HISTORICAL Oregon Wineries

 

Hillcrest Vineyard (1961- Present)

Oregon’s Oldest Continuously
Operating Estate Winery


Hillcrest Bonded Winery 44
Hillcrest Vineyard: Oregon’s oldest continuously operating estate winery

Richard Sommer, “Father of the Modern Oregon Wine Industry”, founded Hillcrest Vineyard in 1961. His U.C. Davis professors advised not planting grapes in Oregon. Ignoring that advice he planted the first post-Prohibition vinifera vineyard on an old 36 acre turkey farm west of Roseburg in the Umpqua Valley.

In 1963 Sommer bonded Hillcrest Vineyard. The vineyard was on the crest of a hill, hence the name Hillcrest.

Dyson and Susan DeMara purchased Hillcrest in 2003. Richard Sommer passed away in July 2009.

Hillcrest Vineyard was located at 240 Vineyard Lane, Roseburg, OR.


  Hillcrest Vineyard 1975 Gewurtztraminer