William Andrew "Andy" Beckstoffer is a California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

 owner, with holdings in Napa, Lake County

Lake County wine

Lake County wine is an appellation that designates wine made from grapes grown mostly in Lake County, California, located north of Napa County. Although each region within the county has unique viticultural attributes, all are influenced by Clear Lake, the largest inland body of water in the state...

, and Mendocino.

Biography

Beckstoffer was a resident of Richmond

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, and went to Virginia Tech on a football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 scholarship. He graduated with an Engineering degree, and served in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

. While in the Army, he learned about the California wine

California wine

California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state...

 industry in San Francisco. Upon leaving the Army, he entered graduate school at Dartmouth, earning a Masters of Business Administration in 1966, and went to work for a finance company, Hueblein Inc. He convinced the company to invest in the burgeoning wine industry.

By 1973, he purchased the wing of Hueblein that owned approximately 1200 acres (485.6 ha) of land in Napa and Mendocino, calling it Vinefera Vineyards. By 2010, he had expanded his company's holdings to 1072 acres (433.8 ha) in Napa, 1138 acres (460.5 ha) in Mendocino, and over 1100 acres (445.2 ha) in Lake County.

Influence on the California wine industry

Beckstoffer was involved in settling a labor dispute led by Cesar Chavez

César Chávez

César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....

 in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His vineyard management practices, including decisions regarding vine spacing and irrigation

Irrigation

Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

, have helped to modernize the California wine industry. Additionally, he has been active in the definition of the Rutherford

Rutherford AVA

The Rutherford AVA is an American Viticultural Area located within Napa Valley AVA and centered around the town of Rutherford, California. The area is known for its unique terroir particularly with its Cabernet Sauvignon. The well drained soil of this area is composition of gravel, loam and sand...

 and Saint Helena AVA

American Viticultural Area

An American Viticultural Area is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau , United States Department of the Treasury....

s.