Eric Degerman

Eric Degerman is president and CEO of Great Northwest Wine LLC, a journalism business that publishes to its eponymous website and produces a quarterly print magazine. He owns four regional wine competitions, consults on several others, and has judged more than 20 wine competitions throughout North America. Eric began writing about the Pacific Northwest wine industry in 1998 while working as a sportswriter for the Tri-City Herald, a daily newspaper in Washington state, Columbia Valley. He helped create Wine Press Northwest, the Heralds quarterly wine/lifestyle magazine that operated for 23 years.

A native of Portland, Ore., he grew up in Spokane, Wash., getting his start in journalism with the Lewis Clark High School newspaper. He graduated from Clark College in Vancouver, Wash., and later the University of Washington, where he served as sports editor for The Daily and received a bachelor's degree in history. In 1999, Eric and his wife hiked Mount Rainier National Parks renowned Wonderland Trail, completing the 93-mile trek in 10 days. In 2000, Eric, his older brother and their father spent two weeks on a golf tour of Scotland. He received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for first-person accounts of those experiences.