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.

Winemakers John and Helen Falcone

John and Helen Falcone, the winemaker and assistant winemaker 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.