USA TODAY: Rogue Valley Ranks No. 1 Best Wine Region in the US 2026 Reader's Choice Awards!

“Around 2001 I was spending my summers, weekends and time after school taking down barb wire fencing, digging trenches for irrigation...(my lord the amount of digging), cleaning out old barns, and just generally cleaning up this piece of property we are on. We planted a vineyard. We started making wine. We built a winery. We opened a tasting room. We started a wine club. We built a new tasting room. We planted more. We started distributing our wine. Around 25 years ago if you had asked me while I was leaving work in my 1995 Mazda pickup where I'd be in 2026, I would never have thought I'll be right here, leaving work on the same driveway, in the best wine region in America.”

—Spencer Brons, 3rd Generation Schmidt Family