Jim Gordon

Editor

Jim Gordon has been covering the wine industry as an editor and reporter for more than 25 years. He became editor of Wines & Vines in 2006. Gordon credits his job as editor of the St. Helena Star newspaper in Napa Valley in the 1980s with introducing him to the wine business and many of its modern-day pioneers. He was managing editor of Wine Spectator for 12 years, and editor-in-chief of Appellation/Wine Country Living magazine for four, during which time he helped create "Wine Country Living TV" for NBC station KNTV in San Jose. Gordon was VP of content for Drinks.com during the dot-com boom. He began his journalism career on the campus newspaper at Denison University in Ohio. After graduation he became a daily newspaper reporter. Gordon has attended the UC Davis Wine Executive Program, participated in numerous extension classes in viticulture and enology through UC Davis, planted a small vineyard of his own, and has made wine since 1989 without bothering to sell any.

Jane Firstenfeld

News & Copy Editor

Jane Wittrock Firstenfeld has been part of the Wines & Vines family since 1972, when her publishing career and wine education began. During that dynamic decade, while the U.S. wine industry began to take shape, she served as circulation manager, proofreader and Buyer's Guide editor. During the 1980s, she was a writer/editor for numerous publications, and produced documentary and promotional videos for the statewide media organization, McCune Audio/Video.

From 1989 through 2001, she lived and worked in La Paz, BCS, Mexico, where she translated news and produced English language supplements for leading newspapers, ran Claro Communications, a bilingual advertising and PR company, and with her late husband, founded The Dock Café in the Marina de la Paz. She began contributing freelance articles to Wines & Vines in 1992, and in 2002 returned to the magazine as staff writer. Now news and copy editor for our online and print editions, she is hungry to hear your breaking news at edit@winesandvines.com.

Kate Lavin

Production Editor

Kate Lavin joins Wines & Vines with a background in daily newspaper reporting, writing, editing and design. As a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, she beat the pavement covering arts, entertainment and general assignment beats in the ski resort community of Vail, Colo., before trading in her 4WD vehicle for enough cash to secure an apartment in New York City, where she worked as a copy editor, page designer and freelance writer for 2½ years. Most recently Lavin served as a copy editor at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., where she created front-page layouts, interviewed nationally renowned authors and helped produce the local and international sections of an award-winning daily newspaper. Currently she coordinates the production schedule and writes feature-length and breaking news pieces for the Wines & Vines magazine and website.

Paul Franson

Senior Correspondent

Paul Franson writes about wine and winemaking for both consumers and the wine business. He was formerly editor of a national business magazine, and has written for many publications, including Wine Business Monthly, Wine Enhusiast, Decanter, The San Francisco Chronicle, Food & Wine and the Napa Valley Register, as well as his own newsletter NapaLife. He maintains two websites, napalife.com and traveltastes.com. Franson wrote Spinning the Bottle, a book about wine industry public relations with Harvey Posert, and is working on another wine marketing book.

Tim Patterson

Winemaking Columnist

Tim Patterson writes about adult beverages from Berkeley, Calif. In previous lives, he wrote about national politics, television, techie stuff and hillbilly music. He roots for glamor-free wine regions and low-profile grapes, and injects some reality into his opinions about wine by making his own (mostly Rhône reds and aromatic whites) in his garage. Besides producing the Inquiring Winemaker column for Wines & Vines, he writes for the Wine Enthusiast, a monthly column for Diablo in the East Bay and recently co-authored (with Jim Concannon) Concannon: The First 125 Years, a history of that venerable Livermore Valley winery.

Cliff Ohmart, Ph.D.

Grapegrowing Columnist

Since 1999, Cliff Ohmart has been research and integrated pest management director for the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, where he helps winegrape growers to implement sustainable farming practices. Since 1998 he has written the bi-monthly "Vineyard View" column in Wines & Vines. Ohmart co-authored the Lodi Winegrower's Workbook. He has a bachelor's degree in forestry from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and a Ph.D. in entomology from UC Berkeley. He was a principal research scientist for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia for 13 years, working in forest pest management. From 1989 to 1995 he worked for Scientific Methods, Inc. in Chico, Calif., helping growers develop integrated pest management programs for almonds, walnuts, prunes, pistachios and apples.

Peter Mitham

Northwest Correspondent

Peter Mitham writes about viticulture and the wine business from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he has lived since 1998. A seasoned business writer, he began writing about the wine industry in earnest following a visit to Napa in November 1997. He has contributed to Wines & Vines since 2000, and currently keeps an eye on the dynamic Pacific Northwest region. In addition to his work for Wines & Vines, he is an associate editor for Vendor, a magazine covering the liquor trade in Western Canada, and is co-author of Real Estate Investing for Canadians for Dummies (2006).

Suzanne Gannon

Columnist

Based in New York, Suzanne Gannon writes on travel, culture, food and wine. For the past three years, she has reported on a variety of topics for Wines & Vines magazine. She can be reached through edit@winesandvines.com.

Jeff Morgan

Winery Columnist

Jeff Morgan, a vintner and wine business consultant, is possibly the only commercial winemaker in America who has also had a parallel career as a wine writer and author. He was West Coast editor for Wine Spectator for nearly five years. Morgan started in the wine business as a cellar rat on Long Island, N.Y., in 1988. He now lives in Napa Valley, where he makes Covenant and RED C Cabernet Sauvignon. Jeff is also co-owner, with Daniel Moore, of SoloRosa, America's only winery devoted to dry rosé and Zmor, which specializes in Pinot Noir and aromatic white wines. He and Moore own M2 Wine Consultants, which advises wineries on everything from wine production to marketing, distribution, sales and PR. Morgan teaches on occasion at the Culinary Institute of America's Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies in Napa Valley. He is the author of four books on wine and cooking.

Daniel Moore

Winery Columnist

Daniel Moore has been making wine in the Russian River Valley since 1983. He ran his own Z-Moore Winery, where he pioneered California dry Gewürztraminer from 1985 to 1995. The original winemaker at Martinelli Winery, Daniel later moved to Lynmar Winery, where he worked as winemaker and general manager for 13 years. At Lynmar, Moore was responsible for both vineyard and winery management as well as marketing and sales-tasks that prepared him eminently for his current winery and consulting work. Moore is co-owner, with Jeff Morgan, of SoloRosa, America's only winery devoted to dry rosé, and Zmor, which specializes in Pinot Noir and aromatic white wines. He and Morgan own M2 Wine Consultants, which advises wineries on everything from wine production to marketing, distribution, sales and PR.