Luisa Ponzi: Oral History Interview

This interview is with Luisa Ponzi of Ponzi Vineyards. In this interview, Luisa talks about growing up in the wine industry and finding her own place in it.

Luisa shares about what it was like to grow up in the early Oregon wine industry, making friends with other kids in wine families and others not really understanding what her family did. Though she originally went to school for biology to enter the medical field, she graduated with a degree in English Literature.

In 1991, Luisa returned to her family’s winery to help with harvest, and this put her directly back onto the wine industry path. After studying wine in France - and discovering a lot of sexism towards women working in wine - she returned to her family’s estate to take over winemaking duties from her father.

Later in the interview, Luisa talks about selling the Ponzi brand and starting her own label. She and her husband, Eric Hamacher, started a project called Winery Lane Collective, which is a shared winemaking and tasting room space. She speaks to her family’s focus on quality over everything else, and her pride in how her family has grown over the years.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Winery Lane Collective in Beaverton on August 8, 2025.