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Iran-born winemaker ‘thrilled’ to be in US after fleeing country where alcohol is outlawed
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FIRST ON FOX — As scrutiny of Iran’s leadership intensifies amid renewed attention, an Iranian-born Oregon winemaker told Fox News Digital his homeland “could progress” if the regime falls.
Moe Momtazi, founder of Maysara Winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, fled Iran in 1982. Today, as an American citizen, he runs one of the world’s top-ranked vineyards.
Alcohol is banned in modern Iran under Islamic law, but Momtazi has built a globally recognized wine business in the United States.
Maysara Winery means “house of wine” in Farsi. It currently ranks No. 23 worldwide.
“If this regime is gone, we could progress and be the pride of the Middle East,” said Momtazi, 74.
Moe Momtazi was born in Iran and later became a United States citizen. He owns Maysara Winery in Oregon, home of one of the world’s top vineyards. (Direct Wines Inc.)
Iran’s restrictions on alcohol date back to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when religious authorities outlawed production and sale for most citizens.
“In Persian culture, wine has been and still is a very key component of society,” Momtazi said.
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He, his wife and their three daughters see the family business as a continuation of that legacy, thousands of miles from their ancestral homeland.
Momtazi’s 98-year-old mother still lives in Tehran, as do two of his brothers.
Momtazi, center, poses for a photograph with his wife, second from left, and the couple’s three daughters at the family’s Oregon vineyard. (Karissa Williams Photography)
His middle daughter, Naseem Momtazi Bachinsky, told Fox News Digital she’s communicated with her mother’s relatives in Iran — and they’re all safe.
Momtazi left Iran with his wife, Flora, who was eight months pregnant at the time with their oldest daughter, in 1982. Tahmiene Momtazi was born later that year in Spain.
“We had a really hard journey to get to the United States, but I’m really thrilled and happy that we did leave from there because, even then, life was unbearable for us,” he recalled.
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It would be more than two decades before he returned to visit family.
Despite the distance, the Momtazi family’s success in America is something their relatives back home celebrate.
“They’re very proud of us, which makes me proud that they’re proud of what we’re doing and what we’ve created,” said Momtazi Bachinsky, who is also president of sales.
Moe and Flora Momtazi are pictured in their native Iran before they got married and settled in the United States. (Momtazi Family)
Wine, they pointed out, is part of a cultural heritage that stretches back thousands of years — one that predates modern political divides. Persian poets wrote about wine as a symbol of joy, reflection and even spiritual connection, Momtazi said.
For the Momtazi family, producing wine in America is both an expression of gratitude and a nod to history.
“We’re just really lucky and thrilled to be in this country.”
“The United States is not second to any other country, and we’re just really lucky and thrilled to be in this country,” Momtazi said.
Momtazi Bachinsky, who was born in the U.S., said her parents raised her with a simple principle.
“Add value to where you are and who you are,” she said.
Naseem Momtazi Bachinsky, left, told Fox News Digital her mother and father, shown at right, raised her with the following principle: “Add value to where you are and who you are.” (Fox News Digital)
That mindset shaped the winery — and their outlook on Iran’s future.
“I want freedom … for the people to be able to make their own choices and to be able to do what they want,” Momtazi Bachinsky said.
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She remembers first visiting Iran and being upset that she was forced to wear a hijab while she was there.
Moe and Flora Momtazi share a dance on their wedding day, Aug. 2, 1981, in Iran. (Momtazi Family)
“I want women and girls to be able to make that choice without a fear,” she said.
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She’s also hopeful that Iran will become a country that is welcoming to all religions.
Pictured in his vineyard, Momtazi hopes for a better future for his native land as he feels “lucky and thrilled” to be able to pursue the American dream in Oregon with his family. (Direct Wines Inc.)
“I’m personally not Islamic. I don’t have ties to the religion, but it’s not the religion that [is] making people bad,” she said.
“There are certain leaders [who] are using the religious aspect as a power mechanism. And that is what has been bad for the root of that country.”
