLUEBERRY PIE AT YAMHILL VALLEY VINEYARDS

Jenny Burger, president of Yamhill Valley Vineyards and daughter of founders Denis Burger and Elaine McCall, grew up at one of Oregon’s foundational family wineries. But with a British mother, the classic American summer spread wasn’t served.

Burger laughed, recalling she didn’t encounter some cookout staples until much later.

“I don’t think I tried potato salad until I was an adult,” Burger confessed.

Instead, local gatherings and potlucks became part of the discovery. Those events introduced Burger to the dishes many families take for granted: macaroni salad, potato salad and familiar summer picnic foods. “One of my favorite things for Fourth of July is neighborhood and community potlucks,” Burger shared.

Today, Burger admits she has fully come around. “I’m a sucker for burgers and potato salad now,” Burger reported.

Dessert also has its place in family lore. Burger recalled her father’s love of blueberry pie with the kind of specificity that only long-running family stories seem to acquire. One summer, she remembered, blueberry pie became a near-weekly occurrence.

As for wine, Burger feels daytime celebrations call for Pinot Blanc. “It’s fruity with minerality, plus refreshing and food-friendly,” Burger noted.

Later, as grills fire up, Pinot Noir reigns. “If it’s steak, eggplant or mushroom skewers– anything with a good grill mark– it’s going to be a beautiful pairing.”

Those family traditions have increasingly shaped the winery itself. During holiday weekends, Yamhill Valley Vineyards opens hiking trails across the estate and encourages guests to bring picnics and linger over lawn games. “We try to extend what our family likes to do out here,” Burger continued, “and invite people to join the good time.”

OLDER BOTTLES AND IPAS AT BELLE FIORE AND RYAN ROSE

At Rob Folin’s house, Independence Day doubles as “cellar cleanout day.” Sometimes that means opening six bottles for two people. “Anybody in the wine business always has tons of wine,” Folin said. “I pull out some older wines or bottles I want to try and just open them.”

Folin, winemaker at Ashland’s Belle Fiore Winery and co-founder of Ryan Rose Wines, spent eight years in the Marines before pivoting to harvest work and winemaking. He keeps the holiday intentionally low-key. But some things are nonnegotiable.

“We definitely grill,” Folin boasted. “Sometimes we cook ribs, other years a brisket or chicken. But we are always grilling.”

Strawberries make a regular appearance because, Folin added, they are refreshing and easy in the summer heat.

The wine lineup usually begins with whites before opening bigger reds, ideal for grilled food. While Folin frequently reaches for Pinot Noir, he also likes experimenting with heartier bottles like Syrah, Grenache and Italian varieties.

A few IPAs make appearances, too.

Fireworks do not.

“You definitely can’t do fireworks or anything,” Folin warned. “You’d burn the whole area down. But whoever is in town, come on over, let’s open a decent amount of wine and drink some beer.”

ROSÉ, RIBS AND RODEOS AT BIG TABLE FARM

Every Fourth begins with one oversized bottle. “We always bring a magnum of rosé,” Clare Carver responded.

Carver, an artist and co-founder of Big Table Farm, with husband Brian Marcy, the winery’s winemaker, visits a friend’s house before heading to the St. Paul Rodeo. Their friend Charlie already has ribs or burgers on the grill when they arrive. “It’s such a simple thing,” Carver continued. “One we do literally every year.”

The tradition fits Big Table Farm, the winery and farm Carver and Marcy built around gathering, food and hospitality. The property includes animals, gardens and working farmland, and many of its rhythms revolve around sitting at tables together.

Back home, summer evenings after long, hard days, the two enjoy a glass of Chardonnay or rosé while cows graze and swallows fly overhead. “We look out over the pond, watch the cows and just take it all in,” Carver shared.

Aakanksha Agarwal is a wine, travel and lifestyle writer from India. Formerly a Bollywood stylist, she now resides in the U.S., embracing writing full-time while juggling family life and indulging in her passions for cuisine, literature and wanderlust.