Started with a small life savings and a fistful of credit cards, the Ransom Project was launched in 1997 with Ransom Spirits Distillery making small amounts of grappa, eau d'vie and brandy. The distillery is currently located in Portland, Oregon and continues to produce very limited quantities of grape based spirits. Still wine production began during the 1999 vintage with Ransom Wine Co. operating as a semi-nomadic entity. For the first five years Ransom Wine Co. followed the path of it's founder, Tad Seestedt, through several contract winemaking and custom crushing locations until 2004 when permanent housing was finally located in the heart of McMinnville's historical granary district.
The intent of Ransom Wine Co. is to create artisan crafted wines that exemplify true varietal character and express the individuality of the growers, vineyard sites, and vintages. Our belief is that wine is best made by hand with minimal intervention and minimal use of mechanization, chemicals, computers, and high tech laboratory analyses. Winemaking decisions are mainly based on taste, the other four senses, a small degree of common sense, instinct, and of course what the grapes themselves want to do. Call it path of least resistance, laziness, low budget or anything that seems to fit. We prefer to call it "keeping it real". Very hands on, low tech, low hype.
