Table Manners

Domaine Serene’s culinary experience pairs wine with seasonal cuisine

By Gail Oberst

After six intriguing courses paired with even more samples of curated wine, I stepped out of the brass and glass ambiance of Domaine Serene Wine Lounge onto a stylish shopping street in downtown Lake Oswego. I looked at my watch. For the last three hours, I had been wrapped in the cashmere of luxurious prix fixe food and wine. You lucky dog, I said to myself, and not for the first time.

Unless I were a select Domaine Serene club member– variations of this experience are offered as an annual benefit to some– I would be paying the public price of $250. But if you think this premium dinner (available year-round by reservation) is beyond your budget, you may be wrong. While the Chef’s Pairing Dinner is offered exclusively at Domaine Serene’s Lake Oswego location, each of the three Oregon locations offers à la carte or shareable plates designed to accompany their wine.

It was winter as I dined, and the meal reflected the season. The courses integrated Oregon’s farm- and ranch-fresh produce and protein, adjusted in small ways daily, and in larger ways as the seasons change. Each was tailored to the guests’ preferences, drawing on the expertise of Chef John Conlin and sommelier Quintin Robertson. This level of guest attention was new to me. My two dining companions were pescatarians, so Conlin changed the cavatelli and wagyu courses to accommodate their fish-centric tastes. Likewise, Robertson paired unique wines with those dishes.

While my courses included creative renditions of albacore, beet salad, ling cod, cavatelli, wagyu beef and chocolate torte, spring offerings may include morel mushrooms, halibut, green garlic, calçots (a mild spring onion), lamb, strawberries and rhubarb.

The winery’s Lake Oswego kitchen is in the hands of experienced professionals. Chef John Conlin cut his culinary teeth at the Central Market Petaluma (California) kitchen under owner and chef Tony Najiloa, renowned for his focus on farm-to-table cuisine. After mastering the fundamentals of cooking, Conlin worked at several New York City restaurants, including Marc Meyers’ Five Points and the Farm-to-Table Cookshop, Savoy and Michelin-starred Le Restaurant. In Oregon, Conlin served as executive chef at Roe in downtown Portland, which later morphed into Tercet, before closing in 2023. A year later, he joined the Domaine Serene Wine Lounge in Lake Oswego and now serves as the winery’s regional chef de cuisine. He personally described each course to me and my fellow diners.

As I listened to Conlin, I felt my lucky dog status for the first of many times that night.

However, Conlin wasn’t the only expert who visited us. Quintin Robertson, the Lounge’s sommelier for more than four years, dropped by our table for each course. Robertson and Conlin collaborate to determine wine and dish pairings. In addition to seasonal and local availability, Conlin’s recipes are matched with specific wines. In other words, this is a winery, so highlighting the wine is the primary consideration.

“It’s a long process,” Robertson noted. “But we start with the wine.”

After dinner, we were given a price list of all the wines we sampled. It proved we hadn’t been served the least expensive wines, which, by the way, was Domaine Serene’s Chardonnay Brandy, at $75 (matched with dessert). The Pinot Noir served with the recipe featured on these pages was a 2001 vintage Pinot Noir from Canary Hill Vineyard with amazing deep burgundy color, considering its age.

On the street, the dining experience behind me, I began mentally rewriting my gift list for people who ask what I want for my birthday or Mother’s Day or my anniversary or … Tuesday. The Chef’s Pairing Dinner rose to the top.

About Domaine Serene

Grace and Ken Evenstad established Domaine Serene’s Oregon Pinot Noir vineyard in 1989, adding Chardonnay in 1997 for a total of nearly 300 acres planted in vines.

In 2015, the family acquired the historic Château de la Crée vineyards in Santenay, comprising approximately 25 acres of Pinot and Chardonnay in France’s Burgundy region. In 2021, the family established its Maison Evenstad operations and tasting room at the 15th-century estate recognized for producing Grand Crus and Premier Crus.

Lucky me. I tasted two wines from the French estates without the cost of a round-trip airfare.

Meanwhile, Domaine Serene’s Winery Clubhouse, modeled after the French estate, is open daily throughout spring and summer at 6555 N.E. Hilltop Lane, Dayton. Lake Oswego’s Wine Lounge, located at 300 First St., is open Wednesday through Sunday, as is the Wine Lounge at 1038 S.W. Alder St. in Portland. Vineyard experiences are offered at The Clubhouse, while the Portland location features rare library wines and Lake Oswego showcases wine-inspired culinary offerings.

Visit domaineserene.com or domaineserenewinelounge.com for more information.

Gail Oberst has been a Northwest writer, editor and publisher for decades. Among her favorite gigs was business editor for the News-Register, and editor pro temp for three months for the Oregon Wine Press. Inspired by the OWP, she founded the Oregon Beer Growler with her family, later selling it to Oregon Lithoprint. She continues to edit and write a wide range of articles for magazines, and weekly and regional newspapers. Recently, she published her first fiction novel, "Valkyrie Dance," available on Amazon, and is working on her second, San Souci. She lives in Independence, Oregon and has four grown children and seven grandchildren.