Bill Blosser
Founder
Bill Blosser is an Oregon wine industry pioneer, urban planner, community activist, and environmental advocate. Known for being part of the small group that first planted grapes in Oregon in the early 1970’s, Bill led the development of the Sokol Blosser Vineyards and Winery. He participated actively in the development of the Oregon Winegrowers Association, the Oregon Wine Board, the Yamhill County Wineries Association, the International Pinot Noir Festival and the Yamhill County Tourism Board, and served as a board member and officer of most of them. He has also been very active in Oregon land use and environmental issues, chairing the Land Conservation and Development Commission, the Water Resources Commission and the Environmental Quality Commission. Together with other Yamhill County winegrowers, in the early 1970s he developed a rationale and maps to identify the best grape growing lands in Oregon; these were used by local planners to protect thousands of acres of grape land which otherwise would have been designated for rural residential tracts.
Bill holds a B.A. from Stanford University and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oregon Wine Board. In 1991, he turned the presidency of Sokol Blosser Winery over to Susan Sokol Blosser, who ably managed it until she turned it over in 2008 to their children.
