Cole Danehower
(1954-2015)

Respected Oregon Wine Writer

Cole Danehower was a towering personality in the Oregon wine industry.  An Oregon wine writer, wine judge, critic, and wine business marketing consultant. A real advocate for the Oregon wine industry.  As one well known winery owner put it “Cole was a promoter for Oregon wines at a time it wasn’t easy or popular”.

He was born in Louisville, Kentucky and spent a number of years in the high tech industry in San Francisco.  In 1998 he moved to tiny Scottsburg, Oregon on the banks of the Umpqua River. There he launched his own marketing and communications firm and subsequently started his second career as a wine writer.  In 2004 his quarterly newsletter Oregon Wine Report earned him a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award for the most outstanding food and wine newsletter in the nation.

He co-owned the Northwest Palate, a magazine focused on Pacific Northwest food, wine and travel.  He co-wrote Ellential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest and contributed to a number of national newspapers and magazines.