THE STORY OF BEEKEEPER
Beekeeper Cellars is the vision of best friends and co-winemakers Ian Blackburn and Clay Mauritson. Individually, the two pursued adventurous careers in the wine industry, and eventually came together to launch a collaborative project—Beekeeper Cellars.
A 7th generation grape grower himself, Clay and his family found themselves the owners of a significant slice of the Rockpile Appellation through a fortuitous combination of historical land transactions. Aware of the potential of this land, the Mauritson family created the Rockpile AVA. in 1998, Ian and Clay climbed the hill and watched as the Madrone Spring Vineyard was planted. It was there that the future of Rockpile began to solidify, and there that they began to understand the dream that it represented in their lives.
In 2008, Clay saw the fruits of his family's labor taking shape and came to Ian with a unique opportunity to utilize the fruit from his land. He told Ian in the difficult days of 2008, “now is the time to get in and build the business and have it take shape as the market improves.” Ian's reaction: "When your best friend is Clay Mauritson and he offers Rockpile fruit and to assist with winemaking…... you make Zinfandel.”
In Los Angeles, Ian operates a specialty wine marketing organization known as wineLA and has pioneered wine education for the past 20 years (since 1995) through www.learnaboutwine.com and www.wineLA.com. Along with wineLA, Beekeeper Cellars is an undertaking that represents one facet of Ian's Masters of Wine Thesis project, and provides him the winemaking training to help pass the infamously difficult Masters of Wine exam—an ongoing pursuit.
