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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.

July 8, 2010, at 9:19 am

Arizona Wine – Dick Erath’s Arizona Winery

dick-erath1Have I been living under a bucket or is this new news to some of us? Dick Erath, who sold his eponymous Erath Vineyards to Chateau Ste. Michelle in 2005, has a new vineyard and winery in Arizona.

Hey, the guy retired there – he’s 74, loaded with $$s, and could do anything he wants with his time. Just goes to show that you can’t take the wine out of the winemaker – or is that the winemaker out of the man?

The vineyard is Cimarron Vineyard, and the first wine is the 2008 Cimarron Monsoon Red.  It’s a blend of Barbera, Sangiovese, Zinfandel and Primitivo.I’m trying to hunt down a source in Oregon so we can sell it. Anyone out there know who?

Some links:

Article on Erath’s launch.

Very Comprehensive article on the whole
Arizona wine scene with emphasis on Dick.

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