For more than 20 years, Christina Kelly worked as a newspaper reporter on the West Coast, covering education, public safety, government, business, environmental issues, entertainment and minority affairs.

During the same time, the Washington native began her lifelong interest in wine. After two decades in the news reporting business, Christina decided it was time to concentrate on her passion – the wine industry. She is our new columnist and roving reporter.

This intelligent, charming powerhouse graces the Northwest wine industry with her insights, tastings and conversations with those in an industry that has exploded in the past few years. Her column may tell us a funny story that relates to wine, introduce us to a dedicated winemaker with a vision, or provide us with consumer information to make good choices in a field crowded with great wines. Christina's column is one you'll want to read every week.

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Oregon Wine

This is the best guide, bar none, to Oregon's wines. Insightful articles, interesting reviews, in depth interviews- you'll find them all here. Worth every penny if you're interested in Oregon wine.

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Andy is editor of
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Adventures in the Northwest
By Christina Kelly, our columnist and roving reporter

"The Passion of Wine
- A Love Story"

For those of us who have a passion for wine, describing that allegiance is difficult to the person who thinks wine is a beverage that comes in several colors.

Depending on where you are in the wine lover's spectrum, the following story can make you laugh or cringe. It is a true story about a wine gaffe and only the names have been fudged to protect their identities.

When Rich and Martha, a Seattle area couple, told me their honeymoon story about wine, I knew they would be the example I would always think of when describing the differences in wine perception..

Rich is a self-employed urban planner raised in New York City. Martha is a kindergarten teacher from rural mid-Michigan. Despite very different upbringings - he was raised in Jewish home and she was raised Catholic, the couple shared a passion for music and outdoor recreation. She grew up involved in 4-H projects and Future Homemakers of America, and he grew up exposed to Broadway and the best ethnic food on the planet.

Shortly before Rich met Martha, he began his first serious wine collection. Each bottle he purchased was meticulously researched. Inexpensive wines he thought would be "discovered" as gems in the years to come were stored in the basement. His prize wine, more than two-dozen bottles of 30-year-old Chateau Lafite, Letour and Margaux, along with some rare California wine, was stored in a wine rack just off the kitchen.

Right after their wedding, Rich left for a six-week road trip on business, checking in nightly to see how his new bride was coping with life in a new city. It was summer and the school teacher had lots of time on her hands. They arranged for her mother and sister to fly out to Seattle for a visit.

Martha was unaware of Rich's passion for wine.

"I didn't know people collected wine," Martha later recalled. "I thought he was the kind of person who always wanted to have something on hand for company. It never dawned on me that someone could think of wine as art."

Martha repeatedly opened bottles of wine from the rack near the kitchen while her family visited. By the time Rich returned, most of his prize collection was gone, consumed by those who didn't recognize the labels or the significance of the collection.

It was discovered right away when Rich added two new bottles he picked up on the road.

"At first, I felt disbelief, and numbly asked Martha where she put the bottles," Rich said. "I could feel the blood drain out of my face, and actually felt wobbly in the legs. Here is this beautiful face turning to me, smiling and telling me in her sweet voice that she and her family drank it."

Rich was inconsolable as he fetched the empty bottles from the recycle bin in the basement. With each bottle, he asked Martha to describe what the wine tasted like.

"I was speechless because I didn't know how to tell him what he wanted to hear," Martha said. "He had tears in his eyes, asking about the Letour, and all I could say was that it tasted like a red wine. I didn't have a palate and certainly didn't have the vocabulary to express what I tasted."

Ten years later, the couple thrives and the new collection collects dust in their cellar. Although Martha never developed the palate of Rich, she understands the passion her husband has for winemaking and collecting. She is patient when he waxes on about the anticipation each time he uncorks a new bottle. She smiles lovingly when he takes the first sip and allows it to linger on his tongue before it hits the mid-palette. After the finish, she waits for his senses to kick in.

Like most of us, we wait to see what our tongue and brain relate to us. Will the wine create an image in our mind, or take us back to another time, place or memory? Or, will it make us pucker and gag? Maybe it won't do anything at all, which, unfortunately, covers a lot of wine.

I recently had a tasting with Rich and Martha. I trust his judgment, especially when tasting Bordeaux blends. The honeymoon story came up, as it often does when I think about how they survived those early years.

On this night, Rich took me aside and said he, too, had blundered a few years after they were married. What, I wondered, could out-blunder Martha drinking his prize collection? I mentally braced myself, hoping my best friend was not about to tell me he cheated on his wife, or had some kind of secret life.

"I accidentally threw out her wedding dress when we were preparing to move into our new house," he said sheepishly.