Oak Creek Vineyards and its 11 acres are located at 1555 N Page Springs Road 11 miles northeast from Sedona. We're 500 ft from Oak Creek, one of the few natural year-round bodies of water in Arizona. At 3,400 ft elevation, the vineyard sits in the shadows of House Mountain, providing mostly volcanic soil with some loam and gravel. Established in 2002, the winery produces close to 3,000 cases annually of both white and red wines local to Arizona.
At Oak Creek Vineyards and Winery, we believe the experience of sharing wine is equally important to the quality of the wine. We make wines we want to drink and share them on the patio as we would with family. We craft our wines to be as bright as possible to balance the tannin and alcohol that usually challenges warm climate winemaking and strive to achieve balanced wines pleasing to the palate and adaptable to a warm day on the patio or a big steak dinner.
Our tasting room atmosphere is relaxed and casual, allowing guests to experience the vineyard environment at their leisure. We believe it is this atmosphere that enhances the wine experience and encourages our guests along a progression of their palate. Situated as we are, on Page Spring Road within ½ mile of 3 other vineyard wineries, encourages guests to compare and contrast the attitudes and styles of winemaking in the Verde Valley.
On February, 24th 2020, Nathalie & Gary Carruthers took ownership of Oak Creek Vineyards and Winery. They developed their love for small, local, family-owned wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Paso Robles, and Sonoma County while living in California and wanted to create that same experience after relocating to Arizona. Their dreams evolved through the appreciation of these passionate craftspeople and manifested into the purchase and growth of Oak Creek Vineyards. Two-years later, they are proud of the connections made in the Arizona Wine community. By joining a group of passionate innovators and craftspeople growing grapes in a challenging and surprising place has challenged them to develop a wine program that represents the uniqueness of Arizona wine making. Nathalie & Gary enjoy their new lives in the Verde Valley. They have expanded their family with furry friends of the feline and canine varieties and have added egg laying hens to their vineyard home.
Raised in Austin Texas, Adam first learned about wine through his family’s ties to Becker Vineyards in the Texas Hill Country. Moving on to fine wine sales with Twin Liquors in his early twenties he honed his wine knowledge. Ultimately leaving TX in 2010 to attend the Enology & Viticulture program in Walla Walla, WA. In the second year of the program, his internship took him to Truchard Vineyards in the Carneros AVA of Napa Valley, CA. During this internship housing became available and transferring to live on 200+ acres of vineyard was a dream come true. After finishing out his degree program in Napa, Adam spent the next 8 years moving around Napa and Sonoma learning everything possible on small to massive winery sites. Gaining experience and rising up through the cellar at Truchard Vineyards, Duckhorn Winery, Pisoni Family, ultimately gaining the title of Head Winemaker at White Oak Winery in Alexander Valley. After the sale of White Oak Winery in 2019 a unique harvest opportunity came to work harvest at Joseph Cellars in Calistoga, CA with Al Perry, Bruce Regalia, and Heidi Barrett. Due to the increased cost of housing and yearly fires a welcomed relocation opportunity presented itself in Northern Arizona. While working for a famed winery in AZ for all of 2020 and 2021 Adam joined Oak Creek Vineyards initially part time for all of 2021 and then ultimately full time from December 2021 to present. Adam looks forward to continuing to help build the Arizona wine industry through innovative and fun wine projects at Oak Creek Vineyards.
We adopted Macon (pronounced Mason) when we first moved to San Jose, California from Canada. He has now been with us for nine years and is our original Winery Dog. Macon rules his kingdom, and He will always let us know when he sees any man or beast! Any visitors to the winery are certain to hear him!
It was clear that his life had been tough before we adopted him. We often say he was trained to within an inch of his life – he was very well trained but was terrified of all men. Now he’s just a big cuddly guy. While he is starting to show is age you'll still find him roaming the vineyard hills!
Hunter is our pure-bred Rat Terrier. We spent a lot of effort looking for a dog to help clear the vineyard of rodents. Everything we read pointed to Rat Terriers as the ideal dog to hunt squirrels and gophers tenaciously. Forever hopeful, we named him Hunter. Sadly, Hunter is more of a lover than a hunter! He is a very sweet dog and probably the smartest dog we have ever owned; he’s anxious to please, learns new tricks quickly, loves to play and loves to cuddle with us. If you see him on the patio, he is probably coming down to pester the Chef. The staff calls him the Cheese Goblin. In recognition of Nathalie’s French-Canadian roots, we will create a tribute label for Hunter called “Le Chasseur” which is French for “The Hunter”. Look for that wine sometime in 2023.
We are more than just pet tolerant; we are pet friendly and so every year in the spring we sponsor an event with the Verde Valley Humane Society. For four consecutive years one of our employees has adopted one of the puppies at this event. In 2021 we held our end of the bargain and adopted Rosie. We picked her up and she melted into our arms, we were hooked. The adoption coincided with the release of our first Rosé so we named her “Rosie”.
Rosie is a Miniature Pinscher / Chihuahua mix and personality from both breeds is packed into her little 7 lb body. Having the very long legs and small body of a min-pin, she loves to prance when she plays. We call her our “Tiny Dancer”. She loves to run, and she is very fast! She is fearless and will chase anything – coyotes, javelinas, squirrels, cars, trucks, and four-wheelers. I don’t know what she will do if she actually catches anything! You will often see her on our laps on the tasting room patio. She loves the attention so feel free to say Hi!
