Forms part of the Oregon Wine Archives Oral History Project.
Collection is open for research.
Marjorie May Vuylsteke, nee Wilkerson, was born in Tillamook, Oregon, in 1934. She attended Marylhurst College. In 1955, she and Ronald George Vuylsteke were married; they later had six children. In 1970, the Vuylstekes founded Oak Knoll Winery in Hillsboro, which was the first winery in Washington County. They divorced in 1987 and continued to operate the winery together.
Forms part of the Oregon Wine Archives Oral History Project.
Oral history interview with Marjorie M. Vuylsteke, by Jamie Minkus and Kirsten Wall, SR 2889, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This oral history interview with Marjorie M. Vuylsteke was conducted by Jamie Minkus and Kirsten Wall at Oak Knoll Winery in Hillsboro, Oregon, on May 3, 2002. The interview was conducted as part of the Oregon Wine Archives Oral History Project, which collected interviews with notable figures in the wine-growing industry, including vintners, vineyard growers, community members, and workers active in the development of Oregon's wine industry.
In this interview, Vuylsteke describes the early years of Oak Knoll Winery. She discusses the work involved in starting the winery and talks about the first wines they made in the 1970s. She also shares her involvement in the Hillsboro community. She talks about organizing wine-tasting events with other women winemakers in the region, about some of the employees at the winery, and about sourcing their grapes. She discusses raising a large family while operating the winery, speaks about participating in wine-tasting competitions, and describes some of the wines Oak Knoll makes. She closes the interview by talking about other women winemakers, and about how the Oregon wine industry has changed since the 1970s.
Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA,