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Christina Kelly,
Avalon Wine Senior Editor

Christina Kelly spent the first half of her career as a journalist for daily newspapers and magazines. She left daily journalism to work in corporate marketing/communications, but as a passionate wine enthusiast, she continues to write about the Northwest wine industry (since 1997) for many national publications.

Christina is a multiple fellowship winner to the Professional Wine Writers Symposium in Napa, including 2012. Christina has written for Avalonwine.com for the past 12 years. She can be reached at winewriter@comcast.net.

Jean Yates
Avalon Wine Owner

Jean first worked with the Oregon wine industry in 1989, when she helped develop marketing brochures for wineries in the South Willamette. She then started Avalon, and has supported the industry through her wine shop and web site ever since. Jean enjoys promoting Oregon and Washington wines and bringing Northwest wines to the notice of the wine-loving public across the country. She previously worked in high tech marketing and research in Silicon Valley.

Jean built and continually updates the Avalon web site, writes our Wine Club Newsletter, numerous e-mail articles on NW wine, and articles for the web site. Her twenty five years of experience working with NW wineries and winemakers gives Avalon a deep knowledge of the industry. She's judged NW wine at various competitions since 1997. Jean's favorite activity is photography, and many of the images on the Avalon web site are hers. She's from NC via Palo Alto, and lives in the South Willamette wine country.

December 30, 2009, at 2:22 pm

Oregon Wine – Illahe Vineyard’s Green Design

illahe-winemaker-200pThere’s a great video online today about Illahe Vineyard and its “Green” policies – complete with Percheron horses and beautiful images of the vineyard.

Visiting the winery for the first time last month, we found the relatively large size of the vineyard impressive, spread across a wide sloping hill for 65 acres. That’s a lot of grapes, at least in the Willamette Valley.

At right, winemaker Brad Ford. Brad has a close relationship with Russ Raney, winemaker and owner of Evesham Wood. Russ says: “An excellent vineyard site and pinot noir, a fine facility, and a dedicated, kind, and talented team… this bodes well for Illahe’s success.”

Only two wines have been released from the winery so far. Their 2007 Pinot noir $19.75/$17.77 is complex and easy drinking. Well worth the price. Fresh raspberries, subtle cedar-tinged spice box, and caramel meld with juicy cherries to create a complex yet easy-to-enjoy Pinot. Illahe’s second vintage shows that their first wine, the 06 Pinot noir, was the start of what we hope is a series of delicious, affordable wines.

Here’s the link to the video:

http://netgreennews.com/illahe-vineyards-deliciously-sustainable-wine/

net green news is a website worth checking back with.

Fresh raspberries, subtle cedar-tinged spice box, and caramel meld with juicy cherries to create a complex yet easy-to-enjoy Pinot.
Illahe’s second vintage shows that their 06 was the start of what we hope is a series of delicious, affordable wines.

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