What We Do

We are a retail bottle and gourmet shop with a small service bar. We focus on finding hard to find beverages and food items and will track down anything that is available in the state of Oregon, if you ask. We have a collection of wines, beers, and ciders from all over the world, but love to highlight small, independent producers. We carry a lot of wines from the Columbia Gorge, but we encourage you to visit one of the many local tasting rooms in The Dalles if you are looking for wineries from the immediate area. The Gorge Wine Library also specializes in wines from The Dalles.

A few things about our space…

  • We don’t have a kitchen, but we have a large pantry and cooler full of snacks that you’re welcome to enjoy in house. You can also support a local restaurant and bring in takeout.

  • We are both family and pet friendly.

  • Racist and sexist behavior will not be tolerated in our space. If we feel you are creating an unsafe environment for our staff or guests you will be asked to leave.

  • We have live music every first Friday, host an open bluegrass jam on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month, and a salsa dancing night on the 3rd Thursday.

Our Team

Matt Hensel

Matt owns and operates Wines on Second, as well as 45th Parallel Wines in Portland, Oregon. He grew up in Eastern Oregon and spent many weekends playing baseball, wrestling, and marching in The Cherry Festival Parade in The Dalles. After a first career in social work he found himself working for Chef Jose Andres’ ThinkFoodGroup in Washington, D.C. where he began his journey into the world of wine over a decade ago. He has developed wine programs for restaurants on both coasts, from neighborhood eateries to 2 star Michelin tasting menus, and has owned his own wine shop since 2017.

He is a Certified Master of drinking beer and cider, an advanced-novice painter of D&D miniatures, and a level-4 journeyman of both lazy flower arranging and terrarium composition. If you care about actual wine certifications, ask, he’ll reluctantly list them and give you his honest opinion on The Court of Master Sommeliers, The Wine and Spirits Education Trust, and The Society of Wine Educators. One of them he even endorses! If you’d rather come in, relax, and enjoy a good drink (alcoholic or not) everyone will have a better time.

Livi

Livi may not be with us long, but we’ll keep her as long as we can! Pop into the shop and convince her that she shouldn’t move home after completing her project with Americorps VISTA. She has been working with the OSU Extension Office, as well as several other community partners, on issues related to food justice. She is a seasoned crafter, crocheter, seamstress, baker, and quite the piano player!

You can find her arts and crafts on instagram: @hmm.im.thinking

Keep Livi in The Dalles… #livi2024

Timber

Timber is a foster parent coordinator with The Next Door by day and a shop badass by night. She is also a member of Gorge Roller Derby, loves gardening, studying astrology, and is passionate about prison reform. If that isn’t impressive enough, she cut her teeth bar tending at The Iron Horse Saloon in her hometown of Sturgis, South Dakota. If you don’t know what that means, that means she can bounce your ass out if you’re getting sideways. We provide no space for disrespectful or unsafe behavior. Ever.

Photo Credit Kathy Pothier

David

David grew up in The Dalles and teaches physical education at St. Mary’s Catholic School. He is always asking questions and learning, is pretty good at falling off his skateboard, but is incredible at distance running. He is also one of the kindest people on the planet, even if he is a Dodgers fan. His family owns Smoke Wring BBQ, right down the street from the shop, if you’re looking for a great place to eat and hang out. Just a reminder… outside food is always welcome.

Shannon

Online classified ads can be a real disaster, but we got pretty lucky when Shannon responded to the only one we’ve ever taken out. She met the two most important qualifications 1) she likes houseplants 2) she likes Martin Denny. She scored big bonus points for also liking gardening, vintage cars, and taking wine courses at UC Davis. You may find her doing some part-time work at Loop de Loop Wines when she isn’t picking up shifts at the shop. She also has a real job working as part of a medical team working on a psychedelics research project. Did we mention she has her PhD? Yep. Keep up with her if you can.