Rusack People

Vintners Geoff and Alison Rusack

Geoff grew up in Los Angeles, where he worked for a number of years as an aviation law attorney before making the leap to vintner. Alison is originally from Chicago but later also found herself in Los Angeles, working for Disney consumer products. In 1994 they took a leap of faith and moved their young family out of the city to beautiful Ballard Canyon, where Rusack Vineyards now stands. It was another year of hard work before Geoff crushed the grapes for our first vintage, and the tasting room opened to the public in 1997.

Initially Alison and Geoff worked together in all aspects of the winery, from crushing the grapes to pouring wine in the tasting room. While the staff has grown since that time, Geoff and Alison continue to oversee all aspects of Rusack Vineyards to ensure their goal of producing world-class hand crafted wines.

Winemaker John Falcone and Enologist Helen Falcone

John and Helen Falcone, the winemaker and enologist at Rusack, occupy a unique niche as one of the few husband and wife winemaking teams in California's wine industry. Born into an Italian winemaking family, John started his wine odyssey at age 19, working for his uncle at The Monterey Vineyard. Prior to joining Rusack, John worked for many years in the Napa Valley, including a position as head winemaker at Atlas Peak Vineyards. Helen Falcone also worked in the Napa wine industry holding the positions of assistant winemaker at Chimney Rock Winery and Codorniu Napa wineries.

The Falcones’ decision to join Rusack Vineyards was prompted in large part by their desire to "get back to hand-crafting wines" and their belief that Santa Barbara County is now one of the best places for a small-production winery to live up to its potential for producing great wines.

Assistant Winemaker Steven Gerbac

Steven’s interest in winemaking began at an early age, when he tagged along on wine tours at a local winery where his mother worked. This initial winery experience eventually led to a school science project on malolactic fermentation at age 13. By age 19, winemaking had grown into a pure passion for Steven, and, while working for his friend’s winery, Whitcraft, in Santa Barbara, he decided to make winemaking his life’s vocation. Steven’s career decision led him to The Brander Vineyard, where he gained additional experience working in the cellar until late 2003.

Steven chose to leave Brander after hearing about a Production Assistant opening at Rusack. According to Steven, he saw our winery as a place where he could help create quality-driven wines, work with two experienced winemakers and be involved with our newly planted, state-of-the-art vineyard. We saw in Steven an ambitious young man with great potential. Over the next seven years, Steven has not disappointed us and, in fact, has more than wowed us with his energy, drive and talent. Thus, when our assistant winemaker, Helen Falcone, decided that she wanted to focus more time on family and other personal matters, our search for someone to fill her position was an easy one. We are proud to announce that in January of 2010, Steven became Rusack Vineyards’ Assistant Winemaker. Congratulations Steven!