Raising a Glass of Oregon Beverage to… Oregon Beverage? Yes! Cheers.
Oregon’s beverages have reached a visible maturity point where not only are they crafted with care by fully realized businesses, but their quality has moved well beyond that of the cottage industries they once were. Our beverages are finding widespread success not only in the Americas, but all over the world. It is likely that Oregon beverages have found their way to each and every continent on the globe.
At one point in time there may have been a valid rationale for Oregonians to seek fine beverage from other parts of the world, where they could find better quality at a better price, but we are here to say that this rationale no longer holds true. While the quality of Oregon’s fine beverages have grown by leaps and bounds, our pricing has moved to meet the customer. Oregon beverages deliver tremendous value, quality, and consistency. An Oregonian no longer need look any further than their own backyard to find the best products at the best prices, crafted with care for those that drink them, those that make them, and the environment we all share.
When we consider these things, we realize that our beverage producers are meaningful on their own to Oregonians beyond just the products they produce and market. Oregon beverages means jobs in our communities, and not just any jobs, they often mean rural agricultural jobs, which are a very scarce thing. Many of these jobs help our citizens develop strong modern skill sets and pay a true family wage compensation, paving the way for a stable, prosperous, and progressive future for our state.
Oregon’s increasing success is being recognized as a brand in and of itself. A brand that succinctly conveys food and beverage excellence. This reputation precedes us all, and is spurring a tourism and hospitality boom that has ripple effects throughout the state, bringing in a high quality dollar that is not based on resource extraction like mining or logging. It often brings with it a tourist who appreciates the finer things, and goes home only to become an advocate and consumer of Oregon products for life. This isn’t merely a data point, it is a trend with great force behind it, this is a growing opportunity for Oregon.
The next time you reach for a beverage, you should ask yourself, was this made in Oregon? Does it help me and my neighbors? Because believe it or not, every drop of “Oregon in a bottle” that you buy, does us all a big favor.
Ed King,
CEO & Co-Founder
King Estate Winery
King Estate Hosts Food for Lane County’s Empty Bowls Dinner & Auction
On the evening of October 13th, King Estate Winery hosted Food for Lane County’s 9th Annual Empty Bowls Dinner and Auction. Over 300 people attended the event, which raised more than $250,000 to directly fight hunger in Lane County, a record for the event. Ed and Jodee King were the events chairs, working closely with the FFLC board and event committee to put this fantastic evening together. All 8 of the prior Empty Bowls dinners were hosted at the FFLC warehouse, and this 9th annual event marked the first time it had been hosted at an offsite facility. Last year King Estate was honored to send our culinary team and ingredients from our estate to the FFLC warehouse, and this year Ed & Jodee were delighted to invite all of the Empty Bowls guests and FFLC staff to the estate. The evening began with the video introduction we made (see below), and a silent auction with drinks and appetizers, followed by a 5-course dinner with wine pairings and a live auction. You can also check out the video we put together for the event last year, which includes interviews from the farmers and ranchers from which King Estate sourced ingredients for the dinner.
King Estate Crowned “Best Wine” in Eugene Weekly’s Best of Eugene
For the second year in a row, Eugene Weekly’s The Best of Eugene awarded it’s “Best Wine” title to King Estate Winery. Last year, King Estate also won “Best Winery to Visit” (a category that was not featured this year) and Eugene weekly wrote, “You can’t go wrong with the pinot gris, and the cost won’t break the bank. For a nice long bike ride, or a destination to bring out-of-town friends, a trip to King Estate’s rolling hills, winery and restaurant is the way to go. You can do a wine tour, have a wine tasting and end it all with a delicious dinner.”
The Best of Eugene is an annual special issue of Eugene Weekly. The winners are determined based on community voting. We would like to thank everyone who voted for us!
King Estate Hosts Cascades Raptor Center’s Annual Fundraising Event
On the evening of September 29th, King Estate winery hosted Cascades Raptor Center’s 2nd Annual Benefit Dinner. The benefit’s 93 guests enjoyed a 5 course meal with wine pairings, and got the opportunity to get up close and personal with a few of CRC’s resident birds of prey, like Dmitri the Eagle Owl.
