ANDREW TURNER, PROPRIETOR

Andrew caught the “wine bug” early on in his twenty-year career as a chef. His cooking adventures spanned from San Francisco, where he apprenticed under Hubert Keller at Fleur de Lys, to Los Angeles cooking at the original Patina under the demanding tutelage of Joachim Splichal. At the ripe age of 21, Andrew was working in Monte Carlo at Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV, and soon found himself traveling the world with Mr. Ducasse as part of a hand-chosen team selected to recreate his mentor’s three Michelin star cuisine for press and public media events. As his cooking career took him to some of the great wine producing regions of the world, Andrew’s passion and curiosity for all things wine intensified.

After his wanderlust wore off, Andrew finally made it back home to the West Coast, settling in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. For ten years, Andrew managed the Ponzi Wine Bar in Dundee, which was a local tasting room and retail outlet of Northwest wine. From selling well-known brands to producers making less than 200 cases per year, Andrew developed close relationships with nearly every wine producer in Oregon. When that business changed into a Ponzi Vineyards tasting room, Andrew saw the opportunity to finally fulfill his dream of owning his own shop. Valley Wine Merchants was launched in the Spring of 2014, and represents Andrew’s desire to carry on the torch of what he started in his previous position, and much more.