King Estate founder named ‘American Wine Legend’

A long-time Eugene winemaker is being recognized as a “wine legend” by one of the country’s premier industry magazines.

King Estate Winery co-founder Ed King has been named Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s 2025 American Wine Legend. The award recognizes King’s three-plus decades of work elevating Oregon Pinot Gris into a national wine brand. He’s the first Oregon winemaker to win the award.

“I’m honored to be recognized as an American Wine Legend,” King said in a statement. “It took vision, hard work and a shared commitment from the many hands who helped build King Estate. More than 30 years later, seeing how far Oregon wine has come and knowing we played a part is deeply rewarding.”

King and his father, Ed King Jr., founded King Estate southwest of Eugene in 1991. Since then, King has roughly doubled the winery’s acreage at its Territorial Highway location, opening up Oregon wines to national markets in the process as its brand recognition grew.

King Estate is the largest biodynamic-certified vineyard in North America, managing its crops and soil without the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. It bottles about 3 million bottles per year, making it one of the top five Oregon wine producers annually.

King will receive the American Wine Legend award at the Wine Star Awards gala in New York on Jan. 26.