Journal honors area CEOs, CFOs, presidents, EDs, SVPs and more based on leadership, community service and career achievements
March 9, 2022, Dayton, OR – The Stoller Wine Group is proud to announce that its President, Gary Mortensen, has been honored as one of the Portland Business Journal 2022 Executives of the Year. This annual list recognizes the area leaders “who guided their organizations at different leadership levels.”
With a career spanning more than 20 years of senior leadership in the Oregon wine industry, coupled with a decade as a start-up veteran, Gary brings a passion for innovation and pushing boundaries. Gary is a true visionary who inspires his team to challenge convention in order to deliver exceptional results. His leadership philosophy is to put the right people in place and let them run.
Under the Stoller Wine Group umbrella, Gary oversees a family-owned portfolio consisting of Stoller Family Estate, Chehalem Winery, Chemistry, Canned Oregon, and History. His leadership has quickly earned the Stoller Wine Group a reputation as one of Oregon’s most dynamic and celebrated family of wine brands. Over the course of the pandemic alone, Gary’s outside-the-box approach challenged the Stoller Wine Group team to reinvent the way business is conducted on the direct-to consumer and retail sides while emphasizing visual storytelling and creating unique partnerships that supported our community in these difficult times. Additionally, Mortensen’s philosophy “to stay on the offense” drove the team to open its first satellite location in Bend, Oregon, and launch a new Rosé Spritz under its Stoller Family Estate brand to diversify the product portfolio and extend into a new beverage category. Further, the culture fostered across the company is evident in its placing seven consecutive years on the Portland Business Journal Most Admired Companies list.
“Gary has the unique ability to identify and maximize both talent and areas of opportunity within the business,” said Bill Stoller, founder & proprietor of the Stoller Wine Group. “He deeply cares about the wellbeing of his team and understands how personal and work passions can weave together.”
As a devoted historian and award-winning documentary filmmaker, Gary is committed to preserving and sharing our nation’s diversity and heritage. This mindset led him to create Veterans’ Legacies, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the individual legacy of each veteran and their story. In November 2021, Veterans’ Legacies partnered with the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum to open a new headquarters at the Museum. The free community centric space is dedicated to collecting, recording, and researching the contributions of our veterans, an effort known as The Mighty Endeavor.
When not leading the team at the Stoller Wine Group, Gary is an active member of the Portland State University Business Advisory Council, where he strives to inspire tomorrow’s leaders, as well as the Wells Fargo Community Advisory Board.
About Stoller Wine Group
Stoller Wine Group is a family of wine brands from Oregon wine pioneer, Bill Stoller. We take pride in our B Corp certification, knowing that we “walk the walk” when it comes to our goal of building a company that lasts for generations. With our every action, we are active members and supporters in the community, which is why we are proud to be perennially voted as one of Oregon’s most admired companies by the Portland Business Journal. For more information, visit www.stollerwinegroup.com
About Stoller Family Estate
Stoller Family Estate is one of the most highly regarded vineyards and wineries in Oregon. Pioneering Oregonian and Founder Bill Stoller purchased his family’s second-generation farm in 1993 with the vision of cultivating an enduring legacy for the land and Oregon wine industry. Over the last 28 years, he has patiently transformed the 400-acre property into the largest contiguous vineyard in the Dundee Hills. Stoller Family Estate features the world’s first LEED® Gold certified winery, three guest homes and a state-of-the-art tasting room with panoramic vineyard views. Named Oregon’s Most Admired Winery by the Portland Business Journal for seven consecutive years and 10Best Tasting Rooms by USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice poll in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 there has never been a better time to plan your visit. For more information, visit http://www.stollerfamilyestate.com
About Chehalem Winery
The story of Chehalem is rooted in a deep and abiding reverence for the land. From the vineyards we nurture and harvest to the wine we blend and age – we handle every step with unwavering respect for sustainable practices. We consider ourselves a vineyard winery. We aim to reflect what the vineyard has produced, purely, with minimal processing and without compromising great fruit. A staple of the Downtown Newberg wine scene, our Tasting Room is open seven days a week. Old school winemaking, Oregon style! For more information, visit www.chehalemwines.com
About Chemistry
Chemistry is the first collaborative project between Stoller Family Estate and Chehalem Winery. Identifying the opportunity to craft wines that reflect the purity and depth of their Willamette Valley origins, Chemistry allowed our winemaking teams to bond over working with diverse vineyards sites across the region. Balanced, approachable, and elegant, our goal is to make the winemaking imprint as minimal as possible in order to reflect the purity of fruit for which Willamette Valley is known. For more information, visit www.chemistrywine.com
About Canned Oregon
Canned wines are catching fire because the next generation of wine drinkers care about portability as much as they do about quality and value. Canned Oregon is a new brand that was born from the idea that wine should complement every lifestyle you lead. Whether exploring the mountain, relaxing at the beach, or in the city with friends, Canned Oregon evokes a sense of place, adventure, and the endless ways you can experience the Oregon life…wherever you may be. For more information, visit www.cannedoregon.com
About History
Featuring historic vineyard plantings in the Pacific Northwest, History aims to craf limited releases of ultra-premium wines that pay homage to the pioneers of the Oregon and Washington wine industries. Inspired by a storied vineyard now owned by her mother-in-law, Founder and Winemaker, Melissa Burr, started the brand in 2013. She researched other historic vineyards in the Pacific Northwest, curating a collection of truly rare and unique sites. For more information, visit www.historywine.com
