Who we are

Walut City WineWorks was the brainchild of two amazing farmers-John Davidson and John Gilpin- It was serendipity to find themselves working shoulder to should with the best of the modern day Oregon wine pioneers.

For John Davidison and John Gilpin, their meeting in 1984 at one of the first wineries in Yamhill County was the start of an abiding friendship and business partnership based on a mutual love of Pinot noir. After this serendipitious meeting, the John's came together to form St. Joseph Orchard. Through St. Joseph's they have grown, grafted and planted more than a million vines in verdant Yamhill County over the last two + decades. Currently they own or manage more than 200 acres of vineyards in the Willamette Valley.

In 1999 John Davidson and John Gilpin decided to expand their business and vision to include their own production facility to allow the opportunity of the vineyards they manage, to come to full materialization, while still encompassing the total in-house, hands on method. They repurposed the original Willamette Valley Walnut Co. building, in historic downtown McMinnville, Oregon- once nicknamed "Walnut City," and provided their vineyard customers a home for them all to come together and bring to fruition their dreams while still keeping the integrity of the hands on, vine to wine mentality.

In a nutshell (pun intended) Walnut City WineWorks is a multi-brand "custom crush" wine production facility. Since 1999 we have been producing small-lot, hand-crafted wines, for numerous labels around the Willamette Valley. In addition, the thing that sets Walnut City apart from other "custom crush" facilities, is our involvement in the wine growing process- not only do we make the wine, but we have also planted, manage and farm the vineyard sites where our fruit is sourced from. The brands currently produced here at Walnut City include- Walnut City WIneWorks, Bernard Machado, Carlton Hill, Z'IVO, Lundeen, Genius Loci and Robinson Reserve.