The wine history and the growing methods of Maragas Winery and the wine regions of Central Oregon

© All content by Doug Maragas, Maragas Winery 2018

Anna Maragas, 3rd from left at our family vineyard (behind) in Crete

The starting point of Maragas Winery and
the Maragas family winemaking history.

Maragas Winery continues much of the old world winemaking practices handed down through several generations within Doug Maragas’, family.  Doug is the founder and winemaker of Maragas Winery, established May 13, 1999. 

Doug's family began making wine in Crete, Greece centuries ago and still owns the vineyard.  When Doug’s father and uncle passed on, the vineyard was given to Doug’s cousin George who currently manages the family vineyard.

In the United States, beginning in 1941, the Maragas family began commercially brokering grapes and making wine out of Lodi, California.  Anna Maragas and George Maragas, Doug’s grandparents, founded the business.  Anna had obtained a very sought-after rail permit to ship produce and she quickly began shipping several thousands of tons of wine grapes she brokered from several vineyards to various wineries in California.  Many of her customers’ names are still recognizable today like Mondavi and Sebastiani.

She also shipped train car loads of grapes across the country to her husband George in Ohio where the family had a grape processing facility where it crushed and pressed grapes for jug wineries in the Eastern U.S.  Jug wine constituted the largest part of the American market from the 1930s through the 1960s. 

Doug Maragas set off on his own when he established Maragas Winery in 1999.  Doug’s grandmother was blessed with mental acuity her entire life.  She was active in several business and studied business, history, and economics until her passing in July of 1999.  She shared much of her winemaking and business understanding with Doug.  To this day, he continues to hold true to those traditions

Why Central Oregon

After looking for an optimum place to begin growing grapes and making wine, through a friend, Doug found Central Oregon.  It was appealing to Doug because it was a beautiful area, remarkably similar to the family vineyard in Crete, Greece.  Both areas have volcanic sandy loam soil, an abundance of sunshine and a dry Mediterranean like (rain in the winter) climate.  Finally, the beauty of Central Oregon, and for Doug and his family, the stunning views from Maragas Winery, were, and still are, enchanting.

The Journey

Along with our old world techniques, we're very conscience of preserving the new world.  We focus on farming organically and being as environmentally friendly as possible.  You may notice that we don't use capsules over the necks of our bottles.  We do this because capsules have no preservation uses for wine and are not recyclable.  Next, what you may not know is that the "corks" we use are the first zero carbon footprint "cork" and are actually made out of sugar cane.  Finally, we have a solar array that powers a substantial part of our operation here at Maragas Winery.  In all, we strive to play our part in keeping our winemaking environment sustainable for generations to come.

We invite you to join us in our love for grape and wine. 

O U R   M I S S I O N

Our mission is to make old world hand crafted barrel aged wine that is unique to our style and exemplifying complex flavor.  Much of our wine making techniques were handed down generation to generation in the Maragas family.  Anna Maragas, the mentor of Doug Maragas - founder of this winery - coached Doug on old world winemaking techinques starting when Doug was a child.  Anna founded the first Maragas wine and grape brokering business in 1941.  And, Anna learned her techniques and understanding of the wine and viticultural industry via her parents and so on, in Crete, Greece, where the family vineyard still exists.