Inside Amaterra, the Sprawling Winery and Restaurant Perched in the West Haven-Sylvan Hills
Amaterra opened on Wednesday with a menu of Pacific seafood, Swedish meatballs, and estate-grown pinot noir
Amaterra — a winery, 12-acre vineyard, restaurant, and tasting room perched in the hills of West Haven-Sylvan — sits on the end of Swede Hill Drive, an area once populated by Scandinavian farmers and immigrants in the late 1800s. It was something Jami Flatt, the chef at Amaterra’s restaurant, wanted to capture on the menu, one facet of the restaurant’s overarching ethos, literally rooted in the Pacific Northwest. So, while the restaurant was under construction, he and his 4-year-old son made meatballs in his home kitchen, using an amalgamation of guidance from chefs and friends he’s worked with over the years.
Now that Amaterra’s opulent, immense headquarters are now open to the public, Flatt makes his Swedish meatballs every night, accompanied by white-wine-leek cream and red currant jam, topped with crispy Oregon sunchokes. “As I’m seeing it evolve over time, I want it to be a signature dish at Amaterra — you could always come to Amaterra and get the Swede Hill meatballs, and they will reflect the season,” he says. “To have a dish that was so good even before we had a kitchen that was open, to know that it has a sense of place, to be able to involve my family, it feels really good.”
Amaterra’s physical space supports and provides the inspiration for every facet of the estate. The grapes growing around the property become the wine served in the tasting room, which the kitchen uses as a jumping-off point for the menu. By the summer, a garden among the vines will provide herbs and produce for the restaurant. Its colossal, multi-story building is encircled by a patio and veranda, where people can drink wine with views of the estate. And its proximity to downtown — 10 to 15 minutes, driving — make it unlike any other urban winery in the area, a true Portland vineyard. “We’re trying to do something here that we haven’t seen done really anywhere,” says CEO Marcus Breuer. “It’s accessible in a way that no other serious vineyard is, but also we have access to awesome culinary talent... You can come there and expect to see friends and people you know, which gives it a sense of community.”
Amaterra encompasses a 45,000 square foot space, with a gravity-flow winery producing about 10,000 cases each vintage, a wedding venue, a lawn for events, a restaurant, a bar, and tasting room. It’s also one of the only private wineries in the area; that’s less of a country-club, apply-to-be-considered situation, and more of a one-time, $25 fee made with your first dinner or tasting room reservation.
Robbie Wilson, the owner of the now-closed Botanist, heads up the cocktail program with drinks like Hemingway daiquiris and Grey Goose martinis, but Amaterra is a winery first — a message echoed in the kitchen, as well.
“Our food needs to be an ally to the wine,” Flatt says. Lucky for him, the winery is home to two wine labels — Amaterra, which uses estate and contracted grapes for its Northern Willamette Valley pinot noir and cold-weather chardonnay, and 51Weeks, winemaker Matt Vuylsteke’s personal label featuring larger Italian and French varietals from Oregon and Washington vineyards. Each dish on the menu is paired with a specific wine from the cellar; for example, smoked pork osso bucco with crispy sweet potatoes should work well with Amaterra’s 2017 Swede Hill pinot noir, while the New York steak frites in a green peppercorn-cognac cream sauce is well-suited to 51Weeks’ 2016 Super Cascadian, a blend of Columbia Valley petit verdot and Willamette Valley pinot noir.
