Our Contributors

Here are the people who help bring Oregon's wine news to you.

Kate Astle

Kate Astle ditched a lucrative corporate business, went fishing for a few years, then settled down in Portland and launched astleink, a small freelance writing and editing endeavor. A bonafide foodie and wine afficianado, she hopes to eventually make her way to Yamhill County, where friends and vineyards await.

John Darling

John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer and regular contributor to the Mail Tribune in Medford and the Ashland Daily Tidings, as well as many magazines. He's lived in Oregon 40 years, was a political reporter in the Oregon legislature for UPI, legislative assistant in the Oregon Senate, correspondent for The Oregonian, reporter and news director for KOBI-TV in Medford, teacher of journalism at Southern Oregon University, and writer of many documentaries for Southern Oregon Public Television, including one on Crater Lake for PBS.

Janet Eastman

Journalist Janet Eastman has traveled the world, most recently for the Los Angeles Times, and has written about everything from cloud forests to training snakes. But her favorite subject is Oregon wine, now and its future. For national magazines and her popular Examiner.com column, she drills hands-in-the-soil decision-makers to deliver insight on their experiments, and she tests the results in a bottle. She lives on vineyard property in Ashland and appreciates that she no longer has to explain what Tempranillo is. Her stories and photographs can be seen at www.janeteastman.com

Mat Elmore

Mat Elmore is a freelance writer focused on sustainability issues in the Oregon wine industry. Born and raised on the windy plains of Oklahoma, Mat attended Colorado College where he studied philosophy and eventually found a second home in the vineyards of Oregon. Voracious reader and passionate advocate of lawn games like petanque and bocce ball, he lives in Portland's Mississippi neighborhood.

Leah Jorgensen

Leah Joregensen is a communications expert who has worked in the wine industry for over a decade. She consults for several Northwest wineries and writes about travel, spirituality, wine and gluten-free living. Leah holds a certificate in wine from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, LTD, and has worked in all tiers of the wine industry, including managing wine retail, working for a distributor and working on the supplier end.

Leah now consults wine businesses in the northwest with marketing and communication solutions, and is enrolled in the winemaking program at the Northwest Viticulture Center at Chemeketa. For more information, visit www.leahjorgensen.com.

Kerry Newberry

Kerry Newberry chases stories about people through wine, food and farms. She contributes regularly to the Oregon Wine Press. Her work has also appeared in Edible Portland, NW Palate, The Oregonian, Portrait of Portland, Sommelier Journal, Tasting Panel Magazine and Willamette Week. Follow Oregon's food and wine scene with her on Twitter at twitter.com/kerrynewberry.

Douglas Pike

Douglas Pike is a 16-year member of the National Cartoonists Society. His work has been used by Forbes, CNBC, McGraw-Hill, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, former CNBC senior analyst Ron Insana, The Munder Fund, Dick Davis Digest, GE Private Asset Management, The Wine Advocate, Standard & Poor's and many others. His first book, "Gone With The Wine," published by W.A.G. Publishing, was released in July 2009.

Douglas has an MBA from the University of Chicago and obtained his art education at Rutgers University and Arizona State University. Besides art, his interests include astronomy, tennis, swimming and reading. He is a 20-year resident of Scottsdale, AZ, where he lives with his wife, son and Dachshund. See more of his work at www.doubtfulaccounts.com.

Eric Weisinger

Eric Weisinger is a traveling winemaker and winery consultant. A native of Oregon, Eric currently divides his year between winemaking and consulting in the Marlborough region of New Zealand and the Rogue Valley region of Southern Oregon.