Scott Sabbadini: Oral History Interview

This interview is with Scott Sabbadini of Bjornson Vineyard. In this interview, Scott discusses his experiences within the wine industry and achieving his dream of working in the Willamette Valley.Scott talks about growing up in an Italian family who visited Italy multiple times throughout his childhood. Wine had always been on the table and he always associated it with connection. When it was time to go off to college, Scott followed in his parents’ footsteps and went to UC Davis. Scott’s father had suggested he take a few winemaking courses and eventually, Scott declared winemaking as his major. After spending a year abroad in Italy and finishing school, Scott jumped right into the industry.Scott discusses his various jobs within and adjacent to the industry. Scott’s first real harvest in the industry was in 2006 as an assistant winemaker in a two-person operation. Here, Scott gained a lot of experience within a short amount of time. Scott experienced the opposite scale of production when he did a harvest in New Zealand. Scott believes most people in the industry should experience working in such a large scale because those skills are incredibly transferrable. After working various assistant winemaking jobs, Scott knew he wanted to take the next step. Although before that next step, Scott brewed beer for a year instead. When he decided brewing wasn’t for him, he went back to wine and is now the head winemaker for Bjornson.Later in the interview, Scott talks about his role at Bjorson and his view on the Oregon wine industry. Scott started at Bjornson in July of 2019 when he was able to prove himself as a quality winemaker before the smoke of 2020. From there, Scott has been experimenting with different varietals and even started a custom crush program at Bjornson on top of starting his own consulting business. As for the industry, Scott is excited about the overlap of institutional knowledge and young ambition within Oregon wine. Scott is having fun on this wave of expansion and experimentation.This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Linfield University in McMinnville on August 10, 2026.