Crew

Founder, Owner & Winemaker

Leah Jørgensen Jean

Leah is wife to Asa and mom to Iver.  She’s been in the wine business for two decades and started making her own wine in 2011.  The daughter of an Oregonian, Leah moved to the land of Douglas firs from the land of dogwoods, Virginia, in 2004 after attending Oregon Pinot Camp.   She has worked for pioneering wineries including Erath Vineyards, Adelsheim Vineyard, and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates as a sales, marketing and communications expert before leaving behind administrative offices for the lure of the cellar.  She has worked in the cellars of Anne Amie Vineyards, Shea Wine Cellars, and Alloro Vineyard.

 

A graduate of Sweet Briar College for women, with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing, Leah went on to earn postgraduate degrees in holistic nutrition at the Wellspring School, studying a curriculum of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine, and then Enology, the science of winemaking, at the Northwest Viticulture Center.  Leah finds her inspiration in her father’s farming heritage rooted in Denmark and Norway, and her mother’s winemaking heritage rooted in Italy and Austria.  She is a 10th generation winemaker from her Italian lineage in the Campania.  Leah specializes in the production of Cabernet Franc, what she calls the ultimate Cinderella grape.  

Q&A with Leah

  1. If not yourself, who would you be?
    An astrophysicist.  And a writer for SNL.
  2. What’s your favorite quirky thing to do in Oregon?
    Picking roadside blackberries.
  3. What food do you dream about? 
    Dozens of Pacific Northwest oysters.
  4. What are your most beloved hobbies?
    Writing, taking a Nordic sauna, cooking, hosting themed dinner parties, stargazing, quantum physics talk, and making up songs for my baby.
  5. A fun(nny) fact about you that only a few people know?
    I used to do stand up comedy when I was a small child to entertain my family, as well as for school talent shows – my best work included impersonations of the cast of “Welcome Back Kotter”.  And I love April Fools pranks.  I’m also a verbal processor, but, instead of talking to myself all day, I sing about what I’m doing or thinking about – as if I’m in a musical.
  6. Favorite song of all time.  And why? “Sunshine on my Shoulders” by John Denver.  This song always makes me cry.  It was the song for my father/bride dance at my wedding.
  1. What motivated you to work in food/wine?
    Honestly, I got bored with a cubicle desk job at a corporate think tank.  I told myself there had to be more to life than that.  So I took a job managing a whimsical wine shop in Washington, DC and haven’t looked back!
  2. Favorite quote?
    “Barns burnt down…now I can see the moon” (Mizuta Masahide).
  3. What do you want to be when you grow up?
    A poet.
  4. If you had to get a tattoo right this second what would it be and why?
    A realistic oyster with a pearl.  Lots of reasons.  I’m an east coast/west coast girl and oysters are a nice metaphor for living on both sides of the country.  Oyster shells are beautiful.  I love to eat them (oysters, not the shells).  I make white wines that are meant to accompany them.  Pearls are also lovely metaphors – patience, a grain of sand becoming a pearl.  And, for every major milestone in my life, my parents bought me Mikimoto pearls – earrings, a ring, and a string necklace.  They are treasures to me!  In fact, I really only wear my pearl earrings.
Asa, Leah's partner

First Mate & Partner

Asa Jean

Asa is husband to Leah and dad to Iver.   He hails from Atlanta, Georgia and is currently employed as a Business Development Executive at Chronosphere, a startup in cloud native observability.  Before diving into tech sales, Asa was the Key Account Manager for Mitchell Wine Group in Portland, and prior to that was an Account Manager at Young’s Market Company, also in Portland, selling wine for about eight years.  He is certified in wine by the CSW and WSET-1 Saké and has traveled through many old world wine regions, including the Minervois where his aunt owns a home.  Asa is known by some in the industry as the “Millennial Falcon”.  He is a Toastmaster and often teaches and critiques public speaking for his colleagues.   Asa has years of restaurant and bartending experience and makes a wicked good Manhattan.  He studied Theater and English at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC.  Prior to the wine business, Asa has worked as a professional actor in NYC and Nantucket, he’s managed an art gallery in Nantucket, and he’s managed luxury boat sales – where he also honed his pressure washing skills that naturally translates to cleaning wine presses.

Q&A with Asa

  1. If not yourself, who would you be?
    A professional actor or investment banker.
  2. What’s your favorite quirky thing to do in Oregon?
    Picking roadside blackberries.
  3. What food do you dream about? 
    SPAM pizza.
  4. What are your most beloved hobbies?
    Gardening, shucking oysters, cooking, listening to financial/biz/tech podcasts, mowing my acre-yard with a cold beer, making buckets of cider from my fruit trees, and teaching my toddler how to work in the dirt.
  5. A fun(nny) fact about you that only a few people know?
     I am a human manifestation of Dionysus.
  6. Favorite song of all time.  And why?  Live fiddle played around a campfire… why? Because it feels right.
  1. What motivated you to work in food/wine?
    Honestly, it was just an accident.
  2. Favorite quote?
    “We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time – how much is enough”  (Wendell Berry).
  3. What do you want to be when you grow up?
     A gentleman farmer.
  4. If you had to get a tattoo right this second what would it be and why?
    A fighting cock.  Why?  Because sailors get pigs and roosters tattooed on their feet because pigs and roosters usually survive shipwrecks.