Oregon Vineyard Sees Success With Cold-Hardy Grapes
March 18, 2016 
Faith, Hope And Charity Vineyards successfully grows nine cold-hardy hybrid winegrape varieties in Central Oregon.
Tucked away among the picturesque canyons and ridges of central Oregon, Faith, Hope And Charity Vineyards is creating award-winning wines from cold-hardy hybrid grapes.
“We’re high desert, sunshine, really warm days, and cool nights, which is just perfect for the chemistry of the grapes,” says Owner Cindy Grossman.
When she and her husband, Roger, purchased the property in 2001, Grossman, who grew up in the resort industry in Minnesota, knew she wanted to create an agritourism business. She did a lot of research to determine what crop would be the best fit.
“We have a short season, and our winters are not cold like they are back in the Midwest and the East,” she says. “But we will have cold snaps, so I started doing research on what we could grow, because the traditional vinifera grapes won’t ripen here.”
Being from Minnesota, Grossman was familiar with the University of Minnesota’s hybrid grape breeding program. “The research I did [on the hybrid varieties] showed me that these grapes could grow and thrive in Central Oregon,” she says.
The vineyard and winery comprises 164 acres of Grossman’s 312-acre farm. Varieties grown include ‘Marquette,’ ‘Leon Millot,’ ‘St Croix,’ ‘Marechal Foch,’ ‘Frontenac,’ ‘Frontenac Gris,’ ‘LaCrescent,’ ‘LaCrosse,’ ‘Vignole,’ and ‘Traminette.’
While the grapes grown on the property, planted in 2010, are just beginning to be harvested now, the operation began contracting grapes through nearby Monkey Face Vineyard in 2010 with great success. Wines from these grapes have already won numerous awards, including a platinum award for ‘LaCrescent’ from the Northwest Wine and Food Competition in Portland, as well as silver for ‘LaCrescent’ the following year, and a bronze for ‘Frontenac.’ Most recently, the winery won a gold medal for its ‘Vignole’ in the Sunset magazine International Wine Competition in California.
“Our winemaker really has perfected a very nice wine,” Grossman says, adding that the wines sell well at pricepoints of $30 to $40 per bottle.
To bolster business, Faith, Hope And Charity hosts weekly events, including live music every Friday and Saturday at the winery, fondue nights, and wood-fired pizza nights throughout the year.
A lot of customers who purchase wine from the tasting room come back again, Grossman says, and the operation gets tourists from across the globe. The vineyard’s wines have traveled as far as Germany and Ukraine.
“We have blazed the trails and shown what these soils, these climates, and these slopes can do,” Grossman says.
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