Oak Knoll Winery Claimed

The Oak Knoll Winery story begins in 1970, when Ronald and Marjorie Vuylsteke became pioneers of Oregon winemaking by founding the first winery in Washington County. At that time, there were only a few vineyards and a handful of wineries in all of Oregon! Ron Vuylsteke’s grandfather Leonard, a native of Belgium, was a winemaker in the St.- Emilion region of Bordeaux in the early 1900’s. He immigrated to the United States with his family on one of the last ships able to make safe passage out of Europe just before World War I. Arriving at Ellis Island in New York, the family traveled across the country by train to join relatives who had settled in the farmland of the northern Willamette Valley.