Three Creeks Ranch

Russell Berard, cattle rancher and businessman, had been neighbors and friends with Ted and Meri Gerber for twenty years, when he married Elizabeth in 1990. It was a time of lifestyle changes for the couple. Elizabeth, an urban vegetarian and artist, was moving to rural Josephine County. Russell, tired of the tiny margins and work involved with raising beef, had all the motivation needed to get out of that business. Ted and Meri had been successfully farming grapes for twenty years on ground quite similar to Russell's Three Creeks Ranch. His site not only had a very large number of plantable acres for our area (approximately 70), but also was situated largely on a well air-drained bench (less frost-prone), with year-round flowing creeks and already existing large ponds able to provide ample gravity flow frost protection water. How many more signs did he need to follow Ted's lead?

Planting began in 1990 with four acres each of Pinot noir and Chardonnay, which included one of the state's first plantings of the new and exciting Dijon clones, imported to the United States from France by Oregon State University. Planting continued the next year, with seven more acres of Pinot noir, four acres of Chardonnay, three acres of Gewurztraminer, two acres of Pinot gris and 0.6 acres of Pinot blanc. With continued expansion, in 1995 Russell hired Hans Ahl, from a fifth generation German wineproducing family, to be his vineyard manager. The ranch is currently producing from 16 acres of Pinot noir, 14 acres of Chardonnay, five acres of Pinot gris, three acres of Gewurztraminer, two acres of Pinot blanc.... and the planting continues.