INTERVIEWER
Schmidt, Rich
DURATION
1 hour 17 minutes 47 seconds
DATE
December 16, 2025
INTERVIEW SUMMARY
This interview is with Mike Osborn of Willamette Valley Vineyards. In this interview, Mike talks about starting “wine.com” and later becoming the CEO of Willamette Valley Vineyards.
Mike shares about first becoming interested in wine through hospitality. While starting up software businesses, he would often go out to restaurants with clients or employers and drink wine.
Mike talks about this interest in wine leading him to start a wine database software to help others more easily find the wines they were looking for. What began as eVineyard.com later became wine.com, and what initially was a database of about 1,500 wines has now swelled to around 40,000 wines.
Later in the interview, Mike discusses becoming the CEO of Willamette Valley Vineyards. Through innovation and adapting to the current state of the industry, he hopes to improve Oregon’s claim over national wine markets both for WVV and for all Oregon brands.
This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Domaine Willamette in Dayton on December 16, 2025.
Interview photos
COMMENTS
Some oral history interviews are conducted on site and may contain background noise from nature, winery, or tasting room operations.