Experience ALL that the Southern Oregon wine scene offers, check-out these NEW tasting rooms and a few other must-visit spots.

Whether you’re lucky enough to be a local or you came to Southern Oregon to visit Crater Lake, attend the Britt Festival, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival or to fly fish or raft the Rogue River, we encourage you make the time to explore wine country.

While here, you can visit our early pioneering wineries like Valley View Winery and Weisinger Family Winery—and also check out fabulous newbies like Hummingbird Estate and Walport Family Cellars. The options are unlimited…all you need to bring along is your enthusiasm and palate!

Enjoy the Jacksonville Area

When exploring the Historic Landmark town of Jacksonville, be sure to check FENCES’ website or Facebook page to see if its exquisite Bellinger Lane residence/tasting room is open for wine tasting that day—or call a few days ahead for an appointment. You’ll be glad you did. The story goes that Jody and David Lennon and their three sons escaped New York for a change of lifestyle and to pursue their dream of making wine. In the two years since they released their first vintage, FENCES Winery has met with enormous success. This small 8-acre vineyard, which focuses on Cabernet Sauvignon, has hit the mark. The excellence of the wine is only surpassed by the hospitality and charm of Jody and David, making this winery a must-visit. Be sure to check online or call for an appointment and make this your day’s first stop.

From there, continue on into downtown Jacksonville and then stop in to see Duane and Kathy Bowman at Cricket Hill’s tasting room at the historic McCully House Inn on the corner of California and Fifth streets. The new tasting room offers a combination of Right-Bank Bordeaux-styled wines and an intimate garden setting in the heart of Jacksonville.

Two of the Jacksonville area’s newest tasting rooms—Rellik Winery and Hummingbird Estate—are within a stone’s throw of each other on Old Stage Road just out of town, and both offer overnight accommodations.

Rellik Winery is the reimagined former Caprice Vineyards venue. It’s family-friendly and completely updated to an industrial farmhouse feel. With a new kitchen in the works, you will be able to find fresh, organic and healthy grilled sandwiches, gourmet pizzas and heavy tapas. With comfortable indoor and patio seating areas, a scenic pond, 15 alpacas and two llamas, there’s fun and refreshment for all ages. The on-site Rellik House features three beautifully-appointed suites with access to an inground pool, fire pits and a common gathering room.

From here, head up the hill to the 47-acre Hummingbird Estate. Visit the 7,700-sq.-ft. English cottage-style mansion, built in the 1920s, to taste wine in the original mahogany-paneled “gentlemen’s room” or take your wine to the spacious east-facing patio with views of Mt. McLoughlin and the rim of Crater Lake. With comfortable yet grand-scale common rooms on the main floor, the upstairs offers five lovely guest suites—one specifically designed with a bride in mind. Perfect—because the venue is an ideal, picturesque setting for weddings and other festivities. For owners Ed and Susan Walk, central Illinois farmers, it has been a labor of love to bring this grand and historic place into shape for enjoyment in the 21st century. And they’re not done yet. Grapes are still being planted with plans for another tasting room nearer the road, a brewery and a renovated guest house on site. Make this stop a must, relax and enjoy a Hummingbird Estate wine. Chances are good that you’ll meet Susan and Ed on the patio doing the same.

Applegate-Area Adventures

Be sure and make the time to visit the Applegate Valley – it’s just west of Jacksonville. Here, visit the new Walport Family Cellars tasting room where you’ll surely meet owners Eric or Amy. Coming from Southern California with 3-year-old daughter Sydney, they left behind Eric’s aerospace engineering career to return home to begin a dry-farmed permaculture operation with baby doll sheep, chickens and heritage turkeys amongst their 7-acre vineyard. While Amy is still a practicing optometrist, she is instrumental in creating a parklike, family-friendly experience. Enjoy a cheese or charcuterie board along with your flight or glass in this quaint forest clearing where the breeze comes through every morning and evening.

They’re located just a hop, skip and a jump from several favorites—Schultz Wines, Wooldridge Creek Winery & CrushPad Creamery, Troon Winery, Schmidt Family Vineyards and Augustino Estate & Vineyard. BTW, if you’re headed to downtown Grant’s Pass from here, be sure and visit Wooldridge’s new Vinfarm, an urban tasting room with prix fixe dinners that define Southern Oregon Wine Country cuisine. Plus, be sure and treat yourself to two new tasting rooms in the Grants Pass area that are must-visits: Apricity Vineyard and Guzzo Family Vineyard.

Relish the Rogue Valley

Conveniently located near the I-5 corridor, four new tasting rooms couldn’t be more different. But they all share in two things—generous hospitality and fine wines.

At the south end of the valley, make your first stop Long Walk Vineyard’s Tasting House. With 180-degree views of Pilot Rock, Mt. Ashland and Wagner Butte, you’ll enjoy dramatic skies and stunning sunsets while enjoying small production Rhône-style wines made in the traditional, old world style of Southern France, but with a distinctive, Southern Oregon character.

