Andrew Codispoti

An Italian immigrant, Andy traces his passion for wine to his childhood in a mountainside village that overlooks the Ionian Sea. While Andy’s father worked in Rome as a professional shoemaker, his mother maintained the gardens, orchards, and vineyards and oversaw the family winemaking. While growing up in Canton, Ohio Andy made wine at home with his parents and brothers, never imagining a vocation in winemaking.   

After retiring from a career in the bearing industry, in 2009 Andy accepted the irresistible challenge to join the inaugural Gervasi team as a Winemaker where his immersion into professional winemaking became a natural extension of his manufacturing background and Italian heritage.  As a creative and engineering-minded visionary, Andy’s relentless drive for quality introduced new levels of quality control, automation, and innovation in winery processes. Embracing a philosophy of “Winemaking by Design” and driven by a passionate work ethic, he set the tone for Gervasi’s wine culture that propelled the facility and operation to”‘world-class stature” and one of the region’s most modeled and premier wineries. Andy’s legacy deposits an energizing and uplifting imprint on the Ohio wine industry.  

In 2017, Andy was presented the Winemaker of the Year Award by the Ohio Department of Agriculture Grape Industries Committee and in 2020 Andy gained national attention when he was featured in the Winemaker of the Month section of Wine Business Monthly.  Andy has served on the Board of the Ohio Wine Producers Association.  His wines have been awarded “Best of Show” and “Double Gold”.  Andy has been a creative and prolific exponent of Ohio’s wine culture, teaching on the subject of wine and developing elevated winery tourism programs. Andy fosters a nurturing posture towards the Ohio wine industry.  Mindful of his amateur beginnings, he has cultivated intern and mentoring opportunities for aspiring enology and viticulture students. As Director of Winemaking & Distilling operations, he led the new Gervasi Distillery through the commissioning of operations and development of a product line of spirits.  

Andy recognizes the strength of faith, family, friends, and co-workers. When not working in the business of wine and spirits, Andy enjoys woodworking, building guitars, and propagating his family’s heirloom fig trees.