Eric was raised in New Hampshire spending summers working on local vegetable farms. This inspired a love for the land, leading him to earn his degree in Viticulture and Enology at Cornell University. After winemaking stints in New York, Spain, Australia, and Napa Valley, his passion for the lively and bright wines we produce here in Oregon brought him home to the Willamette Valley. When Eric isn’t busy making wine, he’s out in the mountains fishing, biking or rock-climbing.
Perched atop a windy knoll in the foothills of Oregon’s coastal mountain range lies Van Duzer Vineyards, a family-owned winery and estate vineyard established in 1998 by Carl and Marilynn Thoma. Here, 82 acres lie in the direct path of cooling marine winds that rush through a deep gap in the Coast Range known as the Van Duzer Corridor. The defining producer crafting cool-climate wines in the surrounding Van Duzer Corridor AVA (est. 2019), Van Duzer Vineyards offers uniquely Oregon wines crafted by the wind.
