Celebrating the mid-point of summer, we’re diving into the world of lighter wines made with red grapes. We’ll be discussing the production methods that result in the broad stylistic diversity of these creatures, and pouring eight of our all-time favorite pink and light red wines that exemplify distinct styles ranging from the classic to the new wave, spanning local and international references. I could write more, but I’ll leave it at that so I can think about the wines that we’ll feature.

purchase tickets here, $35

Join us for an introduction to the basics of wine. All of us, at some point or another, have found ourselves boggled by retail shelves or restaurant menus. Between regions, varietals, styles, and jargon, approaching wine can seem impossibly daunting. This class is geared toward those who love wine, but find themselves a little (or maybe more than a little!) lost.

We’re going to cover the most essential concepts surrounding wine production and how to read a wine label. With these skills, you’ll be equipped with the right set of tools and questions to tackle the world of wine.

purchase tickets here

"If there's any weird or metaphysical energy in wine, we want ours to have it."

Sterling Whitted originally hails from Eugene, and worked at Owen Roe, Cameron, and Teutonic while completing his graduate work in oenology at Oregon State University. Although Holden was his first label, Sterling purchased a 10 acre farm where he lives with his dog Johnny in an old barn. Holden spent time in Italy, Georgia, and Ecuador, and his travels in Ecuador coupled with his Puerto Rican heritage inspired him to start making wines geared toward Latin American food. Sterling’s wines are truly delicious, and utterly fascinating, messing with conventions all in the name of making wines that are remarkably versatile and perfect for summertime festivities.

Purchase tickets here, $10 (free for OEL club members)

Your ticket will be credited toward the purchase of two bottles from Semillas Wine Farm.

In April of 2025, I had the pleasure of venturing to northern Italy with importer Strade Bianche. One of the many revelations of this expedition was meeting Nicola Gatta, whose wines I had long admired. Nicola is thoroughly Lombardian, with a stature that would fit in well with the warriors of proto-Germanic tribes. Nicola wore a ballcap embroidered with a rooster that said “cocks,” and had us taste through his remarkable base wines straight out of the barrel before walking us through the vineyards and grilling up a slate of meats to accompany his lineup of wines.

While Franciacorta is the epicenter of traditional method sparkling winemaking in Italy, the vast majority of vineyards are on flatland. Nicola’s vineyards, however, are at elevation, and so he is forced to de-classify his wines from the appellation. But I really don’t think he cares that much about such legalisms.

Truly a master of the traditional method, Nicola’s wines span the range of styles, from blanc de noirs to blanc de blancs to brut natures to extra bruts to heavy doses of reserve wines to soleras. His aging blows past the legal minimums, and signs and numbers his higher-end cuvées by hand, like a maniac.

Taste through the range of Nicola’s outstanding wines, including the rarities that come to the U.S.A. in absurdly limited amounts, all the while learning about what makes the traditional method sui generis.

purchase tickets here, $50

A monk once called his fellow monks ’the last true Punks’.

This talk will look at the monastic orders of various religious traditions, and how they teach us to disengage from empire and live in true freedom while maintaining organic community. We will then look into the historical anarchists whose lives and writings influenced anarchism in its’ various forms. Finally, we will explore how traditional and radical monastic insights can inform our existence.

Michael Davis has worked in many capacities over the years, with each phase becoming more radical (to the root). After working in heavy construction when he was very young, he returned to his heart–the poor and marginalized. The first phase of Michael’s journey was serving as pastor at a church where the poor, homeless, immigrants and gang members lived in the same neighborhood. Michael worked hard to break down the barriers that kept people out. The next phase saw Michael going to the streets and serving for ten years by starting and running a nonprofit focused on a day to day journey with those living or working on the streets. In the next part of the journey, he served in the bigger nonprofit world as a housing case manager and supervisor to ensure success for those coming off the streets and into housing. Now, Michael is transitioning into speaking, hosting a podcast (“Common Sense on Social Justice”) and producing content on Instagram to encourage people on their journey of discovering Love in its truest sense.

