I have a feature article in Oregon Business Magazine called “A Region Uncorked” about the growing success of the Southern Oregon wine industry.
The small town of Talent would not, at first blush, seem like a place where the southern Oregon wine industry would thrive.
But it is.
Beautiful and verdant back roads
As I explain in my article, storage warehouses, auto body shops and junk stores line Talent’s industrial strip along Highway 99.
But turn down Rapp Lane and you’ll quickly find yourself on some of Southern Oregon’s most beautiful and verdant back roads, driving past white goats and a piebald horse munching dry grass amid several black cows staring blankly at green hills dotted with snow.
An extended growing season adds life to southern Oregon wine
Southern Oregon has an extended growing season. This countryside lies between two of the region’s fastest-growing cities, Ashland and Medford. With its warm weather and fertile soil, it has long been celebrated as a fruit-growing region.
The first pear trees were planted in the late 19th century and dozens of eager business pioneers from the East Coast and the Midwest rushed to Oregon to buy land.
But in the past ten years there has been an enormous shift from planting fruit trees to planting higher-value grape vines.
With that has come an explosion of new wineries. This year alone, winery owners planted more than half a dozen new vineyards.
Currently over 60 vineyards in Southern Oregon hold winery licenses.
Owner of Trium weighs in
“When we planted our grapes in 1990, there were six wineries. And about 350 acres of grapes in the Rogue Appellation,” says Laura Lotspeich. Her winery, Trium, is located at the top of the hill on Rapp Lane.
The Rogue Appellation extends from the California border north to Grants Pass. It includes the Applegate Valley, the Illinois Valley, the Rogue River Valley, and the Bear Creek Valley.
Today there are 67 wineries and over 3,000 acres of grapes planted. “Much of that growth has happened in the past five to 10 years,” says Lotspeich
Read my full article about Southern Oregon wine here.
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