I’m Jake Newman. The Portland Logbook is my love letter to this city: the food worth hunting down, the history that refuses to die, the corners you only find if you’re paying attention.

The Best Wine Shop in Portland, and Most People Still Do Not Know It

There are wine shops that stock bottles, and then there is Maine & Loire, the kind of place that quietly teaches you how to taste without making you feel like you are being taught.

I have been buying wine there for just about 2 years now, but not because I am some expert swirling and sniffing like I am on the Food Network. Most of my life, I just grabbed wine from Trader Joe’s like a raccoon on autopilot. Red label, under twenty bucks, good enough. Then I walked into Maine & Loire and Peter ruined me in the best way.

I will walk in and say something vague like “I want something bright but not sweet,” and he will hand me a bottle that ends up being dead-on. Not close. Dead-on. He has done this so many times that at this point I think he might be clairvoyant.

And here is something most people do not realize. They have an under twenty dollar section that is actually good. Not good for the price. Not fine for weeknights. Actually exciting. Wines that taste like they should be $32 and sell for $18. It feels borderline criminal.

Peter and Orenda Hale run the shop with quiet conviction. Two people who believe wine should taste like somewhere, not like something engineered.

Before Maine & Loire, they ran Drifters Wife. It became so many people’s answer to “What was your favorite place to eat in Portland?” Even now, you will hear it. “Well… it was Drifters Wife, but now it’s…” The city is still trying to fill that space.

Drifters Wife was not a detour. It was the proof of concept. When Portland was not quite ready to understand natural wine, they did not water it down. They opened a restaurant and let the food translate. One glass alongside Ben Jackson’s cooking and suddenly natural wine stopped being an idea and became a feeling.

Portland still misses Drifters Wife. But we still have Maine and Loire. And that matters.

So here is my real recommendation. I am not saying you have to become the kind of person who only shops at specialty stores. I will still panic buy a bottle at the grocery store when I am late to dinner. But when I want something worth opening, I go to Maine and Loire.

Check out Maine and Lorie

Why We Stay: Notes from an Island Full of Portland Musicians Who Could’ve Left But Didn’t

We didn’t bring much that would suggest we were musicians. No amps. No cables. Not even a keyboard. Just duffel bags full of wool socks, a suspicious amount of winter squash, and enough Maine apples to make it look like we were fleeing societal collapse. The only instrument in sight was one guitar, which Sean immediately started drilling a hole into the moment we arrived, like he was fixing cabinetry. No explanation. Felt right.

It was me, Sean Oshima of the Oshima Brothers, James McLaughlin, and three members of Palaver Strings, all sitting around a suspended wood stove hanging from the ceiling on Vinalhaven like a support group for people who realized they’d already won the location lottery. Nobody was performing. Nobody was trying to be interesting. It was cozy-bordering-on-silent.

We got hiking advice from the former island doctor, who delivered it like a prophecy. He told us about a “very interesting trail, very hard to find,” and then leaned in like he was revealing state secrets and said, “It has... a microclimate.” He repeated it multiple times. Microclimate like it was the main selling point. He could have told us there were goblins in there and I would have asked fewer questions.

Naturally, microclimate became our only vocabulary word for the rest of the trip.

We eventually made it out to Starboard Rock Sanctuary, which turned out to be exactly the microclimate he was talking about. Boulders covered in a foot of moss, lime green, yellow, and sky blue, like the coastline had decided to grow shag carpet. The kind of view that makes you mad you ever considered living somewhere else.

Maya French, fully experiencing the microclimate.

Somewhere in the squash we packed like settlers, the silence, and nature going full special effects budget, it hit me.

Almost every one of them had left Maine at some point. Boston, New York, wherever musicians are supposedly supposed to go. But they all came back.

Not because Portland is easy. Not because it is cheaper. Not because it is trendy. If anything, leaving made it obvious how rare it is to live somewhere that still feels human. Somewhere you can make things without hardening yourself first.

Nobody said any of that out loud. They did not need to. It was clear in the way nobody checked their phone for hours. In the way everyone moved slower without apologizing for it. In the way a wood stove and a microclimate felt like a full belief system.

The Oshima Brothers are playing October 18th at Portland House of Music. If you need to remember why you live in Maine, go hear him. I’ll be there too. It’s cheaper than therapy and warmer than baseboard heat.

Palaver Strings is doing a show just weeks later, their Port City show on November 7th at the Crewe Center is live tango and people dancing like the floor is on fire.

Oshima Brother Bash Tickets

Palaver Strings Tango Tickets

THIS WEEKS CONDITIONS
☀️ SUNRISE: 6:54 AM
🌅 SUNSET: 5:58 PM
🛳 Tourist Level: Moderate. ~13K cruise passengers in town Wed–Mon,
☁️ AIR QUALITY: Crisp & Clean
🌊 SEA TEMP: 56°F (Casco Bay, wetsuit season for anyone sane)
🍁 FOLIAGE WATCH: Peaking in Town / Full Blaze Inland (50–80%)

🐾 Adoptable Buddies of the Week! 🐾

🐶 Rosco – 8 months
30 pounds of pure puppy joy. Wiggles, zoomies, and total friendliness. Still learning manners but eager to please. Ideal for someone who wants a playful sidekick.

🐱 Banker – 2 yrs
Fluffy, confident, and knows exactly what she wants. Affectionate on her terms and happy to supervise from a cozy spot. Best as the only cat in a calm home.

🐦 Iris and 7 Friends – 4 yrs
All seven budgies come together. Bright, social, and constantly chatting. Instant atmosphere. If you want your home to feel like morning in the tropics, this flock delivers.

🐕 Interested? Check them out here