RSVP here, FREE

If you’ve come to appreciate how wine can elevate a meal, but want to understand how wine and food interact–in both desirable and undesirable ways–then this is the class for you. As we taste through our flight, we’ll be investigating how these wines interact with various food components (salt, fat, acid, and heat, as it were). We’ll empower you with the resources to ask the right questions of wine stewards and sommeliers when you’re looking for the perfect bottle or glass to accompany your meal.

Please note that while this is a pairing class, a meal is not provided!

purchase tickets here

Once upon a time, a Californian living in Oregon met a French fellow working abroad. The two fell in love, traveled around a bit, and decided to make wine together after getting married and settling down in the Willamette Valley. Erin and Laurent have over 20 years of combined experience (Erin is the winemaker at Andante, while Laurent began his own vineyard management company, SAP Vineyard Services, this past year), and launched “The Drunken Horses” several short years ago. The two craft remarkable Syrah and Riesling from wonderful vineyards in the Pacific Northwest, and are debuting their brand new Chenin Blanc at this tasting.

Purchase tickets here, $10 (free for OEL club members)

Your ticket will be credited toward the purchase of two bottles from Les Cheveaux Ivres!

Our quarterly magic show has officially become a thing, with every single show having sold out! We’re delighted to host new and returning magicians for an evening of wonder and joy. You’ll enjoy walkaround and close-up magic in the bar for an hour and a half before heading into the Vinum Lounge for a seated show of parlor magic.

to read more about the magicians, and to purchase tickets, click here

please note that our last show sold out over a month in advance, so grab yours ASAP!

In celebration of Oregon Wine Month, we’re nerding out about the world-class wines of Oregon. How did the Valley historically come to exist as a beloved wine region? Why does the Willamette Valley have so many danged AVAs? What could possibly merit these distinctions in a relatively small region?

We’ll be getting into eight of our favorite Oregon wines, ranging from classic Chardonnay and Pinot to the new wave stuff. We’ll be exploring the broader history, geology, and topography of Oregon, but diving a bit deeper into how the soils and microclimates of the various sub-AVAs distinctly affect the wines made from their grapes.

purchase tickets here, $45

To live - to seek love, to grow grapes, to know the sun will rise - is the naked expression of a hope so transcendent it  becomes synonymous with Faith. The traditions of the oppressed and persecuted hold this hope tenderly through the violence of this world; it is in constantly stoked trust that the tumult of the threshing room will separate the wheat of humanity from the chaff of greed, that the crush of suffering will bring about true wine of communal liberation. Christianity at its best lives here, at the foot of the Cross, as a comfort to those most downtrodden that Christ will rise again, that Babylon and Rome and every empire will crumble, leaving only the divine love in which humanity is meant to reside. How strange then that contemporary Christian Zionism and Evangelical Nationalism have become hell-bent on bringing about the Apocalypse. We see this both theologically: the forced fulfillment of misinterpreted prophecy in the books of Isaiah and Revelation, the anti-human eschatology rampant in all walks of U.S. christianity, the ‘holy war’ our empire is losing in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran, but also materially, in the way this country worships war, profit, and power over the infinite dignity and joy inherent in every human life. I am remiss to critique any faith that is not my own, but here it must be said: these governments, these ideas, these actions, are unilaterally in opposition to God, disconnected from any religion in genuine communion with Christ’s incarnation, and wholly misled in their understanding of history, commandment, and prophecy. In some small effort to understand our current lives, this talk will be an exploration of Abrahamic apocalypse narratives, from the fall of Babylon, to the birth of Jesus, to the destruction of the Second Temple, the fall of Rome, into the many ends this world has seen at the hands of empire, colonialism, and genocide. More than this though, it will be an exploration of the future world we are constantly pulled toward by divine Love, one in which the harmony of initial Creation rises again from the ashes of empire.

Go, station a watchman, let him tell what he sees:

Fallen, fallen is Babylon!

Beatrice Barrar makes wine in the watersheds of the Columbia and Willamette rivers from whatever grapes and other fruit she can gather: through community, through foraging, or through barter. In her free time she writes poetry and waits for God. This is her second talk at OEL, and her first time on Earth.

