Page A-8
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Vineyards rip up grapes, switch to pot
GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE, Ore. (AP)
— Bill and Barbara Steele moved to
this sleepy corner of Oregon to start
their own winery after successful,
high-powered business careers.
Now, more than a decade later
and with award-winning wine to
show for their hard work, they are
adding a new crop: marijuana.
Oregon’s legalization of
recreational pot two years ago
created room for entrepreneurial
cross-pollination in this fertile region
abutting California’s so-called
Emerald Triangle, a well-known
nirvana for outdoor weed cultivation.
Recreational marijuana cannot
be sold legally in California until
next year. But a few miles north
of the border in Oregon, a handful
of winemakers are experimenting
with pot in hopes of increasing their
appeal among young consumers and
in niche markets.
“Baby boomers are drinking
less. Millennials are coming into
their time, economically, where in
2016 they were the fastest-growing
consumers of wine, both in dollars
and volume,” said Barbara Steele,
who runs Cowhorn Vineyard &
Garden in rural Jacksonville with her
husband.
“They’re looking for an
experience of ‘wine and weed.’”
The Steeles leased their land to
grow 30 medical marijuana plants
last year, and this year they are
growing double that amount to be
branded with the same label as their
wine. They started with seeds in
plastic cups under incubators in their
laundry room, and pride themselves
on a “seed to smoke” philosophy.
This year’s crop also is for
medical use, but the Steeles are
seeing the benefits of the expanding
market from legal recreational pot.
Their weed was reviewed alongside
one of their white wines in Stoner
Magazine, an Oregon cannabis
publication.
“That conversation is possible
here because our quality — the
agricultural possibility — is so high.
This is an amazing growing region,”
Barbara Steele said.
It’s hard to know exactly
how many in the wine industry
are looking at pot here, but there’s
plenty of buzz surrounding the
subject.
Some vineyards are ripping
out portions of grapes in favor of
marijuana plants or leasing land to
private growers. Others are talking
about wine-and-weed tourism,
including high-end shuttles that
would stop at local wineries for
tastings and at marijuana farms for
glimpses of how pot is prepared for
market.
“There are a few wineries
setting up very large recreational
grows right now,” said Brent
Kenyon, of the marijuana consulting
business Kenyon & Associates,
based in Southern Oregon. “The
‘weedery’ and the winery. I
think that’s huge, and we see it
developing.”
But that enthusiasm comes with
a caveat. Marijuana is still federally
illegal, and wineries must keep their
wine and weed businesses separate
or risk losing a federal permit that
allows them to bottle and sell wine.
That means establishing two
distinct lots for tax purposes and
keeping two licenses with the state,
said Christie Scott, alcohol program
spokeswoman for the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission, which also
licenses recreational marijuana.
Vineyards that grow grapes but don’t
have a liquor license, however, could
get a recreational marijuana license,
she said.
In the nearby Illinois Valley,
Katherine Bryan is tackling these
challenges as she launches a
marijuana business with her son.
She owns Deer Creek
Vineyards with her husband, but her
pot operation will be called Bryan
Family Gardens and will operate on
land next to the vineyard.
“We want to be as transparent
as possible because when you’re
under the federal government
umbrella for your wines, you have to
be very, very careful,” Bryan said.
She plans to grow several
hundred marijuana plants with a
focus on organic cultivation and an
eye toward a high-end market.
They already have some
buyers lined up and are installing
greenhouses and lighting as they
await approval of their recreational
license.
“I get $2,000 a ton for my pinot
gris grapes, whereas I can make
potentially $2,000 or more per pound
of cannabis,” Bryan said. “We have
31,000 plants out here for grapes, so
I’m pretty sure I can handle 300 to
500 cannabis plants.”
Mark Wisnovsky, of Valley
View Winery in Jacksonville, says
some vintners are upset because
of the stigma associated with
marijuana. But his family’s winery
was the first in the Applegate Valley
in 1971, and everyone thought they
were crazy then, too, he said.
The family isn’t cultivating
marijuana now, but Wisnovsky has
been a vocal supporter of those who
want to do so.
Diversifying with weed could
save vineyard owners who have
overplanted grapes for years, he
added.
“A job’s a job, and money’s
money, and we have capabilities here
that are unique,” he said. “We either
take advantage of the situation or let
it steamroll over us.”
(Photo courtesy of Shawndra Strusz for the Illinois Valley News)
A cannabis grow site in rural Jackson County. Grow sites like this are springing up in what nor-
mally would be prime locations for grapes.
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