Donna Morris and Bill Sweat

FOUNDERS BILL SWEAT & DONNA MORRIS 

Shortly after graduating college, Donna (Boston College) and Bill (Bates College) ended up at the same company in Boston where they were lucky enough to find a group of people interested in wine. They couldn’t afford to eat out often and some nights dinner was a $5 glass of Beaulieu Vineyards Cabernet and a permanently refillable bowl of smoked almonds at the Bostonian. 

There were three great wine shops within a block of where we worked.  Bill lived in the North End and would walk by this particular wines shop every day on his way to and from work. To this day he still remembers the salesperson who took the time to explain how Amarone is made. 

Life took them to St Louis, DC/Virginia, back to Boston, NYC (Bill) and Tokyo.  All along the way the wine journey continued and their cellar grew. When they left the corporate world to go on their own it didn’t occur to us that we should trade the corporate paycheck for something they love, but after a misstep or two the lightbulb finally turned on and illuminated the path to winegrowing. Now, in our 19th vintage, Oregon is the place they’ve lived the longest and look out over the vineyards that they have stewarded for almost twenty years.