The old White’s Country Farm store has a new occupant — Awen Winecraft, a small business with big plans for the space on Highway 238 between Medford and Jacksonville. 

It’s all about embracing the grandeur of Southern Oregon as a Wild West of wine while using Old World techniques and grape varieties for depth and complexity of flavor, said Sean Hopkins, co-owner of Awen Winecraft with Tom Homewood.

But the mix of frontier style with classic refinement isn’t a conflict — it’s a balance, an ode to what the owners love about making wine in the valley, Hopkins said.

“We’re not trying to be anywhere else. We want our wines to be a reflection of Southern Oregon, a reflection of the place and time we live in. Our own unique terrier, or our weather patterns. It’s a balancing act. We leverage our style from what we learned to do that ends up being an Old World taste, because that’s what we like to drink,” he said.

“It’s in the yeasts, the tannins, even the choice of oak and how we feed the yeast that exemplifies this space. And I don’t think Southern Oregon has to choose its varietals.”

The pair don’t grow their own grapes, they purchase them from local vineyards and use the facilities at Barrel 42, a custom crush facility in Medford, to make their wine. Awen is able to lean deep into the variety of grapes the Southern Oregon climate can support. One of the best things about the region is the variety, said Homewood.

The climate and the soil support an enormous variety of wine grapes and they make the most of it — including varieties such as vermentino, grenache blanc and viognier.

During tastings, customers sometimes struggle to pronounce the names of their wines. The winemakers find playful ways to help customers learn to pronounce the European names — more important than anything is education and embracing the beauty of these wines, Hopkins said.

During a recent visit, Homewood sat beside Hopkins on black leather couches in the remodeled space at 3939 W. Main St. The interior’s red walls, casual seating, a litany of local art hanging throughout and polished wood bar create a look that flutters between an upscale bar and a spunky restaurant.

“We like to say it’s a pinkies down shop,” Hopkins said of the tasting room.

The move from their former space at the McCully House Inn in Jacksonville to the former White’s County Farm store has been challenging, Hopkins said.

Would-be customers sometimes come inside and upon seeing no produce for sale, leave. The owner of the building asked them to leave up the old “White’s Country Farm” sign as a piece of local history. For months, the pair complied only to struggle to be found and known. A banner is now stretched over the sign announcing the new tasting room. 

Both men feel strongly their business should be a part of the community, Hopkins said.

Homewood listed a variety of compassionate efforts the business has supported over the years — Hearts and Vines, Children’s Miracle Network and recent projects to make outdoor recreation sites more accessible for those with mobility issues. They have also donated their wine for fundraising efforts. 

The pair have enjoyed cultivating a variety of relationships and forms of entertainment in their space. They hope to host local comedy act Comedy Bros, sip and paints and ceramics events, and offer a variety of music.

Hopkins said pairing wine and food is a “passion” for them. They met Eric Tinsley at the English Lavender Farm last year and were impressed with what his Nomad Kitchen food truck had to offer. He has an “exceptional wine vocabulary,” Hopkins said, and they want to support other small businesses with their own. They offered Tinsley a semi-permanent spot for his truck at Awen.

“All the food is inspired by my travels,” Tinsley said.

Tinsley also fits in because, like the winemakers, he plays guitar.

“We get up on stage and play some songs. We let the audience call ’em out, and we learn on the fly,” Hopkins said.

To celebrate the love of food, wine and music at Awen, he said, the tasting room is organizing a series of wine-pairing dinners in which the entire dinner will be aligned with music and an era too, Hopkins said. The first series — based in the groovy ’70s, “Gastro Vinaceous Rhapsody,” was held June 12. The next, a glittery ’80s experience, will be June 28.

Late-night events for adults isn’t the end of what the tasting room wants to offer. The whole family will be welcome at Awen, Homewood said.

“We’ll have a pergola. We’re going to have fire pits; we’re setting up gazebos. We’re going to have a playground, too — we want this to be kid- and dog-friendly. We’re getting cornhole sets, and we’re going to do ax throwing, but with weighted plastic axes,” he said.

Hopkins said he and Homewood are willing to offer almost all of their free time to Awen for the love of wine and in pursuit of a long-term dream.

“The overall goal of this is to escape from corporate America,” Hopkins said.

The men met working for tech start-ups in the Bay Area years ago, Homewood said. After years of making small-batch wine as a hobby, they decided to start a business. In 2011, Hopkins moved his family into the valley, attracted by the varieties of grapes grown in the Applegate Valley.

“I was networking with growers and tasting as much wine as I could. It fell on my broad shoulders to taste as much wine as I could,” he said with a grin. 

After years of commuting to help with the winemaking, Homewood moved up with his own family in 2016, and Awen was born.

Their business isn’t enough to support them without their day jobs yet — that will take time.

To make wine requires time and investment. There are harvests — in their case selection and purchase of grapes — then the fermenting, taste testing, bottling and marketing, Homewood said. Both work remotely for a company supplying telecommunications equipment to larger companies. 

Because they make their wines in an old-fashioned style, it takes longer. The grapes are left with skins and stems intact, but still inoculated. With an extended maceration time, tannins have time to develop a smoother more complex wine, Hopkins said.

“Our wines are always the last ones out at Barrel 42. Near the end, we have to go out and taste them every day to know when they’re ready,” Homewood said.

Hopkins grinned to think of the process.

“It does take a lot of beer and coffee to make good wine,” he said.

To learn more about Awen or keep track of their latest events, or purchase tickets for their dinners, see www.awenwinecraft.com.