Valley Wine Merchants Celebrates 10th Year in Newberg

“My first question is: What do you normally drink?” said Valley Wine Merchants owner Andrew Turner. “Sometimes they can’t answer that, and that’s fine. But I like to get the context of what they’ve experienced and then we go from there.”

Valley Wine Merchants is unassuming from the outside. Even when you step inside, the quiet space, almost entirely covered by warm wood, usually has only one or two people—if any—leading to some confusion about how a wine bar operates without much foot traffic. Patio diners at Lemon & Olive Mediterranean Restaurant might peer in through the windows to see what’s happening from time to time.

But the wine shop has been humming along, supporting customers in Newberg and across the country with unique, curated wine club shipments and recommendations from Turner, who starts with that very first question.

Turner describes what happens next almost as if he’s a jazz musician improvising. He talks about his customer database and the wealth of information about each member’s tasting profile. He explains how some people come in saying they only like pinot. Once they understand what part of pinot they like, they realize there are other wines out there. Some people just like pinot, and Turner makes it his mission to find some of the most interesting pinots in the world.

The value of Valley Wine Merchants isn’t just the collection of 420 bottles on the wall—although those are meticulously curated, Turner says, for flavor profiles and price points. The true value comes from his database—a long-running (10 years, to be exact) document containing each member’s preferences and dislikes, which he uses to precisely order wines that will work for segments of his club members.

“My goal is really just to listen and to hear them where they are,” Turner said. “Then I say, ‘You’re going to love this.’ Then we segue them into the bounty of the Willamette Valley.”

Turner started his career at 14 after he received an opportunity to work in fine dining. His Southern California high school had a program that sent students to local businesses to learn trades. He, “by luck of the draw,” was sent to a fine dining restaurant, where he appreciated the discipline and hierarchy of the finely tuned operation.

After high school, he went directly to culinary school in San Francisco, where his curriculum included “Intro to Wine” classes. On weekends, he took chartered trips to regional wineries in neighboring Napa and Sonoma counties.

“It was like 10 or 20 bucks to go on these trips to some of the greatest wineries in the world—I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Turner continued his journey in the culinary world around California, working at famed Michelin-starred restaurants such as Fleur de Lys and Patina. He realized he wanted to make a change, and on a whim, he moved to Vermont to take a head chef position. There, he met his future wife Michelle, who was living in New York City at the time.

He was visiting Michelle on Sept. 11, 2001—a day that changed the course of history for millions globally. Turner said that experience forced him to re-evaluate what was important in life.

“I think the convergence of finding this relationship that was something new and special for me, with this world-altering event, changed my perspective,” he said. “I wanted to find balance in life. Suddenly, working 12 to 14 hours a day didn’t seem right. My whole life I had been fighting for my career, and nothing was more important. And now, for the first time in my life, I had something else to fight for.”

He and Michelle started making plans to find a lifestyle away from the hustle and bustle of New York City. Turner had dreams of returning to Sonoma County, but the real estate market had other ideas. Michelle brought up the idea of Portland, and the up-and-coming city made sense to them.

“We didn’t know a ton about Portland at the time, but we thought, ‘Well hey, that’s probably like Sonoma was about 15 to 20 years ago, right?’” he said. “Then we realized that moving to Napa would mean plugging into a machine but not really being able to carve anything out for yourself. Oregon had a lot of possibilities.”

The two moved to Oregon in 2003. Without a job, Turner started exploring the surrounding areas. He had explored wine country on an earlier trip and made a few inroads. Despite his lack of wine industry experience, he secured a job working a harvest and then a tasting room management position with Ponzi Vineyards at the Ponzi Wine Bar in Dundee (formerly next to the Dundee Bistro). 

His experience at Ponzi helped him understand how to manage a customer database, which he utilized to help people find new or interesting wines based on their preferences and flavor profiles. The lifestyle worked for him, the challenge kept him interested, and the customers were supportive and appreciative. After his 10-year tenure, he realized he wanted to do it for himself.

On the weekend after Memorial Day in 2014, Valley Wine Merchants opened its doors to a community of wine lovers looking for someone to help guide them through the winding roads of wine. Utilizing his database, he sourced wines locally, nationally, and abroad that fit his members’ parameters.

It’s not easy work, but it’s worth the effort. Turner estimates that the average wine club has a rough 20–30% dropout rate, which he feels is due to a variety of reasons, including that most wine clubs are fairly constant person to person and don’t take preferences into account. Each dropout means more work to market to new customers to backfill those vacancies, which takes time away from curating shipments, continuing the cycle.

By putting his effort into individual connections, Turner feels his members are more satisfied with each shipment, leading to more members staying on his roster, allowing him to spend more time and money sourcing the right bottles for his club members.

“There are, of course, some big, crowd-pleaser wines that I know most everyone will enjoy,” he said. “But finding those unique bottles, those special bottles that I know one person or a few people will absolutely like, and then finding the people who may enjoy them but not know it yet—that’s really special.”

Turner wants to drill back into being a member of the Newberg and Willamette Valley community. When he first opened, he hosted tasting events where he would find a special or cellar bottle, open it, and share it with anyone who wanted to come into the shop and taste.

It’s been more difficult to schedule and market those tastings, but it’s something he wants to get back to. That, along with his local pick-up only “Every Day Wine Club,” he hopes people see Valley Wine Merchants as the Newberg locals’ wine shop, similar to how someone in a community might view a butcher or a baker

“It’s a small business of a bygone era,” he said. “You’d go into a place, they’d know you, they’d know what you like and don’t like. You can get the same thing or get trusted recommendations. It’s a sense of community in every aspect.”

As he marches toward 11, 15, or 20 years in operation, he hopes to reconnect with that side of the business—helping people learn more about wine alongside him, while finding the perfect bottle for the occasion.

“Whether it’s a bottle you’re taking to a friend’s house to drink on the porch, or you’re taking it to a special dinner and it has to make you look good,” he said, “that’s my goal. All I want is for you to be proud of that wine and help you get to wherever you want to go.”

Valley Wine Merchants is located at 112 S College Street in Newberg and is open from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Learn more at valleywinemerchants.com.