Reserve your seat here, FREE

If you have a foundational understanding of how wine comes into existence, and a grasp of the most essential concepts that surround wine, then it’s time to dive into wine tasting. Wine can (and should!) be mysterious, but we’re going to provide you with a firm foundation to understand—and thereby better enjoy—the wines you drink.

Before exploring the various areas of aroma and flavor profiles, we’ll talk about the key structural elements that compose a glass: sweetness, alcohol, acidity, and tannin. Alongside a little bit of science and a dose of psychology, we’ll provide tips and tricks to navigate the choreography and mechanics of tasting.

purchase tickets here

The world of artisanal cheeses is much like the world of artisanal wine: it rests upon centuries of tradition, indelibly marked by a sense of somewhereness infused with the maker’s hand. If you wanna learn about some exquisite cheeses, and dive into their traditional wine pairings, you don’t want to miss this one.

Dave will be telling you about the wines, but Sam Rollins, the cheesemonger at Cow Bell who was declared the second best cheesemonger in the world a few years ago, will be our primary guide for this class. Sam always brings the heat. And the forearm vasculature.

purchase tickets here, $50

Joe Chepolis and Carmen Nydegger had careers in the cycling and action sports industry and film and television production, but pivoted into the School of Hard Knocks. With a particular passion for Italian varietals, Joe and Carment are crafting radically cool wines in the hot climate of Rogue Valley in southern Oregon. And although the microclimates of our state’s southern appellations are most definitely not akin to those of the Willamette Valley, Joe is all about harvesting early in order to maintain vibrancy and freshness. He is a minimal interventionist, and is making wonderful wines at thoroughly approachable prices.

Your ticket will be credited toward the purchase of two bottles from Sound & Vision!

purchase tickets here, $10

Burgundy is certainly one of the most sought-after wine regions in the world, and its influence on the global wine scene is unparalleled. Ancient Romans and not-so-ancient monks shaped Burgundy’s history of winemaking, and nearly all the appellations in Burgundy result from monastic culture’s meticulous scholarship and study of vineyards. Given Burgundy’s storied history, it is a rather difficult place to understand, and Burgundian labels are notoriously befuddling. We’ll be discussing this history, cracking the code of Burgundy’s highly confusing appellations, and pouring a killer flight of Pinots and Chardonnays, including wines from classified premier and grand cru vineyards.

purchase tickets here, $50

If you’ve driven down NE 15th to Emerson, you’ve probably noticed something called Second World - a kiosk and “village commons” and, well, the epicenter of another world. With some help from the biblical Pentateuch and It’s a Wonderful Life we’ll get into why in this second world neighbors are family, and how this patterns an economy and protects it from the market. This is an idea of economics “so old it feels new again”, so we will tell you about how our Simone Weil House extended community as well as churches and others we work with have been experimenting with a few of these family practices for several years now, highlighting the credit union partnership through which we can “redeem” each other’s interest bearing debt. But, be warned the event will unfold at a tedious pace - each idea has a greedy commercial sponsor. For example, this disclosure was sponsored by All Day Pie, a pie that you eat clockwise (!) through the day from the Am egg wedge to the dessert pie pie. 

reserve tickets here, free!

In October, we had the pleasure of visiting Jean Orsoni and Juliette Puyperoux, two young winemakers who are revitalizing an old family estate. Theirs is a fascinating story: rather than continue the name of the established domaine, they chose to begin an entirely new project (“Puy de l’Ours” is a portmanteau of their last names). Indeed, Juliette’s grandmother passed on the family vineyards to Juliette and Jean a mere three days before she died, following much discussion and debate. Juliette believes her grandmother ventured into the great beyond peacefully because she viewed her mission as complete.

When we visited, Juliette led us through the cellars (which have room for significantly more barrels and tanks), narrating their story, their philosophy, and their processes. In a region where so much rests upon legacy and tradition (and family names), this young couple–inspired by other young vignerons–took the risk of creating an entirely new label. While their forebears leaned into heavier extraction and new oak, Jean and Juliette remain firmly rooted in tradition while crafting wines that are at the forefront of new wave Burgundy. Their bottles hail from vineyards based in the village of Savigny-lès-Beaune, and run the gamut from the iconoclastic (a white wine from Pinot Noir?! in Burgundy?!) to the vineyard-driven expressions that one would expect from any reputable domaine.

