The leading specialist on American wines from organic and biodynamic vineyards, Pam Strayer is the founder, author and publisher of Wine Country Geographic.
Described by Alder Yarrow (of JancisRobinson.com) as "the go to person on organic and biodynamic wines," she has been featured on Carol Grieves podcast series Food Integrity Now, speaking about organic and biodynamically grown wines, and her 2013 apps were featured (on Earth Day) in the Los Angeles Times. She's written on organic topics for the industry in Wines & Vines and Beverage Media. Her latest industry writing--on wine IT--is featured in the August 2019 issue of Wine Business Monthly.
A graduate of U.C. Berkeley's wine program, she studied wine at U.C. Davis and the North American Sommelier Association and has attended hundreds of industry conference, tastings and seminars. She's also visited most of the 200+ organic producers in the U.S. and about more than 160 of them.
EDUCATION FOR THE INDUSTRY
Pam has given educational talks on organic topics for Women of the Vine & Spirits and lectured in classes at Santa Rosa Community College and Sonoma State University's Wine Business Institute. Her written works recently served as the supporting literature for a recent MW's thesis. She's also been an invited speaker for environmental groups in Sonoma and Napa.
Pam has also moderated public events on biodynamic wine at Healdsburg SHED and Demeter USA's biodynamic short course in Oregon's Willamette Valley, featuring U.C. soil scientist Glenn McGourty and regenerative agriculture champion Paul Dolan.
In 2018, Pam co-founded the International Biodynamic Wine Conference with former Demeter USA president Elizabeth Candelario, hosting 47 wineries from five countries in San Francisco's Presidio. She served as Conference Program Director for the two day event bringing together 70+ panelists for 30 sessions, focusing on regenerative ag practices, winemaking and wine marketing.
Keynote speakers included David Montgomery and Anne Biklé (authors of The Hidden Half of Nature), international biodynamic wine expert Monty Waldin (from Tuscany) and Napa vintner Jean-Charles Boisset.
Panelists included Emiliana CEO Cristian Rodriguez, Jean-Michel Comme (Chateau Pontet-Canet), Jason Haas (Tablas Creek), Bob Lindquist (Lindquist Family Vineyards), Philippe Coderey (vineyard consultant), Gwen Wilson (Wine.com), Bree Boskov (MW), talented somms and international distributors, and many more.
HEALTH AND. SCIENCE BACKGROUND
Before 2010, Pam had an extensive career in health, science and environmental journalism, launching more than 100 healthcare web sites.
Earlier, in the early 1980s, she won a prestigious New England Press Association award for six months of coverage on citizens' attempts to shutdown a local nuclear power plant.
In 1997, Pam was the editor in chief of Healthcentral.com, a successful dotcom she launched with radio and TV physician Dr. Dean Edell. In 1999, she was recruited to become editor in chief of Jim Clark's genetic discovery startup DNA Sciences with James Watson. As editor of DNA.com, she launched all of WebMD's genetic health information for both consumers and clinicians, working with world class scientists from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and other research institutions. It was there that she came to understand the deeper science underlying genetics and the environment. Pam began to learn more about California's pesticide use reports and became concerned about pesticide use in vineyards.
In 2018, as a journalist, Pam covered the first scientific experts to appear in the glyphosate cases in federal district court. Her coverage, originally commissioned for Civil Eats, was syndicated worldwide on Public Radio International.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
In 2019, Pam became Senior Editor for Slow Wine Guide 2020, writing about California wines in Slow Food's major wine publication. The book is the biggest selling wine guide in Italy with sales of more than 40,000 copies annually as well as growing sales in the U.S. for its English language edition.
