RESISTANCE WINE COMPANY — BIOS
Plain text. UTF-8. Short version is ~50 words. Long version is ~150 words.
Five entities: Kimberly Drake, Kirk Drake, Lin Stone, Chris McKean, Resistance Wine Company.
Version: 1.2.0
Last updated: 2026-05-03

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KIMBERLY DRAKE — SHORT (~50w)

Kimberly Drake is the co-founder and winemaker at Resistance Wine Company in Ashland, Oregon. She caught the wine bug as a college student in Chile, practiced law in Washington, D.C., then re-trained in chemistry at Oregon State and winemaking at UC Davis. She makes five Rogue Valley varietals, low-intervention, no additives.

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KIMBERLY DRAKE — LONG (~150w)

Kimberly Drake is the co-founder and winemaker at Resistance Wine Company. She got hooked on wine as a college student in Chile, then spent fifteen years practicing law in Washington, D.C. and raising three kids — squeezing in WSET courses, basement vinification, and trips through Tuscany, Napa, and back to Chile whenever the calendar allowed.

In 2016 she moved the family to Southern Oregon to make wine on her own terms. She earned a UC Davis winemaking certificate, studied chemistry at Oregon State, and worked alongside the teams at 2Hawk and Barrel 42 before bonding her own label. Her wines are low-intervention: no additives, picked on flavor rather than Brix, fermented native where the lot allows.

Her 2018 Syrah won Best Red Wine at the 2023 Oregon Wine Experience. Her 2018 Malbec took Best Malbec the same year. She is, by self-designation, the Chief Introvert.

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KIRK DRAKE — SHORT (~50w)

Kirk Drake is the co-founder of Resistance Wine Company and self-appointed Chief Extrovert. A serial entrepreneur and author, he runs cu-2.com and several other operating companies from Ashland, Oregon. He moved his family from Washington, D.C. to the Rogue Valley in 2016. He is, by his own admission, a lousy farmer.

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KIRK DRAKE — LONG (~150w)

Kirk Drake is the co-founder of Resistance Wine Company and the loud half of the partnership. He has been starting companies since high school, where he founded a student-run bank. He runs cu-2.com and a handful of other operating businesses from Southern Oregon, where he writes, builds software, and shows up at the tasting room on weekends.

In 2016 he moved his family from the D.C. suburbs to Ashland so Kimberly could chase the winemaking dream. He handles the business side: distribution, the wine club, the building at 322 N Pioneer, the spreadsheets nobody else wants. He occasionally tries his hand at growing grapes on the family's small Ashland estate. The fruit has never made it into a bottle, which Kirk describes as a verdict on his farming.

He is the author of several books on credit unions, technology, and operating discipline.

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LIN STONE — SHORT (~50w)

Lin Stone is the Tasting Room and Events Manager at Resistance Wine Company and an upcoming sommelier. They grew up on Mount Hood, studied Environmental Science at Southern Oregon University, and will talk about sandy loam for thirty minutes if you let them. They are an active advocate for queer visibility in wine.

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LIN STONE — LONG (~150w)

Lin Stone runs the tasting room and events program at Resistance Wine Company. They grew up on Mount Hood doing classical ballet and acting, fell into fine-dining service early, and moved to Ashland to study Environmental Science and Policy at Southern Oregon University — where viticulture, geology, soil science, and wildfire ecology all turned out to overlap.

Before Resistance they worked at Cocorico, Irvine and Roberts, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's development office, building the kind of local relationships you cannot fake. Their sommelier studies focus on terroir, with deliberate weight on the Rogue Valley. Asking Lin about rocks is a thirty-minute commitment; sandy loam in particular gets the long answer.

Lin is an active advocate for queer visibility and inclusion in the wine industry. They believe a tasting room should be welcoming on day one of someone's wine education, not just on day one thousand.

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CHRIS McKEAN — SHORT (~50w)

Chris McKean is Event Coordinator, Tasting Ambassador, and self-designated O.H.B. — Ordinary Human Being — at Resistance Wine Company. He moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Ashland thirteen years ago, coached AHS Varsity Baseball and SOU softball, and is a serious vinyl collector. His current pours of choice: the 2018 Malbec and the 2024 Chenin Blanc.

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CHRIS McKEAN — LONG (~150w)

Chris McKean is the Event Coordinator and Tasting Ambassador at Resistance Wine Company, where his official title also includes O.H.B. — Ordinary Human Being. He moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Ashland thirteen years ago and put down the kind of roots that take a generation. His wine education started early, courtesy of a father with a serious cellar and the patience to explain it.

Chris is a dad of three and, recently, a grandfather. He has coached AHS Varsity Baseball for several seasons and SOU softball for a couple more. He cooks for friends on any pretext and makes a short list of craft cocktails he is willing to argue for.

Outside the tasting room he is a vinyl collector and a music-sharing evangelist — the friend who hands you a record and expects a real opinion back. At Resistance he pours the 2018 Malbec and the 2024 Chenin Blanc with conviction.

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RESISTANCE WINE COMPANY — SHORT (~50w)

Resistance Wine Company is a small-lot, family-founded winery in downtown Ashland, Oregon. Five Rogue Valley varietals — Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Syrah, Tempranillo, and Sauvignon Blanc. No additives, low intervention, picked on flavor. We take our wine seriously. Ourselves, not so much. Tasting room open Thursday through Sunday, five minutes from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Editorial, wine, and brand inquiries: Kirk Drake, kirk@resistancewineco.com. Tasting-room visits and private events: Lin Stone, lin@resistance.wine.

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RESISTANCE WINE COMPANY — LONG (~150w)

Resistance Wine Company is a small-lot, family-founded winery in downtown Ashland, Oregon. Kimberly and Kirk Drake left Washington, D.C. for the Rogue Valley in 2016 and opened the Pioneer Street tasting room in 2024.

The lineup is five Rogue Valley varietals — Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Syrah, Tempranillo, and Sauvignon Blanc — sourced from named vineyard partners across Medford and Ashland. Winemaking is low-intervention: no additives, native fermentations where the lot supports it, picked on flavor rather than Brix. The 2018 Syrah won Best Red Wine and the 2018 Malbec won Best Malbec at the 2023 Oregon Wine Experience.

The tasting room sits a five-minute walk from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and pours Thursday through Sunday. Wines ship to 44 states plus D.C. through Vinoshipper — sorry, SD, UT, MI, AR, MS, AL. Malbec, Syrah, and Rosé release annually; everything else releases when we feel like it. The wine club has three tiers — Introvert, Ambivert, Extrovert — at four, six, and twelve bottles per release. We take our wine seriously. Ourselves, not so much.

Editorial, wine, brand, and awards inquiries route to Kirk Drake at kirk@resistancewineco.com. Tasting-room visits, private events, and wine club questions go to Lin Stone at lin@resistance.wine.

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