Three Female Food Entrepreneurs, 1889

1889, Washington Magazine
April 28, 2017

Ashley Trout knew nothing about wine when she moved from Washington, D.C. to Walla Walla for college. When a part-time job at a winery came up, Trout applied. “Luckily for me, it was at a time when there was not a huge educated wine workforce ready to be hired, because that certainly was not me, but I was there and I was willing to regularly show up, and I was willing to give anything a try, and in a small winery, that’s what’s needed,” Trout said. She kept that job for the better part of eight years, learning the rhythms of making wine and tending delicate vines. In 2004, when Trout was in her 20s, she started her own brand: Flying Trout, so named because she worked both the Walla Walla and Argentine harvests, making wine in both places. In 2010, she sold the brand to Mike Tembreull and Doug Roskelley of TERO Estates and stayed on as winemaker until 2015. “Like any 24-year-old entrepreneur, I made a ton of decisions that I wouldn’t make again,” Trout said. “I got to the point where I was really burnt out running it the way that I was, and I didn’t give myself any option to run it any other way. I’m very thankful for that five-year period. It was nice to take a rest from the classic stress of owning your own business and also to sort of regroup.”