Giovanni “Gio” Balistreri is a product of four generations of Sonoma County farmers
dating back to the late 1800’s, when his family first migrated from Italy.
dating back to the late 1800’s, when his family first migrated from Italy.
Gio was seven years old when he went to work on his family’s dairy farm. Up at dawn each day with his Grandfather Les Balistreri, Gio did the chores and learned the skills of his family’s livelihood. There were animals to feed, fields to plow, and fences to repair.
The Balistreri farm featured a half-acre vegetable garden, which Gio managed with his
Grandmother, May. This was Gio’s real-world schooling in the annual rhythms of planting, growing, and harvesting crops. By the time Gio was set to leave for college, he already had ten years of practical farming experience. But Gio’s father had one piece of business for him first. Jack Balistreri had realized the potential of the family farm for growing wine grapes.
Gio and his father planted four acres of Pinot Noir grapes in Freestone, CA. With his
first wine harvest already pending, Gio attended Fresno State University, where he majored in Agricultural business with concentrations in Winery Management, Wine Marketing, & Wine sales. Upon returning home from college in 2004, he had barely unpacked before harvesting his first vintage. Since then, the Balistreri Family Vineyard has nearly tripled in size.
In 2008, Gio was tapped by legendary winemaker Anthony Austin to join a team that would acquire Russian River Vineyards. Austin’s mission was to make wines that realized the enormous potential of the property and the extraordinary winemaking region in which it sits. Under Anthony’s tutelage, Gio learned the “light touch” approach to winemaking that has become a hallmark of Russian River Vineyards. Since then, Russian River Vineyards wines have won more than 200 medals, 75 of them gold.
Gio took the helm as RRV’s winemaker in 2012. The result has been a steady stream of
remarkable wines. In 2014, Gio received the “Best Winemaker” award in the North of
the Gate Wine Competition. In 2016, he won the “Best Red Wine in Sonoma County”
award at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. In early 2019, the North Bay Biz Magazine
reader’s poll named Russian River Vineyards estate-grown Pinot as the “Best Pinot
Noir”. This year, RRV wines have already won at least one gold medal in five different
competitions.
Even as the awards & recognition mount, Gio remains true to his roots. He lives in Windsor, CA with his wife Ashley, daughter Gianna May and sons Santino and Giovanni Jr, and remains active in community service. He is a past president of the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce and the Russian River Valley Wine Growers. It seems that Gio has found his true calling, and at Russian River Vineyards, we feel very fortunate that he found it here.
