Evans Creek Vineyard

Similar to several of our growers, Nancy Tappan and Vernon Hixson primarily decided to grow grapes out of their great love of wine - in particular, the wines of Bordeaux. Also similar to several of our growers, neither had a background in agriculture. The petite and gracious Nancy, magazine editor by profession, had dabbled in growing garlic and grazing cattle on her 60-acre parcel, north of the Rogue River, in the rural Evans Creek Valley. After a bull tried to stomp her - "I made the mistake of making it a pet," she recalls - the Los Angeles refugee looked out across the sweeping hillside of her land and thought, "Wouldn't it be fun to have a vineyard?"

This was 1981; the same year Nancy met Vernon, when he came out to Oregon to film a documentary. They became friends and business partners, and over the years Vernon helped Nancy plan and plant the first vines and work the vineyard on getaway vacations from his fast-paced life in New York City. "Nancy's the green thumb," says Vernon. "I'm just the help - tractor driver, gopher chaser…" That's full time now. Sporting his black Malcom X baseball cap, blue jeans, white beard, quick wit and energetic east coast accent, one can easily surmise that Vernon is a transplant to the quiet community of Rogue River. Yet this worldly, retired television producer is entirely at home on a tractor - and loving it!

Together, Nancy and Vernon farm about 13 of their 60 acres. Rather than expand the vineyard, their focus remains on growing superb fruit. "When it comes to growing grapes, you either love it or hate it," Nancy explains. "There's no in-between. It's hands-on and labor intensive. To do a first-rate job, you have to be observant and familiar with what's going on with every vine. You don't learn this from a book." Their most poignant lessons have, indeed, come from Mother Nature, who has been particularly hard on this small parcel of grapes. From the severe winter damage of 1989 and again in 1990, to the difficult spring frosts and low-yielding soils, their 13 acres have turned out to be one of the most difficult to manage and smallest yielding sites we have encountered in the Rogue Valley. Thanks to Nancy and Vernon's perseverance and dedication to quality viticulture, the site gives us some of our highest quality wines, which are bottled separately, and vineyard-designated in the finest vintages. These wines are very limited in production, and truly, a rarity to be found in Oregon of intensity, concentration, ripeness, and finesse.