Wooldridge Creek
How did Your Farm get started and what inspires you to farm?
Ted and Mary Warrick planted the first grape vines on the property in the mid-1970s. Initially planned as just a hobby vineyard, today Wooldridge creek farms 56 acres of grapevines and 11 different varietal. With the addition of winemakers and co-owners Greg and Kara in 2003, Wooldridge Creek transitioned from a commercial vineyard to a winery. In 2015 the Crush Pad Creamery was established, with the Charcuterie program following soon after. The dairy barn is the newest addition to the approx. 180 acre property, and in addition to housing a larger and more efficient Creamery, it also is a licensed goat dairy. Wooldridge Creek is proud to be Oregon’s only combined vineyard, winery, dairy, creamery and charcuterie, and much of the property’s production goes directly to products and menu items at our Grants Pass restaurant, Vinfarm. We are inspired by all the land has to offer, and excited about the opportunity to share that with others in as many of our great farm products as possible.
How do your farming practices affect the quality of your products?
With all four owners living on site, the team at Wooldridge Creek understands and is committed to being stewards of the land and farming in a responsible and sustainable way. We are a certified organic vineyard and farm, and also hold Salmon Safe and Low Input Viticulture and Enology (LIVE) certifications. These practices along with farming techniques such as shoot thinning for crop load management, as well as handpicking and sorting fruit in the vineyard help drive our philosophy of making balanced, focused, and food friendly wines.
What is the most difficult part of running Your farm?
One of the trickiest parts is balancing the Dairy, Farm, and Winery in a relatively small area. We have a strong loyal customer base at the Winery so it’s important to us that they feel welcome at the Barn and Dairy. It’s a gorgeous building full of sweet animals, so of course, folks want to see it. However, for the safety of the guests and the animals we are not able to open to the public. So we’ve been working hard to design a tour that meets the needs of both! With our guided tours guests get an opportunity to visit and hang out in the Barn and Milking parlor, view the new muchimproved Creamery, and interact with some loving goats. They will also tour the Winery, Barrel Room, learn about our land practices and wine making process from one of our fabulous wine makers and finish it all off with some delicious food and Wine. It’s a win-win because we get to share what we love and guests get to see behind the scenes!
What are your most popular products?
The great thing about Wooldridge Creek is that from world class wine to amazing craft cheese and charcuterie, and all of the other various food products we produce at our restaurant, Vinfarm, there really is something for just about every type of palate at WC. Our Chardonnay and sparkling wines are perennial favorites, with our Tempranillo, Merlot, and Pinot Noir being among some of our most popular wines. Guests always love our chevre and fromage blanc cheeses, which are offered in a variety of flavors and seasonal ingredients. We often hear from guests tasting at the winery that our Chef’s Board, which features 3 of our cheeses and 3 charcuterie products along with homemade gluten free crackers and other house made accoutrements, almost steals the show when they visit.
With the addition of the Dairy we have been fine tuning recipes for amazing Goat milk Soaps with a local soap maker as well new specialty cheeses that you’ll see available shortly.
What do you love about farming in the Rogue Valley
From a winegrowing standpoint, the region is very well suited to produce a number of different outstanding varietals, allowing versatility and a diversity of grape varietals to flourish.
From a Dairy and production standpoint, the climate and community! We are designing new ways to harness the sun in our expanding garden and capture the rain through soil improvement and Rain Water Catchment. With a little planning our changing seasons can support us all year round! The farming and neighbor community continues to be so kind and generous with their knowledge and skills. They’ve made our building and planning process truly fun!
What upcoming events, even if they are not public are you looking forward to?
We are about to start offering guided farm tours that will allow guests to tour the winery and dairy, gaining insight into both the wine and cheese making processes, as well as getting to see and interact with our goats and babies. This experience will end with a wine tasting paired with our Chefs Boards and other tasty food items. Please check our website or call the winery for pricing, reservations, and details.
Tell us something most people don't know about Your Farm.
We are currently designing a large grey water and rain catchment system that would allow us to capture roughly 600k gallons of rain and waste water in a large pond and reuse it to irrigate our pastures and lower vineyard during our driest months. It’s an incredible system using permaculture practices, modern high efficiency pumps and detailed soil and animal management. We are super excited about this project and look forward to building our resilience as a Farm and Vineyard while protecting our Natural Resources.
Additionally, we are always surprised to hear that so many of the guests at Vinfarm, our restaurant in Grants Pass, don’t realize the connection with the winery.