Long Walk’s vineyards are planted as part of a diverse small farm that includes more than 27 kinds of fruit. The vineyard setting is splendid year-round and features a non-stop show of blossoms each spring. Long Walk’s certified organic vineyards are tended manually, and each harvest is hand-picked and hand-sorted. The resulting wines are crafted naturally using only estate-grown grapes, indigenous yeast and minimal intervention.

It bears mention that the owners, Kathy and Tim O’Leary, are working in concert with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service on establishing 2.5 acres of beneficial habitat for pollinators and “good” insects. This includes more than 4,000 native plantings and three bat houses on the 50-acre agricultural property.

A Downtown Medford Must

If you want to go wine tasting but are short on time, check out Medford’s new wine bar, The Rogue Grape. Located across the street from the Craterian Theater on Central Ave., this chic new spot offers more than 200 local wines by the glass, bottle or as part of a flight. Owner Natasha Hopkins and her helpful team can guide you through your choices of wine plus small bites and full meals, local cheese and charcuterie, lattes, local ciders and beer. With live music, happy hour specials and winemaker dinners, this is the place to get a diverse Southern Oregon wine and culinary experience in one place.

Talent’s Got Talent

In case you haven’t heard, Talent is hot! With new restaurants and tasting rooms opening almost monthly, you owe it to yourself to check out Simple Machine, Trium Wines and Naumes Suncrest Winery.

Open since November 2017, Simple Machine’s modern industrial style tasting room on Rte. 99 is easy to pop in to. This micro-winery produces only 600-cases/year and boasts two patios for outdoor seating. In May or June, be on the lookout for the first release of a dry, non-sparkling apple cider made from heritage organic Golden Russet apples from an Ashland orchard.

Looking for some small bites to accompany your wine tasting? Head into downtown Talent to the new Trium Wines tasting room and outside gardens. Settle into deep leather chairs in the cozy interior accented with reclaimed wood. Or step outside to the large patio and enjoy comfortable seating beneath shade trees with wine barrel fire pits and an old-world water fountain. In addition to beer, cider and non-alcoholic drinks, the new tasting room offers the full slate of Trium’s artisanal red and white wines and accompanying small plates.

Trium’s distinctive label, with a 16th century etching of a vineyard worker, has branded its award-winning wines since the first vintage produced from vines planted in Talent in 1990. You may remember the former quaint tasting room in the hills of Talent, mostly staffed by owners Laura Lopspeich, her late husband Kurt and other family members. Upon Laura’s retirement in 2017, long-time friend and wine club member Tony Corallo acquired the winery’s assets and opened the new tasting room in the heart of Talent. An Ashland native, Tony has been an institutional money manager in the Bay Area for twenty-seven years and is a self-described oenophile with a passion for wine.

It’ll be worth it, but you’ll have to wait until after Memorial Day to add Naumes Suncrest Winery at Naumes Family Vineyards to your wine tasting itinerary. The Suncrest tasting room, east of Talent on Suncrest Road, is clustered near Paschal Winery and Jaxon Vineyards. During the past decade, the Naumes Family, once the largest pear grower in the world, has diversified by entering the wine industry. The 3rd generation farming family is now growing its own grapes and making wines at its own custom-crush facility in Medford.

The tasting room will be located in a 1920s farmhouse, formerly used for special events hosted by Sister Mary Pat Naumes until she retired in 2018. Surrounded by 600 acres of orchards with 50 acres of grapes being planted, the new tasting room will embrace the farm-to-table movement and the family’s farming heritage. Be sure to check the Naumes Family Vineyards Facebook page for updates on the tasting room opening date.

Roam the Upper Rogue

Fortunately for the Upper Rogue Wine Trail, the newest member, Bayer Family Estate, has opened a unique tasting room on the former equestrian training property of owner Jim Bayer. It’s just across the Rogue River from long-time favorite Kriselle Cellars. The estate, on Agate Road in Eagle Point, is also the Bayers’ home. Jim’s love of the Italian countryside inspired the design of the tasting room and the lovely park-like setting with lily ponds and luscious landscaping. The vineyard, planted in 2010, provides mostly Italian varietals for the family’s award-winning wines. The tasting room is situated in the old equestrian arena viewing room which is now used for wine club events and concerts. This year will launch Bayer’s first full concert line up featuring twelve nights of live music this summer.

Before you leave the Upper Rogue, stop by Kriselle Cellars for gourmet food plates (and wood-fired pizza on the weekends). Enjoy sweeping views of Sam’s Valley and the 25-acre vineyard before stopping by other long-established Upper Rogue wineries including Del Rio Vineyards (with a robust concert schedule) and Cliff Creek Cellars in Gold Hill.

Welcome to the Southern Oregon Wine Scene

Take advantage of the maps and information in this issue of Southern Oregon Wine Scene, and you’ll understand why Forbes calls us “One of the Best Wine Travel Destinations” and why Wine Enthusiast named us “One of the Top 10 Wine Destinations in the World.”

©Southern Oregon Wine Scene – from Spring 2019 issue