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Meet Our Team

Guided by People, Inspired by Place

Meet the team behind Wine History Tours—a group united by a shared standard of excellence and a genuine love for what we do. While many companies can offer transportation from one winery to the next, our focus is something different entirely: to be the caretakers of your experience from beginning to end. Every guide on our team brings over a decade of industry experience, with backgrounds in hospitality leadership and wine education, ensuring a level of consistency, professionalism, and insight that sets us apart.

What truly distinguishes us, though, is not just experience—it’s care. We care deeply about hospitality, about the people we host, and about the community we call home. The Willamette Valley isn’t just where we work; it’s where we live, where our neighbors farm, pour, and tell their stories. That connection shapes how we guide—thoughtfully, attentively, and with a sense of stewardship over your day.

At the heart of it all is a simple trio of passions: a love of place, a love of people, and a love of being a host. It’s what turns a wine tour into something more personal, more meaningful, and ultimately, more memorable.

Ken Wytsma, Wine History Tours

Ken Wytsma

Founder, Wine History Tours

Ken Wytsma blends history, culture, and hospitality to create immersive wine experiences. Through Wine History Tours, he guides guests beyond tastings—exploring the people, stories, and landscapes that shape each region, especially the evolving narrative of the Willamette Valley.

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Sara, Wine History Tours

Sara Weibel

Director of Guest Experience

Sara Weibel is a Willamette Valley wine expert known for her strong local relationships and warm hospitality. She creates personalized, meaningful wine experiences—connecting guests with the region’s people, stories, and sense of place.

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Willamette Valley wine tour

Wesley Jones

Lord of Vehicles & Guardian of Guests

Wes Jones brings over 12 years of hospitality experience and a third-generation Willamette Valley upbringing to every tour. Rooted in a love of place and people, he creates warm, memorable experiences that connect guests to the valley he calls home.

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Wine History Tours guide

Dan Thornton

Guide, Wine History Tours
 

Dan Thornton is a seasoned wine guide with 15+ years in the industry, known for relaxed, personalized Willamette Valley tours focused on hospitality, storytelling, meaningful connections, and unforgettable wine experiences.

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“Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.”

William Shakespeare

Ken Wytsma

Founder, Wine History Tours

Ken Wytsma is a historian at heart—someone who has always been drawn to the deeper stories that shape places, people, and cultures. Wine, for him, is not just about what’s in the glass, but about the centuries of human experience behind it: migration, faith, land use, innovation, and tradition all layered together in the wines of fine wine regions.

Before founding Wine History Tours, Ken spent nearly two decades teaching, writing, and speaking around the world. He has lectured at universities across the U.S. and internationally, exploring topics ranging from history and philosophy to culture and justice. As an award-winning author of multiple books, his work has often focused on helping people see the world with greater depth, curiosity, and attentiveness—skills that translate naturally into how he approaches wine and travel.

Wine History Tours emerged from that intersection.

After years of international travel and study, Ken began to see wine regions not just as destinations, but as living narratives—places where geology, climate, culture, and human decision-making converge over time. The Willamette Valley, in particular, stood out as a region whose story is still being written, shaped by small producers, deep agricultural roots, and a strong sense of place.

What makes Ken’s approach distinctive is his commitment to context. A tour is not simply a sequence of winery visits, but a guided experience of understanding—why Pinot Noir thrives here, how this valley compares to Burgundy, what historical forces shaped the industry, and who the people are behind the wines.

At the same time, Ken cares deeply about hospitality. He believes a great wine experience is as much about people as it is about place: the warmth of a host, the rhythm of the day, the feeling of being thoughtfully cared for from beginning to end.

That combination—story and hospitality, history and experience—is what defines Wine History Tours.

Sara Weibel

Director of Guest Experience

Sara Weibel is a wine professional, storyteller, and longtime local of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Approaching a decade in the wine industry, she has developed a deep understanding of the region and a profound respect for the people and relationships that shape it. Sara has intentionally built strong, lasting connections with winemakers, growers, and hospitality teams throughout the valley, earning a level of trust that allows her to create experiences that feel both elevated and genuinely personal. These relationships are at the heart of her work, offering guests thoughtful access, meaningful interactions, and a deeper sense of place. Known for her warm, engaging presence and intuitive approach to hospitality, Sara brings both professionalism and authenticity to every tour. She has a natural ability to read a room, anticipate needs, and thoughtfully guide each experience in a way that feels seamless and engaging. She believes the most meaningful wine country experiences are rooted in connection. To the land, to the wines, and to the people behind them. Sara takes pride in making every guest feel welcomed, considered, and truly part of the story.

Wesley Jones

Lord of Vehicles & Guardian of Guests

With more than 12 years of experience in hospitality, Wes Jones has built a career centered on creating thoughtful, memorable guest experiences through hands-on leadership and a deep appreciation for service. His background spans luxury hospitality, wine tourism, food and beverage, agriculture, and community engagement. Over the years, he has managed a tasting room, worked across guest services roles at The Allison Inn & Spa, co-founded both a catering company and restaurant, owned and operated a tour company, and helped produce wine while farming alongside a small agricultural collective. He also hosted two seasons of a hospitality-focused podcast exploring the people and stories behind the industry. Outside of hospitality, he spent time working as an arborist before returning to tourism and community-based work supporting the IDD community.

A third-generation resident of the Willamette Valley, Wes is deeply connected to the region and the people who shape it. While he appreciates the craftsmanship behind great wine, food, and hospitality, it is the sense of place and the relationships formed around the table that inspire his work most. Entirely self-taught through mentorship, curiosity, and hands-on experience, he brings an approachable leadership style, entrepreneurial mindset, and genuine gratitude for creating experiences that connect people to one another and to the valley he calls home.

Dan Thornton

Guide, Wine History Tours

Dan Thornton has spent more than fifteen years immersed in the world of wine, working across multiple wineries and experiencing nearly every side of the industry along the way. From tasting rooms to hospitality, production conversations to cellar stories, he has built the kind of knowledge that only comes from years spent deeply inside wine culture—and, as he likes to joke, through “countless bottles in the name of research.”

After all those years, Dan eventually realized that his favorite part of the industry was never simply the wine itself. It was the people.

That realization led him to guiding, where he found the perfect intersection of hospitality, storytelling, and connection. Today, Dan spends his days introducing guests to the Oregon wine country he proudly calls home, helping visitors experience the Willamette Valley not just as tourists, but as welcomed participants in its culture and rhythms.

Dan’s tours feel less like formal instruction and more like spending an afternoon with a well-connected friend who happens to know an incredible amount about wine. Along the way, guests encounter stories that rarely make it onto tasting room walls, memorable pours from thoughtful producers, and conversations that often continue long after the final winery visit.

What makes Dan especially gifted as a guide is his ability to meet people where they are. Whether hosting longtime collectors searching for a particular producer or helping first-time tasters discover what they enjoy, he creates an atmosphere that is approachable, relaxed, and deeply personal.

He believes wine is ultimately about bringing people together.

No pretension. No pressure. Just thoughtful hospitality, great conversation, and a guide who genuinely loves helping people discover Oregon wine country.