FARMING IN THE VALLEY SINCE 1909

The Bickford family has been growing tree fruit in the Hood River Valley for generations, but since 2000, they’ve enjoyed a near meteoric rise in the wine business.

“I just took a gamble on some grapes, after my friend Dick Reed spurred me into it, telling me there was nursery that had some 4000 grape vine cuttings and I figured it was ‘go big or go home.’ ”

It’s been a steady climb for Mt. Hood Winery. Those initial plantings reached their third leaf in 2002, and the grapes weren’t going to turn themselves into wine.

“So I went to a trade show in Portland and after three hours — and $20,000 poorer — we had enough stuff to make wine,” Bickford chuckled. “I was told that it needed to be not only good enough to drink but good enough that I could sell.”

Award winning winemaker and high school classmate of Steve’s, Rich Cushman returned to Hood River in 2007 after stints in Germany and at UC Davis. Upon his return, Cushman began making wine for a couple of clients. One brand rented space from the Bickfords, who’d recently sold their successful fruit-packing operation and transitioned into a 10,000-square-foot winery facility.

“We got bigger, and Rich ends up staying here,” Bickford said.

“It feels like a family here,” Cushman says. We all have lunch together every Friday and drink other people’s wines. But I’ve also walked through those vineyards so many times since 2007, and the Bickfords are really good farmers. They are dedicated.”

“Rich is in charge,” Bickford said. “I help a lot at crush and with bottling – we own our own bottling line – and we all just share the workload in the vineyard, which is 25 acres. We also have a full-time, year-round crew that enjoys the change of scenery from the ladders and pruning trees to no ladders and pruning grape vines.”

From those humble beginnings Steve, his brother Don and sister-in-law Libby brought the winery forward quickly, culminating in 2016 with Wine Press Northwest naming Mt. Hood Winery as the 2016 Oregon Winery of the Year.

“We were pretty early on the scene in the Gorge,” Bickford said. “There were a handful of wineries in the region then — Maryhill, Cascade Cliffs, Hood River Vineyards and Flerchinger (now Cathedral Ridge).”

Bickford, a mechanical engineer from Oregon State University, sits on the board of directors for the Columbia Gorge Winegrowers Association. The group counts more than 30 wineries along both sides of the river with 80 vineyards covering a total of 1,250 acres.

Orchards continue to the Bickford family’s 160 acres, but they sacrificed a number of 80-year-old pear trees in 2008 to make room for their new tasting room and their 30-foot-long antique wine bar.

On some weekends in spring, summer and fall, longtime general manager Linda Barber could use a longer bar!

And what about that friend who inspired the initial planting of 4,000 cuttings in 2000? Dick Reed, the Chicago stock trader who went on to launch nearby Wy’East Vineyards. They still travel together for business and fun.
“Yeah, I’ve mostly thanked him,” Bickford chuckled. “He got me into the wine business, and I got him into the volunteer fire department with me.”

-Story condensed from Wine Press Northwest article by Eric Degerman — co-founder and CEO of Great Northwest Wine