He and his wife, Karen, a biochemist, purchased Miller Ranch in 2000, planted vines in 2007 and opened their chateau that same year. Ed Kerwin began as a NASA engineer before becoming a research physician focused on allergies and immunology. I decided 16 vintages in eight years was enough.”Īcross the Bear Creek Valley is Belle Fiore, the former cattle ranch that’s been transformed into a stunning estate winery, vineyard and tasting room by the Kerwin family. “I’ve kind of retired from the two-hemisphere winemaking. “This has been the first time in eight years I’ve been home during April,” he said with a chuckle. Eric Weisinger took over the winemaking in 1997, yet he’s worked twice as many harvests as one might believe because he’s been involved with crush in New Zealand for most of the past decade. The family remains bullish on Malbec and Tempranillo but also is championing Syrah and Grenache. Their 1991 Petit Pompadour made with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec was one of Oregon’s first Meritage-style blends. They’ve since added Pinot Noir and Tempranillo to that vineyard, and they source from sites nearby. It was a decade before John Weisinger, a Texan, created his winery using that Gewürztraminer planted at 2,224 feet elevation. Dad was digging the holes, so we all had a job.”
My two younger sisters and I planted those in June and July 1979. “He and Frank became friends, and Frank sold my father 600 cuttings of Gewürztraminer. “My father heard about Frank Wisnovsky at Valley View Vineyards in the Applegate Valley growing grapes,” Eric Weisinger said. To get a sense of the wine history in the Bear Creek Valley, it’s ideal to start with Weisinger Family Winery, which bottles about 2,000 cases per year. At this point, 72 hours can provide for a nearly complete experience, but the amount of investment, vision and talent by these vintners will prompt folks to return for more exploration. “We still rely a little too heavily on California for visitors, which make up almost 75 percent, with most of them coming from the Bay Area, and 20 to 25 percent are from Portland and Seattle and other parts of the Northwest.”įor those attending the evening performances, Ashland’s emerging wine industry offers delicious and scenic day trips. “It’s a destination for sure,” Donovan said. The festival estimated that in 2015, those tourists spent $50 million in Ashland and the impact statewide from the festival was $262 million. Perhaps more importantly from a tourism standpoint is that a Shakespeare attendee from out of town stays an average of 3.3 nights.
In 2015, attendance for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival was 390,380, and a staggering 88 percent of those tickets are sold to patrons visiting Ashland. It’s grown into a 4-acre campus near Lithia Park that has played host to each of Shakespeare’s 37 plays. He had the vision of using the single remaining wall of a historic Ashland building as the backdrop for Shakespeare plays. The famous repertory theater was established in 1935 by Angus Bowmer, a drama professor at what is now Southern Oregon University. Tickets to Oregon Shakespeare Festival performances are not inexpensive - ranging from $30 to $110 - and the combined capacity of the three theaters is about 2,000. Quality, not the cost, has been the driving force of local wines in Ashland restaurants.
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