Louie Seamus of the Vinguard in Conversation with Alissa Lind of Cruess Wine

What does it really take to make artisan wine? Do we romanticize the role of the winemaker at the expense of everyone else who contributes to the process? The farmers, vineyard workers, transportation, facilities, cellar room assistants—and their partners? Many of our local natural wines are the result of deep partnerships, where the winemaker’s partner often plays a critical supporting role without much recognition. And that partner is often a woman. In this Unfiltered we begin to unpack some of the complex dynamics behind our local natural wine culture and explore and recognize some of the under-represented roles that bring many of our favorite wines to market. Alissa Lind, partner to Anthony Beckman, will join Louie Seamus of The Vinguard in conversation as she pours examples of the Cruess wines that are possible because of their partnership. https://www.donkeyandgoat.com/event/unfiltered-with-anthony-beckman-alissa-lind-cruess-wine-2/ +++ Unfiltered Profile: Anthony Beckman & Alissa Lind — Cruess Wines “I just want to be part of something beautiful.” — Anthony Beckman, Winemaker at Cruess When Alissa Lind overheard those words during a job interview, she didn’t yet know that the idealistic young man speaking them would become her partner — or that the two of them would create one of Sonoma County’s most authentic wines together. Both landed in the Bay Area in need of a reset. Anthony was sleeping on his brother’s couch, trying to write his way out of a stalled career in journalism while Alissa, an English major from UC Santa Barbara, was crashing with a friend in Oakland after leaving Yuba City in search of something more meaningful. They met in a tech office during the blur of the dot-com years. When the startup luster inevitably faded, they opened a bottle of wine one night and, like most of us, asked each other what they truly wanted in life. Anthony said he wanted to make wine. Alissa said she wanted to teach. They wrote out a list of steps to get there but, unlike most of us, they actually did it. Anthony enrolled at UC Davis and worked harvests around Sonoma. Alissa completed her teaching credential while working for the California Department of Education and joined the faculty at Cloverdale High School. Anthony eventually settled at Balletto, where he started Cruess and remains as Balletto’s winemaker. Beckman, Lind..so why ‘Cruess’? Alissa’s appreciation for food and wine runs deep in her family history. Her great-great uncle, William Cruess, was a towering figure in California’s early wine industry: William was a mentor to Robert Mondavi and Charles Krug, co-founder of UC Berkeley’s Department of Food Science, and the author of a 1934 textbook on winemaking still referenced by UC Davis students today. His wife, Marie Cruess, was an acclaimed artist who held a solo exhibition at SFMOMA in 1940. Their intertwined legacies — science and art — are reflected in the way Anthony and Alissa approach wine: rigorous, thoughtful, and deeply expressive. And also risky. The Cruess’ were not only creative pioneers, they overcame enormous barriers to explore new territories. Natural wine—both as a product and a business—can be unstable, and its pursuit requires a high tolerance for failure. Naming their winery Cruess is both tribute and continuation. While Anthony has long left the newspaper industry, he brings the hard working investigative training of a good newsman into the cellar. You ask questions. You look around. You look more—and you find and discover and learn. It’s work. Hard, methodical work. And you feel this in Beckman’s wines: they’re extremely well made and he plays on the edge of things—because that’s his beat. Before everyone was jumping on the Fiano bandwagon, Anthony was already there because he’d been snooping around vineyards and found a little patch of grape gold on the Russian River. It’s this type of work that helps him sleuth the best growers, too. Anthony investigates, he finds things and he has the work ethic and brains to get the best results possible. Thank god Anthony Beckman quit his day job. Today, Cruess sources exclusively from Sonoma County and both Anthony and Alissa are outspoken advocates for the regions’ artisan producers.. “We’re 100% Sonoma,” says Anthony. “It’s about buying local, eating local, drinking local. There are so many top-level growers here — we don’t want to go anywhere else.” Alissa notes, “It’s ironic that the region’s best expressions are often harder to find here than in New York or LA.” Cruess is both an homage and statement — a continuation of a family legacy that merges science, art, and empathy into something very, very beautiful.

Event Links

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3306905-0

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