Award-winning, meticulously crafted, amazingly affordable wines from the rugged Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon
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There isn’t another estate winery in Oregon that delivers such excellent wines at these prices.
How Foris Vineyards Turned Unwanted Land in Southern Oregon into Award-Winning Wines
According to wine industry experts, three main factors influence people whether or not to purchase a bottle: the type of wine, its taste, and where it’s produced. And in the Rogue Valley of Oregon, one producer has been proving for decades that it checks all of those boxes.
In 1974, Ted Gerber, owner of Foris Vineyards, began growing grapes, and in 1978, he started selling them commercially to wineries across the Pacific Northwest. Then in 1986, Foris Vineyards began producing wine, and decades later, its wines are enjoyed in 44 states, four Canadian provinces, and even Japan. The wines consistently receive high scores, gold medals, and “best buy” status.
“We have four ranches, adding up to 188 acres of planted grapes, in a valley, brushed up against the back of the flatlands, forest, and timber-filled hillside,” says Gerber. “The setting is stunning, and you really couldn’t ask for a much better place in terms of quality living.”
Grapes with a Rich History
Gerber recalls when he purchased his land in the Illinois Valley, first coming to the area in 1971 after learning about it through a friend from college. While a bit off the beaten path, the land Foris Vineyards now sits upon presented Gerber with an excellent opportunity for growing high-quality wine grapes. Other farmers passed up Gerber’s land, though, due to frost being a known problem in the area. However, he and his team beat the issue with sprinklers, wind machines, and other techniques, “which made it possible for us to grow grapes in an area where there was no history of grape production previously,” Gerber says.
In the earliest days of the vineyard, Gerber also recounts finding unexpected treasures while preparing his fields. These included Native American artifacts like arrowheads, mortars, pestles, and more. “I asked an anthropologist from Southern Oregon University to come around and take a look at what I’d found,” says Gerber. “He said that I live where the wealthy Native Americans lived. That means we have extremely rich land here, and I believe that translates into the quality of our wines.”
The Evolution of Its Wines
As one of the first vineyards in the region, Foris Vineyards didn’t have any local grape-growing history to learn from, as Gerber was a true pioneer. “It took us a while to figure out who we are,” notes Gerber. Foris Vineyards Winery “We had to learn from trial and error.” Initially, he experimented with Pinot Noir and Gewürztraminer, which turned into Foris Vineyard’s earliest labels in the mid-1980s.
It was obvious from the start, however, that the land was full of potential. Foris Vineyards is Oregon’s southernmost wine producer, and it sits at a higher elevation than the other major wine-growing regions throughout the state. The higher elevation results in big changes between the night and daytime temperatures, which helps its white wine grapes hold their fruitiness for much longer. “Cooler nights are perfect for white wines, and most of ours are pointed towards fruity characters,” Gerber explains. “If you put them in oak barrels, it robs them of the fruit character and aromatics.”
In 1977, when Oregon State University imported from France just a few dozen clones of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Gewürztraminer, Gerber was one of six growers in the state to receive them. Now, 43 years later, Foris Vineyards is synonymous with Alsatian white wines in the United States thanks to Gerber’s pioneering spirit.
In 1989, Oregon State University released nine clones of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Dijon, France, which were selected for wine quality. Oregon wine growers could get 25 plants of each clone. With greenhouse work, Gerber planted 7,200 plants in the spring of 1990, giving Foris Vineyards eight acres and the largest Dijon planting in the U.S. He went on to sell many of the new plants to some of California’s finest wineries, helping to establish the Dijon Clone in the U.S. In fact, both his Cedar Ranch and Maple Ranch vineyards contain those original plantings, which can be found in Foris Vineyard’s award-winning Pinot Noirs.