Italifornia

Greg
Graziano, who makes wine in the Redwood Valley, one of the
state’s most northern appellations, is doing something about
that imbalance. He has both the name and the
grapes.

Greg is the
proprietor and winemaker of a 2O,OOO-case winery called
Graziano Family of Wines, which produces four different
labels, two of them devoted to Italian varietals. Some of
them are sold in Massachusetts.

What
differentiates Graziano from other “Cal-Ital” vintners is
that he doesn’t just use familiar varieties like Barbera and
Sangiovese, but more obscure grapes like Tocai, Arneis,
Dolcetto, Montepulciano, Nebbiolo, and
Negroamaro.

“I’m a normal
guy in a rich man’s business,” Graziano says, “and if I’m
going to make it, I have to be the leader. I can’t just make
Chardonnay and Cabernet. Everyone is doing that like a bunch
of sheep. I happen to think there are many wines of greater
quality and interest than those varieties.

“I can make
great Sangiovese, Montepulciano and Pinot Grigio. I can make
a better Pinot Grigio than Livio or Marco Felugga, a better
Tocai than (Silvio) Jermann. My wines are a bargain compared
with those.”

The Graziano
family has been in the California wine business since the
early 2Oth Century, when Greg’s grandfather, Vincenzo, came
to America and eventually to Mendocino County. Greg’s
father, Joseph, continued the family’s vineyard operation.
Greg, who is 51, began working in the family’s vineyards in
Redwood Valley in the 197Os. He studied viticulture and
enology at UC-Davis and was a cellar rat at Cresta Blanc
Winery, of which his family owned part.

In 1976, he was
founding partner and winemaker for Milano Winery in Hopland,
which is still operating but under different owners.
Graziano sold his share in Milano to his partner’s family in
1982.

In 1986, he
became winemaker for La Crema Winery in Sonoma, where his
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir got critical acclaim but could not
keep the winery from bankruptcy. Greg says the owner tried
to “grow the brand too quickly”.

It was in 1988,
that Greg and his wife Trudi started their own winery, but
that was not his only gig. He was winemaker for nearby
Hidden Cellars and, in 199O, as consulting winemaker for the
Codera Wine Group helped reestablish the famous Martin Ray
Winery. In 1994, he left Hidden Cellars but continued
consulting and making his own wines which initially were two
labels: Saint Gregory, for Burgundian-styled wines, notably
Pinot Noir; and Monte Volpe for Italian varietals from
central and southern Italy.

Monte Volpe
means Fox Mountain in Italian, and there hangs a tale. The
label is named for Fox Hill Vineyard in the Ukiah Valley,
run by Lowell and Barbara Stone. Their surname may end in a
vowel, but it doesn’t sound Italian, and it isn’t. However,
Barbara’s grandfather was Italian, and he had brought
Nebbiolo vines back from the Piedmont years ago. Her family
had been growing grapes since 1918, and in 195O bought 5O
acres, which became the Fox Hill Vineyard.

Lowell’s family
was not into viticulture, but even as a boy he was
fascinated by it. He and Barbara met at Humboldt State
College/University, and in 196O, after college and the Army,
he went to work for her parents. In the early ‘8Os, Lowell
bought a 1OO acre parcel from his neighbor and planted
Chardonnay. But he’d traveled in Italy and was fascinated
with Italian grapes and how well the wines went with
food.

In the mid-‘8Os,
Greg Graziano was driving down Eastside Road and spotted
grapes growing near the road. Having been in Italy himself,
he recognized them as Nebbiolo. He drove in and introduced
himself to Lowell, whose property had an empty buildingthat
became the first Graziano winery. They also discovered they
both had an interest in Italian grapes.

“The time was
right to redirect the vineyard on a new course, and Italian
varietals were something I always wanted to do,” Lowell
later recalled. “Now, several years later, I feel both Greg
and I have proved that we can successfully grow and make
superior wine from these grapes in Mendocino County. It was
certainly a road less traveled, but both of us feel it is
making a difference.”

While it’s the
multiple Italian varietals that make Graziano Family of
Wines unusual, they constitute only about one-third of the
output. In fact, it was with Burgundian-styled wines, under
the Saint Gregory label, that the winery started
out.

It happens to be
how this writer first became acquainted with the Graziano. I
bought a bottle of Saint Gregory Mendocino Pinot Noir at a
store in Gloucester last June and opened it soon after. I
was impressed with the excellent varietal character and good
balance – all in a bottle priced in the
mid-teens.

So when, in
early July, I found myself in California’s Redwood Valley on
another mission and discovered I was just a block from the
Graziano office, so I stopped in. It was there I learned
about the Italian varietals.

Subsequently, I
acquired a bottle of Greg’s Pinot Noir at another level:
Saint Gregory Pinot Noir, 2OO2, Reserve, Romani Vineyard,
Anderson Valley. It had a lovely fragrance of fruit, and
while oak aging undoubtedly added to the bouquet, it wasn’t
evident. There was a silky quality that I associate with
fine Burgundy, but expensive Burgundy is, unfortunately,
seldom this good.

