OWB Board Directors
Michael Donovan • Chairman • RoxyAnn Winery • 541.776.2315 • michael@roxyann.com
Term expires: 12/31/2012
Michael Donovan has worked to support the wine industry in Oregon since 1973. Since 2003, he has been the managing director and a minority shareholder of RoxyAnn Winery in Medford, OR. He has served as a member of the Marketing Committee of the Oregon Wine Board since 2008. Michael was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Oregon Wine Board for service to the Oregon wine industry in 2008.
Sam Tannahill • Chairman Emeritus• A to Z Wineworks •
503.554.1918 • sam@atozwineworks.com
Term expires: 12/31/2013
Sam Tannahill graduated from Washington and Lee with an East Asian Studies degree that he uses on a daily basis in the winery. After traveling through Central Asia for a year he settled down working in the wineries and vineyards of Burgundy at Domaine De L’Arlot for two years and managed to bluff his way to a post-graduate degree in winemaking from the University de Dijon. He reentered the wine industry in the United States by working with Ted Lemon at Littorai, but soon heard the siren song of Yamhill County, Oregon and Archery Summit. Seven years later, after laying a foundation as winemaker at Archery Summit, he decided the time was ripe and stuck out for further fame, glory and new horizons in the form of A to Z Wineworks with his wife, Cheryl Francis, and Bill and Deb Hatcher. A to Z expanded in 2007 with the purchase of Rex Hill winery. Sam and Cheryl also own Francis Tannahill – a winery and biodynamic vineyard founded in 2001. Sam and Cheryl made wines for Le Cadeau – a small Pinot Noir project in Oregon. He was also winemaker for Shea Wine Cellars from 2001 – 2004 Other projects have been consulting for various wineries including Battle Creek, Sawtooth and Zelko. As if that wasn’t enough to think about he also is enjoying his children Theo, Oliver and Stella.
Leigh Bartholomew • Vice Chairman • Dominio IV Winery • 503.864.4300 • leighb@archerysummit.com
Term expires: 12/31/2012
Leigh Bartholomew has worked in the Oregon wine industry for ten years as a vineyard manager at a winery in Yamhill County and as a vineyard owner in the Columbia Gorge.
David P. Beck • Crawford Beck Vineyard LLC • 503.835.0828 • david@crawfordbeck.com
Term expires: 12/31/2013
A graduate of Princeton University and the Johns Hopkins University, David Beck completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. His scientific background is in biochemistry and genetics, and he worked for more than forty years in research and science administration. David and his wife, Jeanne, also a scientist, share a life long passion in wine, and they have traveled extensively to visit vineyards all over the world. When it came time to consider their next career (they use the terms refocus and refinance, instead of retire), David and Jeanne chose farming wine grapes in Oregon, whose spectacular wines they had long admired.
They operate the Crawford Beck Vineyard in Amity, Oregon. The vineyard is on a 48 acres farm and currently 15 acres are planted with vines producing ultra-premium pinot noir, pinot gris, and chardonnay. Strong advocates of sustainable farming, the Becks have obtained LIVE and Salmon Safe certifications for their vineyard. David is also an advocate of advancing the wine grape industry through research, and he has been active on the Oregon Wine Board’s Research Committee.
Terry Brandborg • Brandborg Vineyards & Winery • 541.584.2870 • terrybrandborg@gmail.com
Term expires: 12/31/2012
Terry Brandborg started making wine in California as an amateur in 1975. He founded Brandborg Cellars in 1986 focusing on cool climate varietals from some of the best California AVAs for those wine types. He admired the Oregon industry from the time of his first invitation to pour pinot noir at IPNC in 1994. Terry and his wife, Sue, married in 2001 and began a search for the ideal locale to grow pinot noir. They discovered Elkton in the coolest northwest corner of the Umpqua Valley and moved from California in January 2002. They started planting their estate vineyard and built a winery in Elkton that year. They became involved in the Umpqua Winegrowers Association where Terry served on the board for six years, two as president. He and Sue are also active in the Southern Oregon Winegrowers Association and participate in the Oregon Riesling group. Terry serves on the Oregon Winegrowers Association and Oregon Wine Board Research Committee.
