Soča Wine Shop

Months ago I read a local news article about a wine bar opening out in the Columbia River Gorge called “Soča” after the Soča River in Slovenia. Pedro and I were excited to hear about it because we spent a lovely day along that very river in 2021 with our friends Manja and Marco. We decided that we definitely would make the drive to find the bar one day. It’s in a town called White Salmon, Washington- two and a half hours from my home, so not a very convenient location. We tried on my birthday this year, but it was closed.

Saturday was a gorgeous day that begged to be hiked in. More importantly, all our insane getting-the-house-ready-to-sell work was done. I left the property in the capable hands of our real estate agent to have a two-day open house, and we had an entire weekend of leisure. We haven’t had one of those in MONTHS.

A couple days ago, Manja and I were talking about the Soča wine bar again. She suggested a trail, which is an obvious compliment to a trip out into the Gorge. Saturday was Washington Trails Day, which was a sign. We basically had to go.

We hiked Beacon Rock first, and I’ll get to those photos later, but today I wanted to show you the Soča Wine Bar in White Salmon. My brother Tanner’s wife Laurie grew up in White Salmon, so we messaged her while we were there to say we were thinking of her. She messaged back that it’s a perfect place to spend a beautiful day.

White Salmon is just across the river from the Oregon town of Hood River, which is well known around here as a place to spend a sunny weekend. The area is world famous for windsailing. We saw the river packed with kites of all sorts attached to people, but could never find a suitable place to pull over and get a good photo.

In the photo of the river above, I zoomed in and counted TWENTY-NINE windsurfers in that shot, but it’s with a phone camera, from the car, as we were driving, so they are just too tiny and blurry to show up in this format.

We spent over an hour at Soča and it was filled with patrons the entire time, seated inside and also outside at the comfortable and spacious patio with umbrellas. Pedro and I half expected to see the Union dragon on the umbrellas, as we had seen everywhere in Slovenia when we were there.

One thing that caught my eye about Soča Wine Bar is that the colour of their logo is perfect. It brings to mind immediately the colour of the Soča River. That logo you saw on the menu and on the wall at the entrance doorway, is painted a compelling turquoise. That logo colour is no accident.

It is purely wine bar, not a restaurant, but we had been hiking for hours and were starving. Luckily, they offer a selection of gourmet nibbles to go with the wine. We were so hungry we devoured the food the moment it arrived at our table and we did not take any photos. We enjoyed White Bean Panzanella with fresh herbs and radish, Summer Vegetable Crudités with bagna càuda (sauce of garlic and anchovies), and finally the Toasted Baguette and Cultured Butter, which is an outstanding fresh baguette with the butter only, but we used it for the remaining bagna càuda.

We tried four wines – two red and two white. Pedro started with the Vallana Cuvée Bernardo Spanna 2018. Piedmont, Italy and I asked for the Poberaj Wines Mencia 2022. Columbia Gorge, USA because a note on the menu said it was a wine by one of the proprietors, Jure Poberaj. I found out later that Poberaj comes from a famous Slovenian wine family. The other owners are Nina Jimenez and Bethany Kimmel. Bethany was there the day we visited.

Next, I tried the Vigneti Massa Piccolo Derthona 2021. Piedmont, Italy and Pedro asked for a glass of Chateau de Rougeon Arénites 2020. Burgundy, France. We both decided that we had liked the reds better than the whites we chose. I had loved every single sip of my red, and fell in love with the Poberaj and tried to buy a bottle, but was told I was drinking from the very last one of the Mencia. A fair substitute would be the Nebbiolo, Bethany said. So I bought that one.

Before we left, we introduced ourselves to Bethany and told her how excited we were to be there because we had so recently spent time at the Soča River. She was very pleased that we had told her. She said most people who come in know nothing about the river or even that the place is named after a river. Bethany confessed that she had not yet seen it herself, but hoped to. We eagerly showed photos of ourselves at the river and I pointed out the unmistakable turquoise colour that I saw reflected in the logo.