This year, the focus of the event was to introduce CRC’s Flight Training Arena Project and to raise funds towards construction costs. CRC regularly receives phone calls from the public inquiring about flight shows, which, without a dedicated space, they are currently unable to provide. Regular flight opportunities would not only attract more visitors to their nature center (which already sees 15,000+ general public visitors annually) and greatly enhance the visitor experience, it would also provide irreplaceable enrichment and training benefits to the wildlife hospital’s resident education birds.
Bartlett Pear Harvest at King Estate
The People Have Spoken: King Estate is Eugene’s Best Winery & Best Wedding Venue
King Estate stood out in the 4th Annual Register Guard Reader’s Choice Awards. We are honored to have won the reader voted contest in two categories as Eugene’s Best Local Winery and Best Wedding Venue. Make sure to check out the rest of the winners. We also pulled in second place for Eugene’s Best Outdoor Dining option, not bad considering we are 20 miles out of town!
Earlier this year we also took home “Best Winery” in the Eugene Weekly’s annual ‘Best of Eugene’. They summed it up pretty well:
King Estate, with its pristine setting in the heart of the Willamette Valley’s wine country provides the perfect spot to sample its array of masterful wine. One can sit and enjoy a glass and a gourmet meal overlooking the certified organic vineyard in a most picturesque setting. This year the vineyard celebrates its twentieth anniversary and continues to produce some of the most exceptional wines with grapes grown in its own vineyard as well as from various other Northwest regions. King Estate’s creations illustrate time and again why the Northwest is known for its wine.
King Estate Wins Best Savory Bite at FFLC’s Chefs’ Night Out 2012
The 2012 Chef’s Night Out brought together Lane County’s finest restaurants, wineries, and microbreweries to benefit Food for Lane County at the Hult Center in Eugene, OR. Chefs’ Night Out has become one of, if not the premiere Lane County food and wine event, and King Estate is proud to have once again been the title sponsor for the event for the fourth year in a row.
Rescued & Rehabilitated, A Red-tailed Hawk Returns to King Estate
Last September, King Estate vineyard workers noticed an injured Red-tailed Hawk on the estate. Volunteers from the Cascades Raptor Center quickly rescued the bird, which had an infected foot caused by a prey bite. Four months and one amputated toe later, the hawk proved that it was well enough to return home to King Estate where it and other birds of prey play a vital role providing natural pest control. Owls, hawks, and other raptors thrive on our 1,033 certified organic acres because there is no chance of poisoning through the food chain, and there is plenty of room to roam. King Estate Winery and Eugene’s Cascades Raptor Center are proud to hold a unique partnership that allows orphaned and rehabilitated birds of prey a second shot at life in the wild world.
Registration Now Open for the 2012 King Estate Wine Country Run!
Join us on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22nd, one week before the Eugene Marathon, for a scenic 5K run through the rolling hills of our certified organic vineyards. Fingers crossed for beautiful weather like last year, but as is the way in Oregon, this event is going on RAIN OR SHINE.
Announcing the 1MW Solar Vineyard at King Estate Winery
King Estate is teaming up with SolarCity, a national leader in solar power, as well as Lane Electric Co-op, and Advanced Energy Systems to install the largest solar power system at a winery in the Pacific Northwest. Construction on the 973.84 kilowatt (kW) solar system began this month.
Five years in the making, this is a very exciting time for the winery, the culmination of a lot of hard work between us and our partners in this project. This installation is a collaboration between King Estate and Advanced Energy Systems, which developed the project; SolarCity, which provided financing and integration support; and Lane Electric as the utility partner. The system’s 4,144 solar panels on about 4 acres of land should eliminate more than 38 million pounds of carbon dioxide over the next 25 years. According to estimates provided by the Environmental Protection Agency, this amount is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 3,381 passenger cars or 1.9 million gallons of gasoline. The King Estate solar power system is large enough to offset the annual power usage of approximately 100 residential homes.