The Founding Resistors

Kimberly Drake

Kimberly Drake is co-founder of Resistance Wine Company and Chief Introvert and Wine Maker.

Kimberly first got hooked on wine while living in Chile as a college student. While practicing law in the Washington, DC area and having three children Kimberly snuck in wine tastings, travels to international wine regions, a WSET program and some home winemaking. Over the years, her passion for great wine grew and eventually, she and Kirk decided to take the adventure of a lifetime, leaving the east coast with their 3 young children and moving to Southern Oregon to follow their shared dream of making great wine.

Kimberly’s experience as a winemaker started by making wine in our basement in northern Virginia. It was drinkable. In Oregon, she has worked with the winemaking teams at 2Hawk Vineyard & Winery and Barrel 42 Custom Winecraft while studying chemistry at Oregon State University and completing a Winemaking certificate program from the UC Davis Continuing & Professional Education Program.

Kirk Drake

Kirk Drake is co-founder of Resistance Wine Company and Chief Extrovert.

Kirk is a lifelong entrepreneur, author and has created multiple successful businesses, starting with founding a high school bank. After many years living in the Washington DC area, it was time for a change.

In 2016, Kirk moved to Southern Oregon with his wife and 3 children so that Kimberly could pursue her passion (great wine). The move was a lifelong dream to focus on a better work-life balance and embark on a family adventure! Kirk still runs his businesses, www.ongoingoperations.com, www.cu-2.com, and others from Southern Oregon while learning the wine business.

And the adventure continues! Kirk often dons his farmer’s hat, working on the land in Ashland where their estate grapes are grown. Unfortunately, Kirk is a lousy farmer, so they have never used their estate fruit but instead buy grapes from lots of Rogue Valley vineyards!