This interview is with Avery Hadley of Gala Creative Agency. In this interview, Avery talks about his young company and what it aims to do for hospitality-based clients.

Avery talks about after graduating from Oregon State University, he sent out 380 applications in search for a job. Originally from Salem, Avery knew some local businesses that he was able to photograph for and eventually manage their social media. Word of mouth spread his work throughout the community where he secured more clients. After collecting consistent clients, he and his partner discussed opening their own creative agency.

Avery discusses how he chose the hospitality industry because of his mom. While his parents weren’t necessarily wine drinkers, Avery grew to love what wine brought to social settings. To Avery, wine is the best delivery mechanism for storytelling.

Later in the interview, Avery talks about how he feels about the current climate of the wine industry. While his agency aims to mimic the voice of the brand, he believes it is imports to cater to the younger generation as well. He discusses the value of the longterm return from these young wine drinkers.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Nicholson Library at Linfield University in McMinnville on June 2, 2026.

This interview is with Diego Valeri of Conur Wines. In this interview, Diego talks about his journey of becoming a professional soccer player with the Portland Timbers and eventually creating his own wine company.

Diego talks about how creating a wine company was not actually his idea, but his wife, Florencia’s scheme. However, Diego planned to wait until he retired to begin the endeavor. After nine reasons with the Timbers, Diego and his family moved to Florida where he met Frederico Garobbio and his wife Luci who were from the same area of Argentina. The stars aligned when Frederico revealed that it was his dream to produce wine.

Diego discusses his connection to wine as the center of communication and celebration. To Diego, wine was always in the middle of socializing and friendship. As the company began with four Argentinians who live in the United States, the team wanted to put their blended cultures in the bottle. Along with what is inside the bottle, the design of the labels features a cartoon dog with a special meaning to the four owners. Florencia even writes a special story on the back of each label.

Later in the interview, Diego talks about the uniqueness of Conur Wines. Specifically, Conur produces a white blend called “Mate” that blends Argentina and Oregon grapes. He also discusses his 70/30 blend of pinot and Malbec that mirrors a popular drink in Argentina.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Northwest Wine Company in Dundee on June 2, 2026.

This interview is with Jim Maresh of Arterberry Maresh. In this interview, Jim talks about growing up on the family farm, becoming interested in wine, and starting his own wine label.

Jim talks about his family’s history in Dundee. His grandparents Jim and Loie purchased the property on Worden Hill Road in 1959 and began planting many different crops. Jim’s dad, Fred Arterberry, met his mom, Martha Maresh, while working at Erath. Fred started making wine under the Arterberry label in 1979.

Jim discusses getting into the wine industry himself in 2003, working at the Carlton Winemakers Studio under the Penner-Ash brand. In 2005, he began his own label called Arterberry Maresh, honoring both sides of his family history. He has made wine every year since and overviews the memorable vintages.

Later in the interview, Jim talks about how his winemaking style has evolved over his 20+ years in the industry. He also touches on becoming a dad and how that changed his approach towards his work. As for the future, he doesn’t plan on retiring from winemaking anytime soon.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Jim’s home in McMinnville on May 29, 2026.

This interview is with Emily Rozga of Soter Vineyards. Emily is originally from Santa Rosa, California, and talks about growing up around food, agriculture, and the outdoors. She shares how those early interests led her to attend Cal Poly with the focus on wine and viticulture, initially believing winemaking would be her future. Through internships, harvest experiences, and working in tasting rooms and cellars, she discovered she was more drawn to vineyard health and grape growing than production itself.

Emily discusses wanting to see more of the world after college, traveling internationally, gaining hands-on vineyard experience abroad, including time in New Zealand. She reflects on returning to California, working in Napa, and eventually stepping away from the wine industry for a period to work in organic vegetable farming in the Pacific Northwest. The experience deepened her interest in ecology, sustainability, and long-term land health.

