The Oregon Wine History Archive Podcast5 Aug

Maxine Braune-Williams & Joe Williams: Oral History Interview

This interview is with Maxine Braune-Williams & Joe Williams of DAnu Wines. In this interview, the couple discusses how hospitality got them in the wine industry.

Joe talks about starting in restaurants at 14 years old. He has work every job imaginable within a restaurant, even owning his own at one point. After 30 years in the restaurant business, Joe decided to dip his toe into wine with the goal of creating his own brand. Maxine went to school at Penn State for restaurant management and did just that. She even worked in Yellowstone National Park and learned how to work with many different people.

Joe discusses opening up the tasting room and bringing Maxine along. Joe started his label in 2011 and opened a tasting room in 2017. In 2019, the two started talking after meeting in the 90s and started a long-distance relationship until 2020 when Maxine moved with Joe and started helping manage the DAnu tasting room. The couple explains that they were able to survive COVID-19 because of the Hillsboro community. Now, they continue to run their small-scale tasting room.

Later in the interview, the two talk about the future of the Oregon wine industry and what it needs to survive. They believe that there needs to be “the small guy” in the industry because the Oregon wine industry is about trying new things. They don’t want to loose the Oregon identity by the market being overrun by big corporations. For themselves, they plan on maintaining their role in the community and never loosing their passion for wine.

This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at DAnu Wines in Hillsboro on July 24, 2026.

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