Dan Smith planted the vines of Sweet Cheeks Vineyards throughout the 1980s and 1990s, selling grapes to other wineries before opening the tasting room Thanksgiving weekend of 2005. The name comes from the curious swell in our hillside. Winemaker, Leo Gabica, originally from the Philippines, moved to Oregon in 1994. Leo answered an Ad for Silvan Ridge night crew on the bottling line and fell in love with the industry. Dan offered Leo a job as our cellar master, and was our first employee hired. Leo took over as lead winemaker in 2013.
Jessica, Dan's Granddaughter, became General Manager in 2016 at the age of 26 after a one year "sabbatical" of traveling and working in Napa/Sonoma. Dan's wife, Beth, took over as President after Dan's sudden passing in 2018.
Beth's daughter, Katie, is our Marketing Director. Together, Beth, Leo, Katie and Jessica
run Sweet Cheeks Winery. The winery expanded and opened a second tasting room,
Sweet Cheeks on 5th, in downtown Eugene at the Fifth Street Public Market. We focus
primarily on our DTC channel, but we do distribute in Oregon and parts of Washington,
Lousiana and Florida.