In 2020, Jean and Juliette sold all their grapes to a few wonderful producers, so that they could figure out exactly what to do with their first vintage in 2021. We are beyond thrilled to host Juliette for their Portland debut, so early on in their careers. The breadth of their offerings has grown over the past few years, and we’ll be pouring eight of their wines, each of which is singular and remarkable.

As an added bonus, Paul Wasserman, Juliette’s legendary importer, will be joining us.

purchase tickets here, $20…please note that tickets will be $30 at the door

Join us for an introduction to the basics of wine. All of us, at some point or another, have found ourselves boggled by retail shelves or restaurant menus. Between regions, varietals, styles, and jargon, approaching wine can seem impossibly daunting. This class is geared toward those who love wine, but find themselves a little (or maybe more than a little!) lost.

We’re going to cover the most essential concepts surrounding wine production and how to read a wine label. With these skills, you’ll be equipped with the right set of tools and questions to tackle the world of wine.

purchase tickets here

Founded in 2002 by Patrick Reuter and Leigh Bartholomew, two wine pros with extensive experience around the globe. Leigh currently manages many vineyards throughout the Willamette Valley, including Dominio IV’s two estate vineyards, one of which is in Mosier.

Their head winemaker, Ryan, joined the winery in 2011, having worked in both hemispheres. Originally from Atlanta, Ryan exudes the honey badger-esque attitude that defines many Dominio IV wines. Although he very much makes terroir-driven wines, Ryan is an experimentalist who isn’t afraid to buck convention in the name of super cool wine. Taste through Dominio IV’s bubbles, Sauv Blanc, Rosé of Tempranillo, Grenache, and Tempranillo/Syrah blend, and take home your favorite bottles.

Your tasting fee will be credited toward a purchase of two Dominio IV bottles, and the tasting is free for OEL club members.

purchase tickets here, $10

Sarah and I (Dave) accidentally stumbled into Lawrelin’s Walla Walla tasting room several years before we opened Ora et Labora, and we were blown away. Kendall Mix hails from Canada, and began making wine after graduating from UC Davis; however, following 9/11, he was unable to sell what he made. And so, while Kendall made wine for several Washington wineries, he bottled vintages of his own wines, only to tuck them away given visa difficulties. This fortuitously became part of his business model, and Kendall ages his Syrahs and Cabernet Sauvignons  for around a decade before releasing them to the public. Although these bottles are not “cheap,” they are remarkably affordable for the quality and cellar age. Come taste through Kendall’s wines and see how serious age can transform good wine into something beautiful.

Tasting fee credited toward a two-bottle purchase of Kendall’s wines.

purchase tickets here

If you’ve come to appreciate how wine can elevate a meal, but want to understand how wine and food interact–in both desirable and undesirable ways–then this is the class for you. As we taste through our flight, we’ll be investigating how these wines interact with various food components (salt, fat, acid, and heat, as it were). We’ll empower you with the resources to ask the right questions of wine stewards and sommeliers when you’re looking for the perfect bottle or glass to accompany your meal.

Please note that while this is a pairing class, a meal is not provided.

purchase tickets here

Inspired by avante garde wineries in Northern Italy, this sensory-deprivation tasting experience is designed to strip away the labels, the jargon, and the visual cues that often clutter our perception. By quieting our sight and introducing the vibrational layers of a live violinist, we allow the wine to speak through flavor, texture, aroma, and emotional resonance. The tasting moves from champagne-method bubbles of Trento DOC, to the silken texture of Roero Arneis, culminating in the kings of Italian reds: Amarone, Barolo, and Brunello.

