Former Medina resident and family build winery in Oregon wine country
“Let's go to the pretty place,” said former Medina resident Brian Zawada after a quick tour of his Violet Vines Winery tasting room in McMinnville, Oregon.
“We were living in Medina raising the kids up until five years ago. And once we got the last one out of the house we moved out here full time.”
Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast with the former Avalution Consulting LLC CEO and 1990 Strongsville High School graduate, sampling a few wines and getting the 411 on this cool dude from the 330. Brian gave me all the details during our 16-mile drive to see their vineyards in Sheridan, Oregon, that he co-owns with his wife April.
Brian and April loved raising their three boys in Medina, Ohio. Both worked and traveled extensively for his Cleveland- based software consulting business that focused on risk management. Zawada would find himself traveling to San Francisco or Oregon two or three times a month.
"It turns out we pretty much owned the Portland market,” he said as I sipped on his Albariño white wine.
When flying from the North Coast to the West Coast became “painful,” Zawada started staying weekends in Portland and having April, who was the office manager at Avalution, join him. “We kind of fell in love with the wine country scene.”
In September 2019, the couple purchased an 88-acre property in Sheridan with three 1-acre blocks of pinot noir planted. They named each one after sons Taylor, Andrew and Cooper.
"We were living in Medina raising the kids up until five years ago. And once we got the last one out of the house we moved out here full time."
Zawada sold Avalution in 2020, the same year that their youngest son Cooper graduated from Medina High School. That’s when Brian and April moved to the Willamette Valley, bought a home and made Violet Vines a full-time operation.
"For the first two and a half years I was basically the winemaker's intern. Then I went to UC Davis and that’s where I got my enology degree, “Zawada said.
The Zawada venture has brought the family back together again.
April runs the tasting room and handles all the marketing. Taylor 29, is a graphic designer in Columbus who creates the wine labels and other visuals for the brand. Andrew, 26, recently moved to Oregon and works in construction and helps out during the busy harvest season. Cooper, 24, spent some time at U Mass Boston but decided to join his parents in Oregon and help out at the winery.
“It turns out that the baby of the family is now my assistant winemaker."
In 2022, the Zawadas bought a 5-acre cherry farm in the Rocks District on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley and planted Rhône varietals such as grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre. They named the property the Set in Stone Vineyard as the vines grow in a Châteauneuf-du-Pape-like soil made of large round stones. The 4-acre block of Syrah is cleverly named “Cleveland Rocks.”
The journey west in Brian’s 2023 Ford Bronco came to a crawl once we arrived at their mountain estate. We drove slowly up a 500-foot incline along a wild blackberry-lined road to the highest point of the property. Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive. Once we reached the apex, Zawada parked next to a lone Adirondack chair where he occasionally sits in total tranquility to make business calls with a view of the vineyard.
Zawada uncorked a couple bottles of pinot noir to sample and I soon found out why he calls this “the pretty place.” He went on to point out the details of the 27 acres of vines that are planted near the western boundary of the McMinnville AVA. Currently there’s a barn and a small tasting outlook where one might be able to spot an occasional wild elk, turkey, cougar, black bear or coyote.
Future plans include a winery and a house on the property which also has four honey boxes.
The winery will produce 5,500 cases of wine in 2026 and ramp up to 7,000 cases in 2027. The wines are distributed in six states including Colorado and Ohio. Zawada, an Air Force veteran, likes to say his wines are the unofficial wines of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
You can find Violet Vines wines locally at Cornerstone Market in Cuyahoga Falls, Papa Joe’s in the Merriman Valley, Krieger’s Market in Cuyahoga Falls, 111 Bistro in Medina, Meyers Lake Beverage in Canton, and Top Shelf of Ohio in Jackson Township.
The Violet Vines 2023 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir was rated 93 points by Wine Enthusiast magazine and sells for $24.99.
For additional information about Violet Vines Winery, visit their website violetvines.com and check out the Ask Violet mobile app that was designed by Brian.