Winemaker: Josh Beckett

Joshua Phillip Beckett Raised in Paso Robles by his parents Doug and Nancy Beckett. Josh began his wine career helping in the family winery washing barrels and punching down bins for Tobias Winery, making a mere 250 cases. Tobias Winery changed names to Peachy Canyon Winery in 1988 and Josh continued to help in the family business throughout Junior High and High School. During this time he worked for his father, Toby Shumrich (Tobin James Cellars) and Robert Nadeau (Nadeau Family Vineyards). Upon graduation, Josh left for college, where he received a B.A. in English from the University of San Diego. After graduation, Josh was managing a surf shop in San Diego and it dawned on him that the wine industry was not such a bad place to be. In 1998, Josh returned back to the winery for harvest working under Tom Westberg (Westberg Cellars). He learned all the aspects of wine production during this time, from crushing to bottling. Josh truly started at the bottom and worked his way up through the years. In 2000, Peachy Canyon Winery promoted Florence Sarrazin from Bordeaux to be the new winemaker. Josh worked alongside Florence from 1998 until 2002, until she returned to Bordeaux. At that time, Josh took over as head winemaker. Josh decided to bring back winemaking techniques set forth in the beginning while combining them with the new style that Florence introduced. In December of 2004, Josh moved to Australia with his wife Gibsey to work a harvest. He spent six months working at Cape Mentelle and continued to work at Peachy Canyon via fax, email and phone meetings. While in Australia, Josh learned many more new ideas regarding cleaning techniques, racking, harvesting, use of equipment, etc. Today, Josh likes to combine varied experiences through different winemakers and mixture of regions and keeping an open mind to create the most exciting wines possible. Josh believes in making all the Peachy Canyon wines on a small scale style regardless of their size. He has also enjoyed inviting interns from all over the country and other parts of the world to join Peachy Canyon and gain more input and new ideas. Josh also believes in keeping a small staff at the winery, where everyone has a tremendous amount of responsibility and keeping all aspects of the winery truly hands on. Peachy Canyon Winery concentrates on producing Zinfandel but Josh enjoys playing with some new varietals as well.

Annual Production: 64,000 cases

Grape Varieties Planted

• Cabernet Franc
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Malbec
• Merlot
• Petit Verdot
• Petite Sirah
• Sangiovese
• Viognier
• Zinfandel