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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.

June 7, 2010, at 6:13 am

Oregon Wine- Wine Spectator on Evening Land Vineyards

Nice blog post by Harvey Steiman on Wine Spectator online – it’s about Evening Land Vineyards and contains some very tantalizing hints as to his upcoming scores of Oregon’s 2008 Pinots:

“I will taste the wines officially for publication as they are released, but as a preview, this is the vintage that should establish Evening Land’s Pinot Noirs, with their pure fruit character, elegance and refinement, mingling with minerality on the long finishes.”

About the Chardonnay, overseen by consulting winemaker Dominique LaFon (emperor of White Burgundy), he said:

“The first vintage, 2007, produced a stunning pair of Chardonnays, which I rated 94 and 93 points. Their balance, power and distinct minerality mark them as turning points for Oregon, great wines and influential over other producers of Chardonnay.”

Tasting the 2008 Chardonnays, he said: “If anything the Chardonnays are a step up from 2007, which seemed to expand on the previous vintage with more depth and, at the same, more transparency.”

Along with his recent post on Ayoub’s Pinots (very positive), it’s looking like the most influential wine critic on Oregon Pinot noir is liking what he’s tasting.

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