Since July 2021, Gregory V. Jones is the CEO of Abacela.
He is the former Director of the Evenstad Center for Wine Education and a former professor and research climatologist in the Department of Environmental Studies at Linfield College. He specializes in the study of climate structure and suitability for viticulture, and how climate variability and change influence grapevine growth, wine production and quality.
He holds a BA and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Environmental Sciences with a concentration in the Atmospheric Sciences. His dissertation was on the climatology of viticulture in Bordeaux, France with a focus on the spatial differences in grapevine phenology, grape composition and yield, and the resulting wine quality.
He conducts applied research for the grape and wine industry in Oregon and has given hundreds of international, national, and regional presentations on climate and wine-related research. He is the author of numerous book chapters, including being a contributing author to the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, and other reports and articles on wine economics, grapevine phenology, site assessment methods for viticulture, climatological assessments of viticultural potential, and climate change.
He was named the Oregon Wine Press’s 2009 Wine Person of the Year, named to Decanter Magazine’s 2009 Power List representing the top 50 most influential people in the world of wine, has been in the top 100 most influential people in the US wine industry in 2012, 2013, and 2018 (intowine.com), and named in the Top 50 Wine Industry Leaders in Wine Business Monthly in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Recently he was bestowed with the Honorary Confrade with the Rank of Infanção (Nobleman) from the Confraria do Vinho do Porto for his work with the Portuguese wine industry.
