We are Wayne and Camille Oppenheimer, the King and Queen of wine country. When you book a tour with us we’ll be your first contact — and maybe even your guides. We met in wine country and together have developed one of the top-rated wine tour businesses in Oregon. Our years of working in this industry, our experiences, and building our circle of friends and colleagues along the way were really training for being the ultimate tour guides.
I grew up in Beaverton, a great suburb of Portland, and my love for Oregon wines began in the mid-1980s. At that time there were only a handful of wineries here in the Northern Willamette Valley — today there are over 500. Back then wine tasting was just a hobby, but in the mid-90s I took it a little more seriously and made the decision to move to the Napa Valley in California. Not turning my back on Oregon, just broadening my knowledge and understanding of west coast wines. I was lucky to have been there when I was — I got to know Robert Mondavi while working at Mondavi Winery, and let’s face it, in the mid-90s the Napa Valley was cool as F#&!.
Eventually my wandering heart and love of wine led me back to Oregon, where I started A Great Oregon Wine Tour with a minivan, a winery map, a website, and a fancy new flip phone.
I opened a small wine shop in SE Portland called WineUp Wine Merchants. Life was simple, exciting, and a great adventure. The wine shop is where I really learned about wines from all over the world, and out on the wine tours is where I really learned about Oregon wines. And if managing a wine shop and an emerging wine tour business wasn’t enough, I started a show on the internet called WineUpTV.com. It was a blast — I got to interview distributors and winemakers, both local and, when they were in Portland, winemakers from all over the world. I filmed from my wine shop, I filmed in wine country, I filmed wherever I thought would be fun and interesting. You can still see my old shows on YouTube.
Fast forward a couple of years to May of 2009. One afternoon, while out meeting tasting room managers and learning my way around this ever-growing region, I ran into Camille. She was selling winemaking equipment at the time, and the rest, as they say, is rock ‘n’ roll.
So I am not a native Oregonian — I grew up in Orange County, California, the land of warm beaches, Disneyland, and Saturday night L.A. club hopping. Ice cold beer and sweet cocktails were my beverages of choice; I really didn’t care for wine at all. My friends were drinking wine and I wanted to be in on their wine conversations, so I read articles and books on wine tasting and learned how to taste and appreciate it. Never would I have believed that one day I’d be co-owner of a wine tour company in Oregon. Heck, I worked for Pacific Bell for over 13 years — I thought I’d retire from there and live in California for the rest of my life.
In the fall of 1996, an opportunity to move to Oregon presented itself. As a single mom, the idea of getting my children out of the rat race of Southern California and into the beautiful Pacific Northwest sounded pretty good, and off we went.
We lived in a little farm town just east of Salem (the state capital) that reminded me of Mayberry. I got a job as the Credit Manager for a food co-op called NORPAC — it was a mile from our house and across the field from the high school. Perfect.
In November of 1999 I applied for a seasonal job at Willamette Valley Vineyards, a wine elf so to speak. I did grocery store demos, worked in the tasting room, and helped people put gift baskets together for the holidays. It was so much fun, not like work at all. At the end of my holiday stint the owner of the winery approached me about staying on permanently. We worked out a few details, I was hired in January of 2000, and I’ve worked in the Oregon wine industry ever since.
I left Willamette Valley Vineyards in the spring of 2005 to work for myself. I formed a company called Bacchus And Friends, where I offered tasting room management and profitability consulting, wine club design, and a bit of staffing. I also became an independent rep for a capital lease company offering financing for wineries, and eventually started selling winemaking equipment for one of my customers. For 6 years I drove all over the state of Oregon offering my services to wineries — I’ve met just about every winemaker, tasting room manager, and production manager in the state.
Then, in the spring of 2009, I was at Lange Estate Winery talking to Jessie Lange about upgrading his wine press. When I left the building and headed to the parking lot, I met Wayne — a handsome guy with a wine shop and a tour company — and the rest, as they say, was history. We got married August 1st, 2015, and I think we make great life partners and business partners.
Give someone a day in wine country — they pick the tour, they pick the date.
Corporate events, bachelorette parties, and celebrations — built for bigger groups.
Cancellation prior to 7 days of tour, refund is 100%.
Cancellation under 7 days of your tour will be subject to a 50% charge of the tour amount.
Cancellation without notice or less than 24 hours notice will be charged 100% of the tour amount.
Wayne started the company in 2009 with a minivan, a winery map, and a website. Camille joined as co-owner shortly after, and the two have been running the business together ever since.
They might be! When you book a tour, Wayne and Camille are your first point of contact, and depending on the day, one of them could be guiding your tour personally.
Yes. It’s a husband-and-wife owned and operated business based in Portland, with deep roots in the Oregon wine industry going back to the mid-1980s.
