After years of restaurant ownership, a wine-buying trip to France meant to offer a break from the day-to-day instead revealed the need for change. Reconnecting with the food, drink, and of course the people that first shaped our love of genuine hospitality sent us down a new path. With family at the center of our priorities AND a growing need to connect with nature and the creative process, we uprooted our lives to build something new.

completing the sale of our restaurants and home in South Carolina in 2023, we relocated to the Willamette valley to take on a new challenge. Without a family legacy in wine or a traditional path into the industry, and with little interest in doing things simply because that's how they've always been done, we set out to make the kinds of wines we most enjoy drinking: vibrant, expressive, and true to their origins.

We work with organically and biodynamically farmed fruit and take a minimal-intervention approach in the cellar. Inspired by traditional Old world winemaking, we favor physical over chemical interventions, allowing the vineyard, vintage, and fermentation to shape each wine's character. Our aim is to make wines that feel alive, energetic, and reflective of both place and vintage.

Ship of Fools is a nod to our willingness to experiment, question assumptions, and embrace a little uncertainty. We like wines with personality, even when that means they're not entirely predictable. Rather than forcing every wine toward a predetermined outcome, we try to work with what each year gives us and embrace the result.

We don't claim to have all the answers or acumen. Each harvest brings new challenges and opportunities, and we're evolving our practices as we go. Ship of Fools is built on curiosity, humility, and a healthy sense of humor about the whole endeavor. We're making wines we love and trying not to take ourselves too seriously along the way. we hope you love them as much as we do.

 -Greg & Beth McPhee