My personal story with Long Walk Vineyard began with the phrase, “You had me at carignane.” The Rhône varietal is seldom grown in Oregon, and is one of my favorites.

According to the owners, the journey to Long Walk began more than 25 years ago with a honeymoon and love of live theater.

In 2000, after setting out to find a second home in an area with a slower pace than their Bay Area lifestyle, the O’Learys — Kathy, a world-traveled industrial engineer, and Tim, a high-tech, multinational corporate lawyer — purchased the historic Valley View Orchard property just north of Ashland.

They had been coming to Ashland “for intense theater weeks” since their college days, and after looking at areas around 2 to 3 hours away from the heart of the Bay Area for a year and a half, they realized the bustle was inescapable; what they were ultimately looking for was “an Ashland closer to home, and it just wasn’t to be found nearby,” Kathy said.

Once they made the Ashland decision, they also realized they could have “a bit more real estate, a little more rural,” said Kathy. Coming to the fogged-in property late one day, Kathy remembered, “We couldn’t really see the breadth of how beautiful it was. But it felt right.”

She described it as “a rectangle with a mushroom cap.”

After purchasing the property, her sister, Linda Donovan, founder and owner of The City Center Wine District in downtown Medford, offered to help with the orchards and plant some vines. Originally looking for 1 to 2 acres, the organically certified 50 acres now have 11 acres of vineyards, with the rest in orchards and some “fallow fields awaiting decisions,” Kathy said.

While the property had been orchards for more than a century, when they were testing the soils for grapes they found a grapevine in one of the testing pits. As Kathy noted, “It was not a place that had never known grapes.” The plantings were inspired by the grapes they had fallen in love with on their honeymoon in the south of France. “Five different reds from Provence — mourvèdre, grenache, cinsault, carignane, syrah … and Zinfandel, because we were curious if we could make that work,” she said.

The reds most definitely work. They’ll soon be releasing their first white, a summertime sauvignon blanc.

“The name, Long Walk,” Kathy said, “hit us from different perspectives. We didn’t pick it lightly. It reflected our journey between our two homes, but also the journey we needed to take to do this — to spark a new adventure.” Having traversed the 500 mile pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela — twice — they know how to pace and place one foot at a time.

The O’Learys also appreciate the long walk of time.

Their purchase of the property also came with an animal shed that held 35 chickens and a pig, a packing shed and a barn. Taking these buildings down they used all the parts they could for the new tasting room.

The tasting room, built on the original packing shed foundation, honors the metal panels from the animal shed as the front of the wine bar. Rafters from the barn make up the porch and barn wood was transformed into the beautiful bar top, the tables and chairs. Even the corrugated metal found new life as the barn roof. Birdhouses and other things were made from scraps. The tasting room evokes farmhouse charm with an industrial vibe. Vintage watercolors of watery views collected over the years adorn the upper inside walls. Roll-up windows offer breezy ambiance, and the view overlooking the Ashland hills is postcard perfect.

Tasting notes

2022 Carignane: Brambles and baking spices in the aroma give an inviting opening to this elegantly charming wine before ripe cherry leans toward an earthy floor and red licorice with sultry texture and fine-grained tannins lifting the palate. Chillable.

2022 Field Notes: Blend of grenache, mourvèdre, carignane and syrah, this wine is vibrant and shimmers with complex tangy cherry and dark berry flavors. Nuanced with appetizing expression and savory texture that demands more sipping.

2022 Zinfandel: Fresh aromas of black fruits, fig and brioche meld into a savory yet tense palate of spicy brandy, tingly cassis and a sweet kiss of old fashioned horehound candy.

Run — don’t walk — to Long Walk Vineyard, located at 1800 N. Valley View Road, Ashland. For further information about Long Walk Vineyard, including tasting room hours, see longwalkvineyard.com or call 541-552-0534.