NAPA, CA – May 13, 2025 — Named a world “Top 100 Winery” by Wine & Spirits in 2021 and “Top Winery in Napa Valley” by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2024, Ashes & Diamonds has hired wine industry sales veteran Chad Walsh as Global Sales Director. Effective immediately, Walsh will be overseeing all domestic wholesale and international efforts and replacing the existing national sales manager.
With a diverse background including on-premises experience as a sommelier and supplier-side sales distribution, Chad holds a deep understanding of wine sales. Before joining Ashes & Diamonds, Chad was the Global Sales Director at Ernest Vineyards in West Sonoma, and also held significant roles at Skurnik Wines & Spirits and T. Edward Wines & Spirits. In 2017, he partnered with Claus Meyer of Noma to open Agern in Grand Central Terminal, where he was named one of Food & Wine’s “Sommeliers of the Year.”
“I had the privilege of working alongside Chad in his previous capacity as USA Portfolio Manager at Skurnik Wines & Spirits,” said Ashes & Diamonds proprietor Kashy Khaledi. “From the outset, it was apparent that Chad possesses a deep camaraderie with us, and shares the genuine passion for ‘old school’ Napa Valley wines, that significantly informs our winemaking approach at Ashes & Diamonds. Today, Chad’s historic kinship with A&D brings him back home, where he is poised to tell our story to the world.”
“For me, Ashes & Diamonds embodies the best of American winemaking,” said Walsh. “I’m thrilled to be working again with Ashes & Diamonds, a winery equally dedicated to sustainable and organic farming practices and a restrained winemaking style, as well as eager to expand its reach through broader distribution networks.”
ABOUT CHAD WALSH
With a unique distribution background as both sommelier and salesman, Chad Walsh has worked for the most highly-renowned wine distributors and New York’s most prestigious restaurants.
His journey as a New York sommelier began at Charlie Palmer’s Aureole, where he cultivated a deep understanding of wine. He later joined Andrew Carmellini’s The Dutch, which received “Restaurant of the Year” accolades from The New York Times and Eater. Chad’s achievements were recognized in Zagat’s “30 Under 30” in 2014 and Wine Enthusiast’s “40 Under 40” in 2015.
Walsh also played a key role in the opening of Agern at Grand Central Terminal with Danish chef Claus Meyer, where he developed an all-American beverage program with a focus on independent producers. His stellar wine list received recognition from The Wall Street Journal, the MICHELIN Guide and The New York Times, and he was named one of Food & Wine’s “Sommeliers of the Year” in 2017.
Transitioning to distribution in 2018, Chad joined Skurnik Wines & Spirits and later took on the U.S. portfolio at T. Edward in 2020, where he emphasized family-owned, minimal intervention wineries and successfully reintroduced producers into key markets.
Most recently, in 2023, Walsh was appointed Global Sales Director at Ernest Vineyards in the West Sonoma Coast AVA, a region he has long supported. He is currently a board member of the area’s vintners’ association and has been instrumental in expanding the winery’s presence both nationally and internationally.
A Maryland native (Eastern Shore), Chad’s interest in fine wine began while working in his dad’s family-owned restaurants. Chad currently resides in New York City.
ABOUT ASHES & DIAMONDS
Located at the gateway of Napa Valley along its main artery, Highway 29, Ashes & Diamonds Winery is a love letter to Napa Valley as it was when it took the world stage in the 1960s, revealing itself as a geological wonderland capable of world-class wines. In homage to this golden era and its pioneers, winemakers Steve Matthiasson, Diana Snowden Seysses and Michael Cruse, with proprietor Kashy Khaledi, adhere to an ethos of light-handed winemaking and transparency of terroir as a guiding light for all of the wines they produce—a Burgundian approach to Bordeaux varietals. Having opened in August 2017, Ashes & Diamonds is the ultimate convergence of modern and old-school flavors.
