Jens & Julie

THAT’S US! THE DAY WE MET.

We were on a train in Berlin. It was 1990. I was traveling with girlfriends in Europe after college. Jens was in med school, visiting his step-mom for the weekend. The Berlin Wall had come down the previous fall and so travelers were flooding into the city. The overnight train to Munich was packed, and Jens and I ended up standing next to each other in the corridor. We talked until 5 in the morning when we finally got a seat. It was so fun. And then it was ‘goodbye’. But not for long, as it turned out. Over the next couple years we stayed in touch with letters, some mixed tapes (yes!) and finally a visit where it became obvious this was the real deal.

Life has been full of adventures since then—living in Germany, Jens’ medical career, lots of traveling, getting married, moving to Seattle, having 2 kids — and opening Portalis, which we did in 2003. Portalis feels like a natural extension of us. It’s a neighborhood place where everyone can feel welcome—whether you know a little or a lot about wine. Where you can always find awesome, delicious, well-priced wines. And where you’ll always find as much no-nonsense insight as you’d like.

We’re not a place where you’ll find mass-produced wines (not that there’s anything wrong with those). It’s just our preference to focus on wines from small family estates and community co-ops. That led us to create J. Strecker Selections, a Seattle-based wine import & distribution company. Jens (aka J. Strecker) has a gift for selecting incredible wines that people love—and having an import company allows us to introduce amazing, undiscovered wines to the Seattle market. Many wines in Portalis are from J. Strecker Selections, and we also import wine for other wine shops, restaurants and grocery stores throughout the city.

Thanks for supporting your neighborhood wine shop!

Hope to see you soon,
Julie & Jens