Kara Olmo • Wooldridge Creek Vineyard Winery • 541.846.6364 • kara@wcreekwinery.com
Term expires: 12/31/2011
Kara Olmo is co-owner of Wooldridge Creek Winery in Grants Pass. Kara relocated to the Applegate Valley to start a small winery focusing on premium blends after attending the enology program at California State University, Fresno. She gained wine industry experience working for the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission where she worked to promote regional recognition of the Lodi area. Kara currently serves as a board member for the Greater Applegate Community Development Corporation and the Three Rivers District Schools Foundation as well as being an active member of the Southern Oregon Winery Association, Rogue Valley Winegrowers Association and the Applegate Valley Vintners Association.
Bill Sweat • Treasurer • Winderlea Vineyard & Winery • 503.550.5900 • bill@winderlea.com
Term expires: 12/31/2013
Bill Sweat and his wife Donna Morris are co-owners of Winderlea Vineyard and Winery, a boutique producer of Pinot noir and Chardonnay in Dundee, Oregon. Bill moved to Oregon in September of 2006, managed his first Crush a few weeks later, and purchased the renowned Goldschmidt Vineyard in November. Prior to starting Winderlea, Bill acted as interim COO for The Womens’ Union in Boston. He spent most of his career in Financial Services, most recently as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Fidelity Investments retail phone center in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Bill also also had the pleasure of working three years in Tokyo with Fidelity Investments Japan as Vice President – Regional Operations Manager, helping them to start new business lines and supporting operations.
Bill is very active with his alma mater, Bates College where he recently completed terms as Co-chair of the Annual Fund, and as President of the Alumni Association. Since moving to Oregon, Bill has joined the Board of Habitat for Humanity’s Newberg affiliate, sits on the Executive Committee and chairs the finance committee as Treasurer. He is also a member of the Steering Committee for iSalud!, the organization that provides health care to Oregon’s vineyard workers and their families. In 2010, Bill joined the Board of the Portland Opera.
Bill has a BA in history from Bates College and an MBA from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and surprised himself recently by voluntarily buying and reading a book on Mycorrhizae, a fungus that colonizes and forms a mutualistic relationship with the root system of its host plant.
Bill and his wife, Donna Morris, reside in Dundee, Oregon.
Doug Tunnell • Brick House Vineyards • 503.538.5136 • doug@brickhousewines.com
Term expires: 12/31/2014
Doug Tunnell returned to his native Oregon after a 20 year career in foreign news to found Brick House Vineyards in 1990. Dedicated to growing the three great varieties of Burgundy — Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Gamay Noir — the vineyards were first certified organic in 1990 and later Demeter Biodynamic in 2005. Doug is a graduate of West Linn High School (where his father was Superintendent for 32 years.) He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Lewis and Clark College and and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. He served as a governor’s appointee on the board of Oregon Public Broadcasting for 9 years and is currently a trustee of Linfield College from which he received a honorary doctorate of Humane Letters in 2005. Doug and his wife Melissa Mills reside at Brick House Vineyards where they produce approximately 4,000 cases of estate grown wine annually.
Ellen Brittan • Brittan Vineyards • 503.989.2507 • ellen@brittanvineyards.com
Term expires: 12/31/2014
In 2004, Ellen Brittan and her husband Robert purchased what is now Brittan Vineyards in the McMinnville AVA. Ellen graduated from the University of Washington with degrees in French and Spanish Language & Literature and had always longed to return to her North West roots. Before moving to Oregon full time in 2008, Ellen spent eleven years in the wine industry in Napa Valley as General Manager of Rudd Vineyards & Winery and then as Executive Director of the Rudd Group, a portfolio of luxury food and wine businesses that includes Dean & DeLuca, Rudd and Edge Hill Wineries, Distillery 209, Oakville Grocery and PRESS Restaurant. While working with the Rudd Group, Ellen also served as the Executive Director of the Rudd Foundation, where she oversaw the development of the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America, and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. Prior to venturing into the wine business, Ellen spent 20 years in the Financial Services industry before deciding to give up the corporate world to follow her passion for food and wine.
While Robert oversees the vineyards and winemaking, Ellen focuses on the sales, marketing and financial side of the family business, where they produce estate grown Pinot Noir and Syrah under the Brittan Vineyards label. In addition, Ellen serves as General Manager of the Carlton Winemakers’ Studio, a cooperative winery and tasting room where 11 artisan producers make and sell their wines. Ellen and Robert now reside at their home at Brittan Vineyards in McMinnville, where they intend to spend the rest of their lives doing what they love to do, growing and making fine wines and sharing them with fellow hedonists.