Rogue Valley faring better than other Oregon wine regions amid industry-wide downturn

Thanks for having us.

Thank you, Dave.

Pleasure to be here.

Eric, your family is one of the original Rogue Valley winemakers.

As I understand it, your parents started planting grapes in 1978 when you were a kid, and started the winery about 10 years after that.

Was there a wine industry in the area when your family started?

So back in 1978 when they planted, um, there was one other winery that was in the area.

It was actually out in the Applegate, not too far from a little town called Rougem.

Other than that, there really wasn't.

Um, and by the time, uh, we built the winery in '88, um, at that point, I believe there was about f- four that were out in the Applegate, but we were the only one that was here in the A- Ashland, Medford area.

Uh, the Oregon wine industry, or at least the, uh, Rogue Valley wine industry, was just beginning to start in earnest.

What were people saying to your family about doing this? I mean, so at, at this point, the, the Willamette Valley was w- was more established, still sort of an upstart, you know, as far as some French people-

Mm-hmm

... would, would look at Oregon or maybe Californians w- would look North.

But it was certainly more established.

I'm curious what people would say to folks said, "I wanna grow grapes, I wanna make wine in Southern Oregon."

Yeah.

Um, my father was called crazy a lot, um-

There we are.

[laughs] Okay

...

there were people...

Yeah.

Um, you know, there are people that, uh, that said this, this, this was crazy.

"You can't grow grapes here.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you, Dave.

Pleasure to be here.

Eric, your family is one of the original Rogue Valley winemakers.

As I understand it, your parents started planting grapes in 1978 when you were a kid, and started the winery about 10 years after that.

Was there a wine industry in the area when your family started?

So back in 1978 when they planted, um, there was one other winery that was in the area.

It was actually out in the Applegate, not too far from a little town called Rougem.

Other than that, there really wasn't.

Um, and by the time, uh, we built the winery in '88, um, at that point, I believe there was about f- four that were out in the Applegate, but we were the only one that was here in the A- Ashland, Medford area.

Uh, the Oregon wine industry, or at least the, uh, Rogue Valley wine industry, was just beginning to start in earnest.

What were people saying to your family about doing this? I mean, so at, at this point, the, the Willamette Valley was w- was more established, still sort of an upstart, you know, as far as some French people-

Mm-hmm

... would, would look at Oregon or maybe Californians w- would look North.

But it was certainly more established.

I'm curious what people would say to folks said, "I wanna grow grapes, I wanna make wine in Southern Oregon."

Yeah.

Um, my father was called crazy a lot, um-

There we are.

[laughs] Okay

...

there were people...

Yeah.

Um, you know, there are people that, uh, that said this, this, this was crazy.

"You can't grow grapes here.