About Us

The Blog

Founded on August 3, 2007 following a transformative conversation between Rick and Josh, aptly summarized as thus: "I like beer and my beer blog is really successful. You like wine, you should start a wine blog. Pour me another glass." The rest is history.

This blog is a space where we "young adult, up-and-coming, nearly snooty winos" can chronicle our experiences, trials, and tribulations living in the Pacific Northwest. The Oregon Wine Blog is about the feeling and experience of Pacific Northwest wine. We review wine, wineries, events, food, books, and places of interest to enophiles.

Our goal is to share our passion for experiences. You won't find many really technical or stuffy reviews. We seek to be fun and share with you why we love the world of wine. Our mission is to make wine approachable to the 20's and 30's age demographic. We take our work seriously, however, The Oregon Wine Blog doesn't pay the bills. Our entire staff have day jobs that sometimes bleed into the night, so we appreciate your grace when posts are a bit sporadic.

Those of you who are observant may notice that we post an awful lot about Washington wine in addition to our Oregon roots.  We even venture into California and outlying states.  Why The Oregon Wine Blog, you may ask?  Well, the answer is simple in an "it's complicated" way.  Back in the dark ages when we started the blog, the original 5 bloggers all lived in Corvallis, Oregon and it made sense at the time.  We established a brand with a site, logo, twitter handle, and all that jazz - then our staff started to change and people started to move.  We now span the entire Pacific Northwest but have stayed true to the philosophy behind Oregon wine country -- a connection between people, place, and wine.

Other Ventures

Need any one of a number of wine related services provided by amateur experts? We do that. We consult on wine list development, trip and event planning, and winery website design. We do photography. We'll pour your wine, bottle your wine, drink your wine, or serve on your tasting panel. We welcome ideas and partnerships that will advance our goal of making the industry more accessible. On the cheap, too...we're not in it for the money, we'll often work for wine. Contact us to get those creative juices flowing.

The Staff

We're proud to bring you the absolutely finest, highest quality staff a wine blog could ever dream of. Quit laughing.

Jesse Andrews, California Correspondent

Coming to you from the California office, Jesse grew up in Petaluma, California and is back in Sonoma County after a stint in the Pacific Northwest. Jesse focuses on California wines for the Blog, specifically in the Sonoma and Napa region. Growing up in Wine Country, wine has always been a part of his life; so much so that the traditional Pabst Blue Ribbon phase most college students embrace was replaced by his favorite juice, Cabernet Franc. In the professional world, Jesse works at Sonoma State University, overseeing Cabernet Village, a residential community. He loves the outdoors and the Olympics.

Clare Cady, Staff Writer

Born and raised in Central New York, Clare lit out for the west in 2003 and never looked back. Clare's introduction to the world of wine came when she joined a group of friends (including Mr's Gana, Seraphin, and Andrews) for regular evenings at the Old Post Office Wine Bar in Pullman, WA. A passionate locavore, Clare has tasted wines on 3 continents, but is thrilled that she can regularly sample the brilliant Pinot Noir (her fav by far) in and around Corvallis, the town where she now lives. When not drinking wine (and often when drinking wine), Clare enjoys gardening, baking bread, primitive skills, urban homesteading, backpacking, and cycling (ok, no wine when cycling). Her future goals include learning how to make her own wine, and, (often unsuccessfully) avoiding being labeled a hippie.

Josh Gana, Managing Editor and Staff Photographer

Having grown up in the shadow of Red Mountain -- Richland, Washington -- with a stop in Corvallis, OR along the way, Josh is now based in Seattle, WA where he plots an overthrow of the world through this Blog. Despite spending 24 years in the heart of Washington Wine Country, wine wasn’t a daily part of his life until an eye-opening experience at Willamette Valley Vineyards. You can pretty much pour any big red down his throat and he’ll be happy, in fact this bio is fueled by a WA merlot. A local university pays his bills, and in addition to providing editorial oversight and coverage of Oregon and Eastern Washington for the Blog, he loves photography and cycling.

Rick Goranflo, Marketing Director and Senior Writer

Hailing from the Northern Willamette Valley, Rick is the nerd hunched over a computer writing code and designing marketing materials. Years of blogging about beer eventually lead him to The Oregon Wine Blog after a trip with Josh to the Willamette Valley Vineyards introduced him to delicious world class wines. Cab Sauvs and Bordeaux-style red blends tend to top the list of his favorites. Outside of the blog, Rick supports student success at a world-renowned health science university in the Portland area. He also loves metal, inappropriate cartoons, and inappropriate cartoons about metal.

Micheal Seraphin, Staff Writer

Writing out of Salem, Oregon, Micheal claims hometown roots in Chicago, Illinois where he grew up in a household that savored fine wine. A family with strong European roots passed on a love for vino; Micheal is pleased to provide coverage primarily of the Willamette Valley region, complementing his love of Pinot Noir. A quiet person by nature unless you lure him into extroversion with a good merlot, Micheal works professionally at Willamette University and enjoys tennis, finance, politics, long walks on the beach, and tuna fish sandwiches.

Staff Archive

Since starting the Blog in 2007, we've had a number of writers come and go. While I'd like to think that we're just too cool for them, reality is that life sometimes gets in the way and we can't all be wine bloggers forever. With that, I'd like to acknowledge our past contributors:

  • Drew Desilet
  • Megan Full
  • Steve Full
  • Clive Pursehouse
  • Paul Ryan
  • Jill Yashinsky-Wortman