October 2008

Overview

Springbank Farm is a blueberry farm in Linn County, Oregon, using a VAPG award to study the feasibility of making and selling blueberry wine.  The winery would ideally allow the O’Driscoll family to live on the farm and make a living from the blueberries and wine. 

How they got started

The farm was first started by Brian’s parents, who grew a number of crops and raised cattle. After researching many different crops, Brian and his wife Michelle decided to put in 13 acres of blueberries.  They then created a plan to process a portion of the berries, into wine for local sales.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges is how to define the market for blueberry wine.  As Brian points out, the research is being done from scratch, as there isn’t much information on blueberry wines and as he says, there is no single database or resource to sort it all out.

Another challenge that Brian acknowledges is the fact that not only is blueberry wine different, but sweet wines can have a certain stigma to them among some people, especially in an area of the country known for classic grape wines.  They are working to make a sweet wine that will override that stigma.

Successes

The blueberry winery envisions being the only U-pick operation with a winery in the area.  They envision local people coming out to purchase blueberries and at the same time having an opportunity to sample and purchase wine made on the premises from the same blueberries that are enjoyed fresh.

Goals

The blueberry winery has many goals on their agenda.  One is production.  They are hoping to grow incrementally, producing 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of blueberries in the first year of production and over 200,000 pounds after 7 years. Wine production will start with a few hundred cases annually and grow in response to market demand. The O’Driscolls hope to sell the wine from the farm, in grocery stores, and in local restaurants. 

How they used their VAPG funding

The blueberry winery was awarded the VAPG funding in 2008.  They have used it towards developing the feasibility study and business plan.