Tim Kinkade: Oral History Interview

This interview is with Tim Kinkade of Cynthian Vineyards. In this interview, Tim discusses how he accomplished his vineyard dreams.Tim talks about his many years as a contractor. He started in construction at 18 and stuck with it until he retired. He found work in places like Alaska and Hawaii until he got married and had children and settled in Corvallis, Oregon. Towards the end of his career, Tim’s sub-contractors were all retiring and he felt it might be time for him to follow suit. After having a dream of building his own vineyard for years, Tim sold the house he built and his children grew up in to started looking for vineyard property in 2012.Tim discusses the property of Cynthian Vineyards itself. Tim stumbled upon the property when he was golfing at Cross Creek located above the golf course. After checking it out and realizing there was already a house there, Tim jumped on the opportunity. In terms of growing grapes, the fruit loves the property. There is not a flat spot on the vineyard and the vines get the wind directly from the coast. Tim believes that good wine is about the farming and the fruit itself.Later in the interview, Tim talks about the reality of owning a vineyard and his hobbies outside of it. Tim explains that owning and living on a vineyard is not exactly what he imagined. Instead of retiring, he bought himself another job. Owning a vineyard is more work and risk than he originally thought. On the bright side, Tim is never bored along with his hobbies of woodworking, welding, scuba diving, maintaining old cars, and electric biking.This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Cynthian Vineyards in Dallas on July 16, 2026.