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Steve Thomson
President
Steve has 35 years of wine industry experience, following a successful 12-year career as a Restaurateur and Hotel Industry Food & Beverage Director and an 8-year career as fine wine wholesaler in the Midwest. Steve is the current CEO of Oregon's Cristom Vineyards. He first met his wife Karen at a wine event in 1992 and in 1995 they were married at Cain Vineyard & Winery in the Napa Valley. Wine was always at the family table, and the family visited Napa and Sonoma wineries regularly. Kevin had an opportunity to get involved early on, cleaning tanks at Frog's Leap Winery when he was just 12.
Steve first discovered Walla Walla in 2004 while leading the development of the NxNW brand for King Estate Winery where he was serving as EVP at the time. He quickly fell in love with Walla Walla, and the people who were putting the Walla Walla region on the global wine map. In 2006 Steve jumped at the opportunity to join a group of its wine industry leaders to found the 'Octave' Vineyard.
A native of the Chicago area and graduate of the University of Illinois, Steve has also studied at Wharton, The Harvard Kennedy School of Government, UC Davis, and has served as a senior advisor for Scion Advisors, a top wine-industry consulting firm. He also has a winemaking certificate from UC Davis.
Appointed by the Governor of Oregon to the Oregon Wine Board in 2012, Steve served as Chairman of the Oregon Wine Board, and President of the Oregon Winegrowers Association in 2017. He currently serves as Secretary of the Board of the Northwest Wine Coalition, based in Seattle.
Steve has a deep interest in Trade Regulation and in 2011 represented the US Wine Industry in testimony before the US Senate Finance Committee on the topic of global competitiveness. In 2013 he was appointed by Oregon’s Governor to represent the Oregon wine industry on the Governor’s Task Force for alcohol privatization. In 2013 Steve successfully petitioned the US Treasury Department’s TTB, for the first and only extension of Oregon’s Willamette Valley in the AVA’s 40-year history. Thomson has been a speaker or panelist at global wine events such as Vinexpo Asia-Pacific (Tokyo, 2002), Vinexpo Europe (Bordeaux, 2003), The London Wine Trade Fair (2008), VinItaly (2011), Prowein Europe (2013), and Prowein Asia (Shanghai, 2014) as well as the WSWA’s Council for Leadership Development in 2009 and 2015.
For all of his industry experience, Steve is most drawn to the simple connection grape farming has with the generations of farmers in his family who came before. It is a romantic notion, coupled with a belief that the true testament of a wine's worth is how its provenance, quality, and story, brings people together at the dinner table with good food and friendship.
Karen has led operations at Hanatoro Winery since 2011. Karen previously worked in the interior design, publishing and commercial development industries. Today she serves as Hanatoro's General Manager. Karen oversees day-to-day operations to include communications, accounting, licensing and distribution.
In her freetime, Karen enjoys painting and playing pickleball!
Karen Thomson
General Manager
Kevin Bozada
Managing Partner
Kevin Bozada serves as Hanatoro's Managing Partner. Kevin manages Hanatoro territories throughout the southeast. Maintaining account relationships and managing allocations for Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida.
Kevin studied business at the University of Oregon and is a designated Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers. Kevin has worked in the hospitality and private club industry for over 15 years, he currently serves as the Senior Director of Club and Hospitality at
Augusta National Golf Club, home of The Masters Tournament.
Justin Wylie
Winemaker
Justin is the owner and winemaker at Va Piano Vineyards in Walla Walla, Washington. A fourth generation Walla Wallan, Justin became fascinated with the blossoming wine industry literally sprouting up in his backyard. Inspired, he started making wine in his garage, learning from local winemakers, growers and aficionados. Before long, Justin found his palate and his hobby turned into a passion: with the encouragement from friends and family, Justin began his first commercial crush in the fall of 2003 and Va Piano was born. In his free time, Justin enjoys hanging out at the winery with customers and crew.
Justin stewards our wine through a gentle regimen in the finest French oak barrels to our exacting specifications. Justin sits with us throughout the year as we try blend after blend from our 18 barrels seeking the perfect combination of 8 barrels, each year that we select for our final blend.
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