Our Story
COR Cellars was started in 2004 by Luke Bradford.
Liv, meg, luke and delphine bradford
Photo thanks to kelly turso
Born in New York City and raised in the wilds of Pennsylvania and Utah, Luke moved to Washington to attend Evergreen State College in Olympia. Studying sustainable agriculture, while exploring the mountains and rivers of Washington, he developed an interest in wine on a climbing trip to northern Italy. Guided by a desire to integrate his love for agriculture, history and art, he committed to a life in wine.
After working harvests for Tenuta di Trinoro in the Val D'Orcia in Tuscany, and Passopisciaro on Mt Etna in Sicily from 2000-2002, Luke returned to Washington, and went to work for Wind River Cellars and then Syncline Wine Cellars in the Columbia Gorge.
Seeing the enormous potential in Washington, and the Columbia Gorge in particular, Luke launched COR in 2004 by planting a couple acres of vineyard in Lyle, whilst arranging to buy grapes from various other sites in the Columbia Gorge, Horse Heaven Hills, and Yakima Valley AVA's.
In 2011, on a rainy spring day in Seattle, Luke met Meg Gilbert, and the energy of a chance encounter changed both of their lives forever. After plenty of windshield time traveling to be with each other, Meg moved down to the Gorge from Yakima, WA, where she had managed all the sales for her family’s Gilbert Cellars’ wines. Luke and Meg combined forces and now share all the responsibilities of COR and raising their daughters Liv and Delphine.