OPB’s First Look: Women put Columbia Gorge on the wine map

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.

Good morning, Northwest.

When you think of great Pacific Northwest wines, do Willamette Valley or Columbia Valley come to mind? They may be the usual pours, but it might be time to add the Columbia River Gorge to your wine list. OPB freelance reporter Lisa Rein has found dozens of women producers, growers and winery owners there who are carving out a niche in the region’s competitive, male-dominated wine industry.

And if wine isn’t your drink of choice, perhaps a pint is. Ahead of tomorrow’s FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina, OPB photographer Eli Imadali stopped by two Portland sports bars earlier this week, where soccer fans were already in full voice cheering on their favorite teams, even in the middle of the workday.

Here’s your First Look at Saturday’s news.

— Winston Szeto

Top story

In states famous for wine, women vintners find success off the beaten path

Roughly three dozen women producers, growers and winery owners are in the striking Columbia River Gorge that stretches 80 miles east of Portland, straddling Oregon and Washington.

The Gorge’s high-acid, eclectic wines are putting the region on the map of winemaking. The industry is still finding its footing, leaving plenty of room for a bold, creative cohort of women who see its potential to carve a path they say was closed to them elsewhere.

One of them is Julia Bailey, 50, founder of Loop de Loop Wines on Underwood Mountain in Washington. She kept getting promoted back in Portland in the late ‘90s — but only in tasting rooms, because, Bailey said, women were considered too weak to lift wine barrels and other equipment required in winemaking.

Loop de Loop celebrated its fifth year in June. Bailey wanted a wine label that spoke to the collaborative nature of the women winemakers around her. (Lisa Rein)

Learn More

3 things to know

1. The Oregon Department of Emergency Management activated the State Emergency Coordination Center yesterday to coordinate a regional response to the fires, including the Lower Dry Creek Fire in Umatilla County and the Hoag Fire in Gilliam County. (Casey Frizzell and Antonio Sierra)
2. Junction City could be the latest Oregon community to install automatic license plate cameras from Flock, one of the most popular vendors, after Police Chief Mark Waddell said during a meeting Tuesday that the company had offered the city a free eight-camera trial. (Rebecca Hansen-White, KLCC)
3. In a letter sent Wednesday to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, a group of 24 mayors from cities around the metro area urged leaders to do what they can to keep the Trail Blazers from leaving Portland in their arena negotiations. (Alex Zielinski)

‘OPB Politics Now’: ICE’s building in Portland is back in the legal spotlight

A surge in enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has led to two fatal shootings by ICE agents in recent weeks. On the latest episode of “OPB Politics Now,” reporters Dirk VanderHart, Alex Zielinski and Conrad Wilson discuss the latest on this lingering fight here in South Portland just up the road from OPB headquarters. (Dirk VanderHart, Alex Zielinski and Conrad Wilson)

Listen Now

Northwest headlines

• Lakeview believes it could be a victim of fraud. They want the state to step in (Bryce Dole and Joni Auden Land)
• Push to ban Oregon hunting and fishing fails first of two initiative signature tests (Courtney Sherwood)
• Oregon Health Authority cancels layoffs (Nick Budnick, The Lund Report)
• Southern Oregon schools report gains from cellphone ban but face enforcement challenges (Jane Vaughan, JPR)
• Forest Service gives first-ever respirator recommendations to wildland firefighters (Rachel Sun, Northwest Public Broadcasting)
• Regional earthquake experts say more coordination, investment needed to prepare for ‘Big One’ (Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle)
• Seattle photographer shows how Indigenous communities protect nature (Bellamy Pailthorp, KNKX)
• Superabundant recipe: It’s time to turn blackberries and raspberries into white sangria (Heather Arndt Anderson)

One more look

Portland soccer fans come out in droves for World Cup

After the FIFA World Cup saw smaller countries make it farther than ever before, the final tomorrow pits two powerhouse teams against each other, and both have the chance to make history.

If Spain wins, it’ll be the first country to bring home consecutive men’s and women’s cups. If Argentina wins, it’ll be among a handful of countries to win back-to-back World Cup championships.

“This is a transition of fútbol, in some sense,” said Bayoán Cal, who gathered with his family at popular Southeast Portland soccer bar GOL.

Cal’s family contains a mixed fandom: His wife, who is French, was rooting for France. Cal and their kids, instead, hoped for a Spain versus Argentina final, with Argentina winning it all.

“The future versus the legend,” added their son, Ío Cal, 11, referring to Spanish star Lamine Yamal and Argentine legend Lionel Messi. (Eli Imadali)

Learn More

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.