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After planting their first winery within the Santa Rita Hills in 1989, Ron and Nancy Piazza spent three a long time searching for a second winery to buy.
In 2019, they discovered it in Harrison Clarke Winery, on Tapadero Street simply exterior Los Olivos within the Ballard Canyon AVA, and renamed it Bella Vista.
Positioned at an elevation of 1,100 ft, the 14-acre winery does boast a “good view” of neighboring ranches and vineyards alongside Ballard Canyon Street.
Harrison Clarke was planted in 2001 and its unique blocks of grenache and syrah grapes had been farmed organically.
This 12 months, Bella Vista was licensed natural, mentioned Gretchen “Gretch” Voelcker, winemaker for Piazza Family Wines and her personal label, Luna Hart. Additionally rising at Bella Vista are the Italian grapes sangiovese and montepulciano, in addition to the Spanish graciano, she mentioned.
When the teenage Piazza, a local of Queens, New York, was rising up close to Lengthy Seaside, he obtained a job at McDonald’s. Working his manner up the ranks, he made the transition to supervisor, and later, supervisor.
As soon as in his 20s, after years of arduous work and saving cash, Piazza bought that McDonald’s franchise and ultimately, the 19 different McDonald’s he at present owns, mentioned Tymari LoRe, who helps market each Piazza Household Wines and Luna Hart.
Voelcker sources her grapes for Luna Hart, however for Piazza Household Wines, she makes use of property fruit from each Bella Vista and the Piazza’s unique winery within the Santa Rita Hills — the esteemed Mount Carmel Vineyard.
Mount Carmel’s windy, hillside website grows pinot noir and chardonnay in limestone soil for a number of space vintners, amongst them Mail Road Wines, co-owned by the Piazzas and Michael Palmer, who’s co-owner along with his spouse, Eva Ein, of Santa Barbara-based McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams. Matt Dees is the third accomplice and winemaker for Mail Street Wines.
Gretchen Voelcker, left, makes use of a wine thief to serve Nancy and Ron Piazza barrel samples of Piazza Household Wines. (Piazza Household Wines picture)
Mount Carmel was the second winery planted within the extremely regarded Santa Rita Hills area, acknowledged as an AVA in 2001. The historic Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, inside view to the south, was the appellation’s first, planted in 1971.
The historical past behind Mount Carmel Winery is famous inside Santa Barbara County: When Piazza realized {that a} Lengthy Seaside group of cloistered, Carmelite nuns hoped to relocate and assemble a monastery on a bluff north of the Santa Ynez River, the religious Catholic met the nuns in a confessional sales space to ask permission to lease a portion of the property for a winery, mentioned Tymari LoRe, proprietor of LoRe Consulting Group and a longtime buddy of Voelcker.
The nuns had an analogous objective — to retain a part of the property for agriculture due to zoning laws — and the deal was sealed. The Piazzas parked a trailer on the website and set to work planting the vines, LoRe mentioned. The couple’s preliminary 30-year lease has since been renewed for a further three a long time.
Mount Carmel Winery, LoRe continued, aligns with the Piazzas’ perception — and Italian tradition — that wine is supposed to be shared with household and mates throughout a meal.
Voelcker calls herself “very fortunate” to be concerned with the Piazza label, Bella Vista’s property grapes that develop in limestone soil just like that at Mount Carmel Winery, and to make her personal wines on the property.
“I’m nonetheless a garagiste (small winemaker), however with all of the toys,” she chuckled.
Whereas Piazza Household Wines’ annual case manufacturing has grown to about 850 for the reason that first classic in 2018, Luna Hart stays at about 300 circumstances, Voelcker mentioned. Each labels are offered direct to shopper on the winery property by way of tasting flights hosted at an outside desk by Voelcker and LoRe, in addition to at choose eating places.
In 1989, the Nancy and Ron Piazza planted Mount Carmel Winery, making it the second winery in what in 2001 can be designated because the Santa Rita Hills AVA. The primary was Sanford & Benedict Winery, seen within the distance and planted in 1971. (Piazza Household Wines picture)
“We’re capable of present all of the backstory and knowledge ourselves,” LoRe mentioned, including that visitors to Bella Vista “get to see how a winery’s terrior works.”
The present Piazza Household Wines’ vintages embody a 2019 Mount Carmel Winery Pinot Noir, a 2019 Bella Vista Winery Grenache, the 2018 Nancy’s Cuvée (50-50% syrah and graciano), a 2018 Bella Vista Graciano, a 2018 Bella Vista Reserve Syrah, 2019 Bella Vista Syrah and a 2020 carbonic Graciano.
Once I met with Voelcker and LoRe in late July, a bottling of Mount Carmel Winery chardonnay was scheduled for August, and Piazza, persevering with to construct the household model, had lately sourced a little bit of cabernet sauvignon from Grimm’s Bluff Wines in Pleased Canyon, LoRe mentioned.
Voelcker labored with graciano grapes throughout her earlier winemaking gig at Martian Ranch & Vineyard in Los Alamos and, at Piazza, has utilized the carbonic model to present the wine what she calls “a midpalate carry.”
“It’s sturdy, but delicate,” she famous.
The Luna Hart and Piazza Household labels pair nicely in a lineup, as a result of the Piazza label is all reds, and whereas Voelcker does make a cabernet franc, her focus is on rosé, grüner veltliner and sauvignon blanc, LoRe mentioned.
The 2020 Luna Hart Rosé of Syrah comes from Hinnrich’s Winery, additionally in Ballard Canyon, the place a “syrah jungle” grows on Geneva Double Curtain trellising, Voelcker mentioned.
Nancy Piazza, left, and Gretchen Voelcker hand destem wine grapes. (Piazza Household Wines picture)
For the Luna Hart 2019 grüner veltliner, she sourced from Spear Vineyard within the Santa Rita Hills and utilized eight hours of pores and skin contact, making a semi-cloudy wine with a touch of herbaceous lemon and a daring midpalate. This classic, Voelcker mentioned she’s going to produce a glowing grüner veltliner.
Voelcker nonetheless produces the wine that launched her model, sauvignon blanc, and in 2020, she used 25% pores and skin contact throughout fermentation, making a wine that radiates “tropical fruit salad.”
Armed with a 2012 diploma in plant sciences with a spotlight in pure medication from UC Santa Cruz, Voelcker’s ardour for plant physiology led her to Santa Barbara County.
Her first job within the business was as harvest lab tech at Solvang’s Rideau Vineyard, working with winemaker Adrienne St. John. A subsequent harvest internship in Central Otago, New Zealand, gave Voelcker a “style” of that area’s various pinot noirs, and was the place she “fell in love with grüner veltliner and riesling in addition to pinot gris, pinot blanc and orange wines,” she informed me in a 2018 Noozhawk column.
When the New Zealand harvest gig ended, St. John provided Voelcker a full-time job as assistant winemaker. She remained with Rideau till June 2018, when she accepted a winemaking job at Martian Ranch.
At this time, referring to Mount Carmel, Voelcker mentioned: “I’m very fortunate to have the ability to make wine from such a historic winery.”
— Laurie Jervis tweets at @lauriejervis and may be reached by way of [email protected]. The opinions expressed are her personal.
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