Travel Salem President and CEO Angie Morris with Willamette Valley Vineyards Founder and President Jim Bernau.

Earlier this Fall,  Willamette Valley Vineyards (WVV) and Travel Salem’s award-winning Travel Café Visitors Center launched a partnership to benefit Salem residents and visitors.  Travel Cafe now offers visitors and local consumers the opportunity to taste the “Fruit of the Vine” by creating a tasting room and retail outlet for their high-quality, sustainable wines at the Travel Café. In addition, Travel Salem’s conference room has been named the “Willamette Room” sponsored by WVV.

This unique partnership between a winery/vineyard and a tourism agency will allow visitors to experience wine from one of Oregon’s oldest and most sustainable wineries, and pique their interest to learn more about WVV and the region’s rich wine country. This new
concept will ultimately lead to an increased regional economic impact from tourism. “Willamette Valley Vineyards is proud to be partnering with Travel Salem’s revolutionary Travel Café,” says Jim Bernau, founder and president of WVV. “This new downtown
facility is one of the major touch points for visitors to the Salem area. Offering tastes of wine at this location will grow visitor interest in the Oregon wine industry — one of our region’s most valuable assets — and help make lifelong Salem area customers of some of
these visitors.”

“Part of the original vision for the Travel Café, this innovative partnership provides yet another reason for visitors to make the Salem area a stop on their journey,” explained Travel Salem President and CEO Angie Morris. “By serving as a mini-attraction, the Travel Café seeks to give visitors a taste of what the region has to offer. We wanted a partner that exemplified the best of the tourism industry – innovation, sustainability and an internationally recognized brand. We got all of that and more with Willamette Valley Vineyards.

This partnership expands on Travel Salem’s commitment to reinvent the way a community connects with visitors and local consumers. The Travel Café offers Garmin GPS units preprogrammed with Salem area tours, AbsolutelyTix ticketing network, Wi-Fi access, plasma screens with ads and scrolling events, and now wine-tasting with WVV. The Travel Café is becoming an attraction in and of itself!

Wine-tasting will be available Monday-Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at the Travel Café located at 181 High St. NE, Salem. Eight distinctive wines will be featured; offering something for every palate. The wines will be served using a state-of-the-art Enomatic
wine serving system. Visitors and local consumers can purchase four tastes for $6.00, which will include a one-of-a-kind Riedel wine glass. Bottles of WVV wines are also available for purchase.