Pear Pressure

By Michele Francisco Today, it’s hard to imagine Rogue Valley’s wine industry being vilified. Yet, pear growers, threatened by the region’s nascent wine activity, treated Porter Lombard, Ph.D., like a scoundrel and ran him out of town. Lombard had served as the superintendent and horticultural researcher at the Oregon State University Experiment Station near Jacksonville. Determined to learn if wine grapes could thrive in the area, he planted the area’s first post-Prohibition vineyard in 1967. Before the pear growers ousted Lombard in 1980, he studied various varieties and discovered the Rogue Valley was ideally suited for a range of wine grapes. His success generated interest both locally and in California. Commercial vineyards, established in the decade after Lombard’s experimental plantings, led to the Rogue Valley’s first bonded wineries in 1978. Valley View Vineyards was established by the local Wisnovsky family and Siskiyou Winery was founded b

by Hilary Berg · source ↗