About the Producer
Elk Cove Vineyards was founded in 1974 by Pat and Joe Campbell. Winemaker Adam Campbell joined forces with his parents in 1995 and Elk Cove remains proudly family owned.
It’s 1974. The Campbell family winds up a gravel road to an abandoned and overgrown homestead in the foothills of the Coast Range Mountains.
Six year old Eartha asks “Where’s the house?” “It’s behind us!” Joe and Pat happily reply – referring to the trailer that would be their home for the next year. They are Oregon winegrowing pioneers.
Pat and Joe chose the property for its shallow soils, steep hilly terrain and beautiful views. After converting the existing homesteader’s barn into a winery, they built a new home from reclaimed lumber.
They invited friends to help on the weekends, enticing them with manual labor and wine futures. Joe worked nights in the ER, Pat managed the business, and they both worked long hours in the vineyards and made the wines together. There were fewer than ten wineries in Oregon at the time.
In the winter of 1974, a herd of 40 Roosevelt elk bedded down in the clearing by the Campbell family’s trailer. Their presence, along with the protective bowl shape of the property, inspired Pat and Joe to name their property Elk Cove Vineyards.
Pat’s great-grandfather was a Swiss immigrant to Helvetia, Oregon, who grew grapes and made wine prior to prohibition. Her parents were orchardists in Parkdale, a small farming community at the foot of Mount Hood. Her father Lew, upon seeing his daughter’s new land, overgrown with abandoned prune and hazelnut trees, commented “With this soil and no water, I don’t think you can grow anything here – except maybe winegrapes.”
Pat met Joe Campbell when they were both teenagers picking strawberries for spending money. He was a small town kid from Hood River, Oregon, whose smarts landed him at Harvard, then Stanford Medical School. Joe used his academic background to teach himself the science of winemaking, collaborating with other fledgeling winegrowers to learn from their achievements and struggles.