Next, Emily talks about how she returned to wine with a different perspective—focused less on winemaking and more on viticulture, vineyard systems, and environmental stewardship. She talks about collecting vineyard data, monitoring pest and disease, improving crop health, and helping create long-term solutions for sustainable farming practices. She also shares how finding community within Oregon agriculture and the wine industry played an important role in her career.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt in Sheridan, Oregon on May 14, 2026.

This interview is with Wayne Oppenheimer of A Great Oregon Wine Tour and WineUp.

Wayne is originally from Seattle, Washington, and was raised in Beaverton, Oregon. He talks about first becoming interested in wine in his early twenties after attending a tasting and realizing how different wines could be from one another. The curiosity led him to dive deeper into what he describes as “liquid geography,” eventually pushing him toward a career centered around wine and hospitality.

Wayne discusses attending Portland State University for economics while always feeling drawn toward the wine industry. After visiting Napa Valley, he began reaching out to wineries directly and eventually landed a position working in public relations and hospitality. He reflects on working as a tour guide, meeting people from around the world, and discovering that wine was as much about storytelling and connection as it was about the product itself.

Wayne talks about various businesses he has created, including starting wine tour companies, wine clubs, retail projects and WineUpTV, which is a show focused on interviewing people throughout the wine world. He talks about businesses alongside his wife, Camille, growing A Great Oregon Wine Tour over the years, and creating spaces that introduce people to wines from across the globe.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt in Newberg, Oregon on May 19, 2026.

This interview is with Jay Pscheidt of Oregon State University. In this interview, Jay talks about how he came to be in Oregon, transitioning from studying potatoes to all kinds of woody perennials.

Jay talks about his journey from pre-med to bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin. After attending a lecture by a plant pathologist, he realized he could apply all his newfound knowledge for the betterment of growers in his area.

Jay discusses beginning to work at Cornell, where he switched his focus from potato plants to grapevines. There in New York, he studied a combination of grapes grown for wine and table or juice grapes.

Later in the interview, Jay talks about moving to Oregon and getting a job with OSU. He really enjoyed extension services and embedding himself in the community in that way. In addition to teaching a field diagnostic course, in which students traveled all around the state to study different crops, Jay was also in charge of the yearly Pacific Northwest Plant Disease Management Handbook publication.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Oregon State University’s Botany & Plant Pathology Field Laboratory in Corvallis on April 28, 2026.

On March 26, 2026, Jay gave a lecture at Chemeketa Community College’s Eola Campus outlining the highlights of his 38-year career with OSU’s extension plant pathology department. He summarizes some of his team’s key findings while working with 21 different crops, estimating some 4,400 treatments studied for plant disease management.

This interview is with Anna Jesse of Forest Hills Farms, a third-generation farmer helping lead a family operation that has grown from strawberry fields in the 1950s into thousands of acres producing blueberries, wine grapes, corn, and other crops across Oregon.

Anna is from Cornelius, Oregon, and talks about growing up in Forest Hills Farms, spending years working in vineyards and agriculture, and learning firsthand what is means to be part of a multigenerational farming family. She shares how attending Oregon State University initially led her towards business, changing majors, and developing a stronger appreciation for the connection between farming, land, and community.

Anna discusses working internships and gaining experiences outside the family business, including time at Northwest Wine Company, where she worked in operations and earned more about the wine industry before eventually returning home.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Forest Hills Farm in Cornelius, Oregon on May 13, 2026.

This interview is with Davis Palmer of McMenamins Edgefield Winery. In this interview, Davis talks about his early fascination with fermentation leading him to working at McMenamins in beer production. Working in a variety of brewpubs within the company allowed him to work on honing the house style while also experimenting with new fun recipes.

He talks about being intrigued by winemaking and viewing it as more dynamic work, and joining the winemaking team at Edgefield for harvest in 2000. Soon after he joined as the cellar master, then later the head winemaker. He talks about the evolution of his work and the evolution of the production in that time.

Later, Davis talks about how he’s seen the Oregon wine industry grow and where it might go next. He also discusses Edgefield’s evolution and what he’s looking forward to.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt in the Nicholson Library at Linfield University in McMinnville on April 13, 2026.