Jen Walsh grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and worked in restaurants during her time in high school, as well as while she attended college at the University of Pittsburg. As she began sampling incredible wines while working in restaurants, she developed a strong interest for wine and started learning more about it in her spare time. Before moving west to receive her Master’s degree in Viticulture and Enology from the University of California Davis, she worked at Elk Run, a small estate winery in Maryland. Elk Run was a true family operation where she had the opportunity to work in the vineyard in the morning and in the winery in the afternoon. While there, Jen learned how much hard work and dedication it takes to bring grapes from vine to bottle.
Before joining the La Crema team in 2017, Jen was the Associate Winemaker at Benovia Winery in the Russian River Valley, where she worked with myriad heritage Pinot Noir clones from different terroirs to craft distinctive single vineyard wines. Prior to that, she worked for several other wineries throughout Napa and Sonoma. Her passion has always led her to wineries that focus on expressive, cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Jen’s favorite aspect of her job is harvest, when winemakers have a chance to leave their personal artistic expression on the wine. Her most transformative experience was working at Domaine Marquis d’Angerville in Volnay, Burgundy, where she was awarded a Tastevin scholarship. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, it will always fuel her winemaking soul.