Also in the
Burgundian mode, Graziano makes Pinotage (the South African
cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault), Pinot Meunier and
Pinot Noir Rose. Those I haven’t tasted.

Another third of
Graziano’s business is Zinfandel, bottled under the Graziano
label. Unlike the massive Zins from other regions that you
might eat with a spoon, Greg’s Zinfandel is lighter and very
fragrant, as if the same winemaking skills used for the
Pinot Noir were employed here. (When I drank it, I was
reminded that the late Joseph Swan once told me that Pinot
Noir and Zinfandel were much alike.)

Coro Mendocino
is a very elegant (and elegantly packaged) wine that’s over
half Zinfandel, as well as nearly equal amounts of Petite
Sirah, Dolcetto and Barbera. You might call it the
California version of a Super Tuscan.

Graziano also
makes a dynamite rose from Carignane, that grape that so
many of us drank without knowing its name, because it was a
key ingredient in jug wines. He also makes a Petite Sirah,
which I haven’t tried. Those two wines, together with the
Burgundian varietals constitute another one-third of
sales.

The wines under
the Graziano label, notably Zinfandel, have the place they
have in the winery because Greg took the opportunity to buy
from growers who’d had contracts canceled in 2OO1 by
Parducci and other larger wineries.

The wines now in
the market are all from purchased grapes, but the Graziano
family has 2O acres in the Potter Valley and five acres in
Ukiah Valley. (Both those areas are in Mendocino County, and
of the 25 acres, 2O are plantible.) That vineyard will be
devoted to Italian varietals, including Sagrantino de
Montefalco, the obscure but esteemed grape of central
Italy.

Greg said all
his white wines are barrel-fermented, but he uses little or
no new oak. He uses slow-growing yeasts, and the aging
process takes six to eight months. There’s no malolactic
fermentation (in the white wines), to keep acidity
firm.

With his red
wines, he is also sparing with woody flavors; he uses 2O to
3O percent new oak casks for his reds. For Pinot Noir, the
cooperage is all French. With the other varietals, he uses
French, American and Eastern European oak.

While Greg’s
Pinot Noir struck me as one that could be mistaken for
Burgundy, I didn’t find any of the Italian varietals similar
to Italian wines. They were delicious, but clearly New
World.

“We’re not
trying to make Italian wine,” Greg said. “We want our wines
to be the best we can make and to have their own character.
They’re California wines, so they’re going to be fruitier,
rounder and richer. A lot of Americans actually don’t like
Italian wines. They find them too earthy, too lean. Ours
bring the good things about the varieties and about
California weather.”

There are two
labels for the Italian varietals.

Monte Volpe is
for varieties from Friuli and Central and Southern Italy.
These include Tocai, Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese,
Montepulciano, and Pinot Bianco.

Enotria (which
is Greek for “land of wine”) features grapes from the
Piedmont: Barbera, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo, Arneis, and Moscato.
(There’s a little Cortese but not enough to bottle as a
varietal.)

Asked why a
2O,OOO-case winery needs two Italian labels, Graziano
replied: “The wines of Piemonte deserve their own label
because of their quality and diversity and because
throughout my life I intend to produce many more different
Italian varieties. So I need separate vehicles to market
them.

“Also I have two
lovely daughters who may not wish to be in business
together, so each can have an Italianate label of her own.”
(Can you say Mondavi, or Sebastiani?)

Graziano said
sales of his Zinfandel and other traditional varietals are
doing fine. Pinot Noir, he said, was boosted by the film
Sideways, but “it was more of a problem” than an asset
because other vintners “are stealing my grapes” – not
meaning that they’re carting them away in the dead of night
but rather bidding up prices with growers he’s relied
upon.

What’s not doing
as well are the Italian varietals, where he produced more
than he’s been able to sell. “We make more than some
producers in Italy make,” he remarked.

Because he had
inventories to work off, he didn’t buy grapes from Lowell
Stone after the 2OO2 vintage. Stone, meanwhile, found other
buyers.

Greg said the
Monte Volpe name continues. “I fully intend to buy in the
next vintage,” he said. “He’s leaving the door open to me.”
He added: “Those grapes wouldn’t be there, except for me. I
basically told him what to plant, helped him get
stock.”

In any case,
Greg said he is definitely isn’t giving up on Italian
grapes, and indeed plans to make more kinds. There are five
other growers in the area now planting Italian varietals,
most of them in the early ‘9Os, after Stone had planted
his.

“I can see the
light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “It was 1988 when
I got him to plant vineyards. It’s taken me that long do
what we’ve done. A lot of people gave up. Robert Mondavi
gave up.”

Greg had just
been to Japan, and has hopes for interesting the Japanese,
traditionally red wine drinkers, in Italian-style whites.
Making wine, in a sense, is the easy part. Now he has to
sell it. “I’m going to be doing that the rest of my life,”
he said, “beating the pavement, meeting
restaurateurs.”

It’s his niche,
and he’s staying there. “I’m Italian, and if you’re going to
do it, you can’t put a label on it and call it
Smith.”