The Oregon vineyard is opening its Carlton estate to appointment-only visitors, combining estate-grown wines, informal food service and a setting built around connection.
McCollum Family Vineyard has opened its 318-acre Carlton estate to visitors through its first on-property hospitality experience, giving guests a chance to taste wines where the grapes are grown. The appointment-only offering runs from Thursday through Sunday and centres on a vintage Airstream beneath the estate’s oak trees. For CJ and Elise McCollum, the move extends their wine business beyond the bottle into a physical setting shaped around hospitality, place and shared experience.
The estate was purchased in 2021 and transformed from a former Christmas tree farm and land used for cattle and horses into a vineyard with 56 acres planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Those plantings provide the grapes for the estate wines, while the property’s scale and landscape give the hospitality experience a distinct sense of place. The approach also reflects the McCollums’ stated interest in thoughtful farming, long-term land stewardship and creating an inviting environment for visitors.
The tasting experience introduces four wines from the estate’s current range: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Rosé and Blanc de Blancs. Visitors can choose a four-wine flight priced at $30 per person, or order selected wines by the glass or bottle. Charcuterie-style bites from Good Company Cheese Shop are available for purchase, adding a modest food component to the outdoor format without turning the visit into a full restaurant proposition.
Visits are hosted from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and must be booked in advance. Tastings take place outdoors when weather permits, and children are welcome, details that position the estate as a relaxed destination rather than a purely transactional tasting counter. The setting also gives the brand a direct way to connect its estate-growing story with the experience of drinking the finished wines, while keeping the offer deliberately limited in scale.
The Airstream is an early stage in a broader estate vision that includes a future tasting room and multi-purpose destination, with strolling green spaces, locally driven dishes and produce from the property’s garden. Those plans are presented as part of the estate’s continuing development rather than as an immediate expansion of the current offer. For now, McCollum Family Vineyard is using a compact, appointment-led experience to make its land, wines and hospitality ambitions tangible to guests.
