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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.

February 15, 2012, at 5:30 pm

Washington State Wine Commission Hires New Executive Director

Steve Warner, a marketing executive from Merck & Co., one of the largest pharmaceutical will become the new Washington Wine Commission executive director beginning March 12. Commission spokesman Ryan Pennington said Warner has a deep background in organizational leadership, marketing, management and international business. Warner is currently in Bucharest, Romania, where he was working as [...]

January 24, 2012, at 4:01 pm

Washington Wine Commission – Twenty-Five and Aging Well

In 1987, the Washington State Legislature recognized a small but growing industry that could have an impact on the state’s economy if it caught on—growing grapes and making wine. Although Washington already had an established agricultural industry, especially a robust apple crop, the idea of creating the critical mass necessary to become an emerging wine [...]