Oregon Wine Industry Collection, 1937-2011

Title: Oregon Wine Industry Collection, 1937-2011

Predominant Dates: 1990-2010

ID: MSS Wine

Primary Creator: Oregon Wine Advisory Board

Extent: 0.3 cubic feet. More info below.

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

The Oregon Wine Industry Collection documents the wine industry and winemaking in Oregon and includes clippings, winery newsletters and guides, publications, and ephemera. Newsletters from Tyee Wine Cellars (Corvallis), Springhill Cellars Winery (Albany), Foris Vineyards Winery (Cave Junction), Bellfountain Cellars (Corvallis), Hinman Vineyards/Silvan Ridge (Eugene), and Serendipity Cellars Winery (Monmouth) are included.

Individual winery guides and brochures, guides for counties (Benton and Yamhill) and regions (Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon), as well as state-wide guides are part of the collection. Information about the public stock offering by the Willamette Valley Vineyards (Turner) is also included.

Publications include Technical Notes for Oregon Wine Growers and Wine Makers issued in July 1975 by Oregon State University Extension Specialist for Small Fruits, Ralph H. Garren, Jr., and Extension Food Technologist, Howard P. Milleville; A Report on Wine Tasting No. 4 (July 1975) prepared by H.Y. Yang of the Department of Food Science and Technology; and Vineyard Site Selection in Linn and Benton Counties (circa 1992) by the Department of Horticulture.

A 1937 letter from Philip M. Wagner to Mr. Warren answers questions about winemaking and grape selection.

Ephemeral items include a 1988 bottle label from the Silver Falls Winery; a 1997 map, The Wine Appellations of Oregon, published by the Oregon Wine Marketing Coalition; and a drawing of the Willamette Valley Vineyards.

Wine has been produced in Oregon since the mid-19th century, but winemaking ceased in the early 20th century with Prohibition. The wine industry in Oregon remained dormat until the 1960s when several winemakers migrated north to Oregon from California and established vineyards and wineries in southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley. During the past 40-plus years, the wine industry in Oregon has grown to include 15 approved winegrowing regions with more than 300 wineries producing wines from 72 grape varieties.

The Oregon Wine Research Institute was established at Oregon State University in 2010 as a partnership among Oregon's robust wine industry, state government, and OSU's Colleges of Agricultultural Sciences and Businesss.

Accruals: Additions to the collection are expected.

More Extent Information: 2 boxes, including 1 oversize box

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.

Acquisition Note: These materials were previously part of the Memorabilia Collection and Publications Collection of the University Archives; they were separated from those collections to form this new collection in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center in 2012.

Related Materials:

The wine industry and winemaking in Oregon are also documented in the Agricultural Experiment Station Records (RG 025) as well as the records of the Food Science and Technology Department Records (RG 176), Horticulture Department Records (RG 187), and Agricultural and Resource Economics Department Records (RG 128). Numerous Oregon State University theses and dissertations and Extension Service and Experiment Station publications on wines and grape culture are available online in ScholarsArchive@OSU.

The Oregon Historical Society's holdings include the following collections documenting the Oregon wine industry: Elaine Cohen and Richard Hopkins Papers and the Oregon Wine Archives Collection.

Preferred Citation: Oregon Wine Industry Collection (MSS Wine), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Oregon Wine Advisory Board

Natural Resources
Vineyards--Oregon--Guidebooks.
Wine and wine making--Oregon.
Wine industry--Oregon.
Wineries--Oregon--Guidebooks.

Maps (documents)