INTERVIEWER
Schmidt, Rich
DURATION
1 hour 37 minutes 7 seconds
DATE
March 19, 2026
INTERVIEW SUMMARY
This interview is with Scott Kelley of Paul O’Brien Winery. In this interview, Scott talks about starting to work in the wine industry as a teenager, his experience with big, corporate wineries, and starting his own project in Oregon.
Scott shares about beginning to work in the industry at 17 years old cleaning mobile grape presses. When his boss learned about his affinity for chemistry, he started taking grape samples in the vineyard to help determine pick dates. During this time, he met a winemaker who encouraged him to go to UC Davis.
Scott talks about working at a brewery in Monterey, where he enjoyed the fermentation science but not the repetition and consistency of beer making. Without any cellar experience, he had to wait for someone in the wine industry to give him a chance, and that opportunity finally came through Golden State Vintners.
Later in the interview, Scott discusses working for Robert Mondavi’s La Famiglia label and learning to balance attention to detail with the large volume of wine he was producing there. While working for Estancia, he took their production up to 1.6 million cases yearly. In 2013, he started his own project with partner Dyson DeMara, which came to be known as Paul O’Brien Winery.
This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Paul O’Brien Winery in Roseburg on March 19, 2026.
Thank you to the Oregon Wine Board for generously supporting this interview as part of our Southern Oregon 2026 tour!
Interview photos
COMMENTS
Some oral history interviews are conducted on site and may contain background noise from nature, winery, or tasting room operations.