JEN BELOZ, ESTATE DIRECTOR
It was a love of travel and discovery that brought Jen to the wine world. “At the time, I remember thinking that no matter where grapes are grown in the world, it’s going to be a beautiful place to travel,” Jen recalls. “So I traveled to Rioja, where I had my first experience of walking into a barrel room, and I will never forget the amazing smell that I now get to experience daily.”
What began as a few days of harvesting in the fields eventually led Jen down a winding road from Australia to New Zealand to Sonoma and eventually to Napa Valley, where she found herself loving each and every aspect of the winemaking process. “Once you begin to understand what it takes to make a bottle of wine, you see that it’s a form of art,” she says. “It’s a mix of science and craft and creativity, and I really fell in love with it.”
DAVID JELINEK, WINEMAKER
Coupled with a degree in chemistry from the University of Nevada, winemaking hasn’t just been a lifelong career for David, but a limitless passion. “At some point I decided I didn’t want to spend all of my time in a lab,” he says. “So, thanks to a friend who gifted me a bottle of Bordeaux, I was exposed to the intricacies of winemaking. There is so much to know, and that’s what’s exciting about it.”
At Faust, David regularly introduces innovative and incredibly detailed methods in the growing, harvesting, and fermentation process, but his winemaking philosophy is simple. “We really strive to make sure our wine has a lot of purity, and a lot of character,” he explains. “Whether it’s a certain taste from your childhood or an amazing weekend you had on the coast with your family, we want to conjure up great memories. To me, it’s one of the most gratifying things about winemaking.”