Anthony Beckman

Winemaker

Despite his life-long passion for food and wine, it took the convincing of his wife Alissa before he made the leap to switch careers. In his first career, he worked as a daily newspaperman in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and later moved into biotech website development in San Francisco. While in San Francisco, he spent all his free time – and money – on wine, food, and trips to Sonoma County wineries. It became evident that this was his calling.

So, he quit his technology job, and a month later he found himself knee-deep in a tank of Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. There was no going back. After working his second harvest in New Zealand, Anthony came back to California and worked for three years as the wine buyer for Taylor’s Market, a gourmet grocery and wine store in Sacramento, while putting himself through UC Davis’ Viticulture and Enology program. He spent his mornings in classes learning the chemistry and microbiology of winemaking and afternoons tasting thousands of wines from around the world. It was the perfect combination of intellectual learning and hedonistic training.

Anthony graduated from Davis with high honors and department-wide recognition. He has been with Balletto Vineyards since January 2007 when he was hired as the company’s assistant winemaker. He was promoted to winemaker in January 2009, and Vice President in 2013. Prior to joining Balletto, he worked harvest for Peay Vineyards in the Sonoma Coast, Hudson Vineyards in the Napa-Carneros region, Delegats (Oyster Bay) in New Zealand, and Quivira Vineyards in Dry Creek Valley.  He started Cruess with Alissa in 2013.