The Crus of Napa Valley Part I: In Conversation with Andy Beckstoffer

D’Amato & Szabo: Wine Thieves

(Previously aired 07/15) Join the Wine Thieves in Napa Valley this week for the first of a special two-part series on the "grand crus" of Napa Valley, that is, the very best vineyards, the historic and more recently famous sites that produce Napa's finest wines. Today we're going straight to the source to talk to the Napa Valley’s, and probably all of California’s, most famous grape grower, a man who has created as powerful a luxury brand as anyone in Napa without ever having bottled a single commercial wine of his own, Andy Beckstoffer, a name intimately associated with, and prominently displayed on, bottles of Napa’s most expensive and sought-after wines.
Andy Beckstoffer is one of the early and most important leaders in the evolution of the Napa Valley to a world-class grape-growing region. Beckstoffer To Kalon, Beckstoffer Georges the III, Beckstoffer Dr, Crane, and other important vineyard names on a bottle of wine sends a shiver down the spine of Napa Valley wine lovers, no matter what producer’s name they’re associated with, and the price is guaranteed to be premium. The story of how and why this came to be is worth a listen in itself. Today, Beckstoffer Vineyards owns and farms over 3,600 acres of top-quality grape-growing properties in three Northern California wine-growing regions – the Napa Valley, Mendocino County, and the Red Hills of Lake County. Join us for a frank conversation with Andy himself who will take us through his history in Napa Valley and how he came to develop an idiosyncratic business model that empowers the grower, self-regulates quality and may have contributed to the preservation of agricultural land in Napa Valley.
Photo credit: Beckstoffer Vineyards, To Kalon
This episode was created in partnership with Napa Valley Vintners.