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Noted Moe Momtazi about what’s happened in Iran amid Operation Epic Fury, “I couldn’t be happier that the head guy has been put out, because finally somebody had the guts to interfere. … We’ve gone through so many things over 40-some years.”
As Maysara Winery celebrates American opportunity, the Momtazi family said it hopes the Iranian people can soon raise a glass in the name of freedom.
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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Other than brush, overgrown grass, some birds singing in the distance, and perhaps a gust of wind coming in, there’s really not much going on in Honouliuli Gulch these days.
More than 80 years ago, it was a different story.
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a hasty prisoner of war compound was built in this barren area of Oahu and named the Honouliuli Internment Camp.
Some of the Japanese Americans who were imprisoned here had another name for this place: “Jigoku dani,” or “Hell Valley.”
“There is a reason why the Japanese Americans nicknamed it Hell’s Valley. It’s a very rugged environment. It’s deep in the gulf to the valley,” said Christine Ogura, superintendent of the Honouliuli National Historic Site.
Now, for the first time, the public will be able to understand the “hell” internees experienced through guided tours into what is now known as the Honouliuli National Historic Site.
“You’re going to have an opportunity to actually walk original historic roads that people who were incarcerated there, their family members walked as well,” Ogura said. “Even though the camp was closed and we don’t have any original structures left, because when the military closed in 1946, they actually took everything down. But we do still have original, like the concrete slab foundation of the mess hall, where families were able to reunite with their mothers and their fathers during visitation.”
The internment camp opened in 1943 and was the largest and longest-used incarceration site in the islands. At its peak, Honouliuli held over 4,000 prisoners of war from Italy, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines and had the largest contingent made up of Japanese Americans.
For Superintendent Ogura, what happened here is personal since she is a second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.
“When I found out that this happened here and being Nisei myself and my parents are Issei, I reflected: had I been born a generation earlier it could have been me and my mom,” she said. “I think locally it’s an important history to conserve and perpetuate because it is important that our communities know that this happened locally.”
Tours at the Honouliuli National Historic Site will begin on July 18, and demand has been overwhelming with every tour fully booked and waitlists in the hundreds.
“I will say the response has been humbling when we released the dates. It booked up within 25 minutes and we currently have a waiting list of over 1,700 people,” Ogura said.
The park is working toward more availabilities for next year.
Officials are looking for volunteer docents to help expand tour capacity.
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — A simmering dispute between Idaho’s top elections official and the U.S. Department of Justice escalated this month after federal officials warned Secretary of State Phil McGrane about possible prosecution tied to non-citizens voting in Idaho.
The Justice Department sent a letter earlier this month threatening McGrane with prosecution. The warning came amid a broader conflict between the Trump administration and McGrane, whom the administration has sued over his refusal to provide unredacted voter rolls to the federal government.
Idaho’s chief of civil litigation, James Craig, responded on July 10. In a letter first reported by the Idaho Statesman, Craig pushed back on the federal warning, writing, “Insinuations of criminal violations of the federal election laws are not well taken,” and asking the department to “stop threatening your friends in Idaho.”
Craig also requested that the lawsuit against McGrane be dismissed and criticized the Justice Department for sending its letter directly to McGrane rather than to the Idaho attorney general’s office.
The attorney general’s office said the state has already referred 15 cases of possible non-citizen election violations to the Justice Department but is not aware of any of them being prosecuted. Craig’s letter ends by asking the department to do so.
HEBGEN LAKE, Mont. — A man was rescued after nearly drowning while swimming in Rainbow Point, located 10 miles north of West Yellowstone.
The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, along with Hebgen Basin Rural EMS personnel and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, responded to reports of a swimmer in distress.
Officials say bystanders saw a man become unresponsive while swimming roughly 100 yards off the shoreline.
They, along with a boating group, located the man, pulled him out of the water, and performed life-saving measures until first responders arrived.
The man was airlifted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. Officials say he is in critical condition.
The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office released the following information:
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