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Audrie Walsh, Assistant Winemaker

Meet Audrie Walsh, Castello di Amorosa’s Assistant Winemaker. Born and raised in California’s Mojave Desert. At a young age, she developed an innate fascination with the natural world. It was not uncommon for her to scour the countryside looking for and photographing interesting flora and fauna to study. This sense of adventure and creative mindset laid the groundwork for her role as Assistant Winemaker.

Ms. Walsh earned a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine and started working in the lab and cellar at Estancia Estates, where her interest in the art and science of winemaking emerged. She decided to pursue it further, traveling halfway across the world to the University of Adelaide in South Australia, where she earned a Masters in Oenology.

She returned to the U.S. and started urban winemaking in San Francisco’s Dogpatch and on Treasure Island before landing in Napa in 2015. Working harvests at Robert Mondavi Winery and Louis M. Martini was followed by several years at Treasury Wine Estates, where she made wines for Chateau St. Jean, Beaulieu Vineyards, Provenance, and Beringer Vineyards. In 2021, she joined Bundschu Company, where she worked on Gundlach Bundschu, Abbot’s Passage, and various custom crush wineries.

But wine isn’t her only passion. As a mother to 2 small children (daughter Aoife and son Ronan, names courtesy of her Irish husband, Richard), her free time is filled with park visits, mother/daughter brunches, dance classes, and the occasional moonlight pottery throwing or music recording session. She loves spending time in her husband’s homeland, especially Dublin, saying, “Too bad you can’t grow grapes there!”

If you asked her colleagues to describe her, they might say “creative,” “analytical,” and “a calming force,” particularly during the rush of harvest!