The Carlton Winemakers Studio

A shared winery just outside downtown Carlton founded in 2002 by winemaker Eric Hamacher, his wife Luisa Ponzi of Ponzi Vineyards, and Ned and Kirsten Lumpkin of Lazy River Vineyard. Hamacher earned his viticulture and enology degree from UC Davis in 1988, worked more than 35 vintages across multiple regions, and moved north from Napa in 1995. He then spent several years lobbying the Oregon Legislature to legalize alternating proprietorships — arrangements allowing multiple independently licensed wineries to operate in one facility. The Studio opened once that law passed, the first of its kind in the Northwest and the first winery facility in the United States registered and built to US Green Building Council LEED construction standards.

The 27,000-case gravity-flow facility gives small, high-end producers access to professional equipment, staff, and expertise without the capital cost of building their own winery, while remaining fully independent. Fifteen or more producers currently make wine here. Hampton Lumber, a Portland-based family company, acquired the facility in 2021 and has continued the same model with the same tenants and longtime general manager Anthony King.

The tasting room pours a curated selection of roughly twenty wines across the resident labels, split evenly between whites and reds, with Coravin and preservation systems used so the first pour from a bottle matches the last. There is no kitchen, but the shop stocks everything needed to assemble a charcuterie board. Large groups are welcome with advance notice, and the room has hosted events including yoga-and-wine evenings. The New York Times has named it Oregon’s best tasting room.