Join us for an intimate journey through five boutique-producer Italian labels paired with musical accompaniment by Oregon Ballet Theater classical violinist Jamie Chimchirian. Segments from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi and La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi will weave through the evening, echoing the emotional arc of the wines. Organized in partnership with Curiosity Roads, this gathering translates the ethos of intentional travel into a local ritual, inviting you to engage with wine—and each other—with a fresh sense of presence.

purchase tickets here, $79

The journals and public writings of Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, are full of this quote from Dostoevsky’s The Idiot: “The world will be saved by beauty.” We’ll keep an eye on this theme as we explore the founding vision of the Catholic Worker movement–one that included houses of hospitality, roundtable discussions for clarification of thought, and ‘agronomic universities’–and how we try to live them at the Simone Weil House in NE Portland. We’ll also look to Simone Weil, our community’s namesake, and Emma’s training in Byzantine iconography to help us understand how the love of beauty and the love of our neighbor are two faces of the same reality.

reserve tickets here, free!

It’s rather rare to encounter bottles with appropriate and/or significant age on them, unless you’re perusing the wine list of a superb restaurant, have friends who have been collecting for years, or visiting a specialty bottle shop. In this class, not only will we be cracking open a variety of wines that have aged between ten and thirty years, but examining what happens to wine as they age, and how the maturation process in the bottle varies between variety, region, vinification method, and style.

purchase tickets here

In the world of German wine, New York-based importer Vom Boden has changed the game, and represent some of the best winemakers across Deutschland. We have been championing German wines for most of our existence, and we’re thrilled to be hosting John Ritchie for a pre-Wild Bunch tasting.

We’ve selected some of our absolute favorite wines (mostly Rieslings) from the Vom Boden portfolio, spanning a range of styles and regions. Perhaps…perhaps…we’ll crack open a gold label Keller wine to celebrate John spending his evening here with us.

purchase tickets here, $20

Jean-Michel’s wines have enchanted us for a couple of years now, and we had the pleasure of meeting him when we visited Beaujolais in October of 2025. Monsieur Dupré is a true vigneron, and exuded nothing but joy. While he’s a traditionalist in some senses, making extraordinary wines from several crus of Beaujolais, he’s also not afraid to wade in waters outside of the conventional.

We’re delighted to host Jean-Michel, along with Kellee and Aurelien Fiardet of New Wave Wine Co., who import his wines. Meet the winemaker, learn about (or get introduced to) Beaujolais, and have a grand ol’ time with the utterly charming wines of Gamay Noir.

purchase tickets here, $10

If you have a foundational understanding of how wine comes into existence, and a grasp of the most essential concepts that surround wine, then it’s time to dive into wine tasting. Wine can (and should!) be mysterious, but we’re going to provide you with a firm foundation to understand—and thereby better enjoy—the wines you drink.

Before exploring the various areas of aroma and flavor profiles, we’ll talk about the key structural elements that compose a glass: sweetness, alcohol, acidity, and tannin. Alongside a little bit of science and a dose of psychology, we’ll provide tips and tricks to navigate the choreography and mechanics of tasting.

purchase tickets here

How do we resist growing authoritarianism and create a world where love and justice flourish? This Protest Pour will draw on insights from Gandhi as well as the presenter’s own experiences in the Catholic Worker movement to explore what we can do to advance democracy in today’s political climate. The session will combine presentation, interactive personal storytelling, and discussion.  

reserve tickets here, free!

Our quarterly magic show has officially become a thing, with every single show having sold out! We’re delighted to host new and returning magicians for an evening of wonder and joy. You’ll enjoy walkaround and close-up magic in the bar for an hour and a half before heading into the Vinum Lounge for a seated show of parlor magic.

Click here to read about the magicians and to purchase tickets!

Join us as we host John Soares and Timothy Davey as they pour six wines spanning three of Hungary’s great wine regions.

From dry Furmint of Tokaj to Hárslevelű from the slopes of an extinct volcano to sweet botrytized wine to chillable Siller of Swabian origin to the hyper-traditional Bull’s Blood, this is an outstanding lineup. Apart from tasting these wines, learn from the expertise of two fellows who have spent time in the homes, vineyards, and cellars of the winemakers they’ll be pouring.

purchase tickets here, $20