Hocking Hills Winery
|
|
In 2007, the Davidson Family Farm was challenged with defining its future vision. Originally a cattle farm, started in the 1960’s by Max and Loris Davidson; the land had largely been left to itself for the past 20 years as the Davidson children had moved away and Max and Loris retired from cattle keeping.
By 2008, Max and Loris had passed away and the farm was left to the future generations. The Davidson’s were always committed to maintaining the land for agricultural uses, however, there was no clear vision as to how that was to occur. At a family meeting it was brought up as a passing comment that perhaps the land could be used to start a vineyard. Not much else was discussed about it, but the seed had been planted.
Blaine Davidson, Max and Loris’ grandson was pursing his MBA through Ashland University and was enrolled in an entrepreneurship course, which required the creation of a business plan for the final project. Blaine decided to develop a plan to start a vineyard on the family farm, and with that Hocking Valley Vineyards was born.
The Davidson family planted the first 600 grapevines, just over 1 acre, in 2008. French hybrid varieties were chosen for their cold hardiness, Vidal Blanc, Chambourcin, and Traminette. Blaine, as the vineyard manager would commute from Columbus after work and on weekends to take care of the day-to-day activities, but the whole family was involved in the effort. Due to the significant amount of labor involved in maintaining a vineyard, Blaine and his future wife, Allison, decided to make the move to Logan in 2009 so that they could better tend to the vineyard while commuting to their “real jobs” in Columbus on a day-to-day basis. In subsequent years further plantings followed to bring the vineyard to where it is today; approximately 2,000 vines covering 4 acres with a production potential in excess of 12 tons of grapes annually.
The goal from the start was to build an organization which would endure for future generations; so in 2013, Blaine organized the rest of the Davidson Family and laid out his vision for the next stage of the operation, Hocking Hills Winery. At that time, Blaine’s brother and sister-in-law, Drew and Laura Davidson also decided to move to Logan from Columbus to help with the start-up operations. Starting a winery requires a very large investment, so, the Davidson family along with some of their close friends pooled their resources to launch the company.
Hocking Hills Winery opened its doors to the public in April 2015 and is happy to maintain a family oriented business. Blaine serves as the CEO and Winemaker, while Allison runs the tasting room as the Tasting Room Manager. Drew serves as the CFO, handling all of the financial matters, while Laura manages the Human Resources needs of the company.
|
|
|
Directions
View Map
|
View Weather
Add New Review
|