2007; In the beginning…

May 2007

The Bricco dei Tati estate, vineyards and farmhouse, anchors the bottom of the tiny borgo, Ferrare Soprano, and sprawls along the ridge peering over the roof tops of the lower borgo, Ferrare Soltano. “Estate” makes it sound grand, and while it is certainly grand in our hearts, it is modest in size and beauty. Its beauty and charm come mainly from the 190 degrees of view it provides of the vineyards and hazelnut groves spreading up and down the hills, the surrounding villages, and the occasional view (depending on cloud cover and fog) of the majestic Alps far in the distance yet appearing close enough to touch on a clear day.

Emanuele and I purchased the vineyard from two friendly brothers, middle aged farmers who had abandoned wine making just three years earlier and turned to another lucrative Piemontese venture– hazelnut growing. It is an odd direction for someone to take— this region takes its winemaking seriously, but something encouraged them away—from wine to Nutella, is how I like to think of it, since the largest consumer of the hazelnut crop in Piemonte is the Ferrare factory, the maker of the chocolate/hazelnut spread.

The old vines on our property are between 50 and 100 years old and the two brothers were farming organically although I don’t think they did it for ecological reasons as much as in thrift. The property had been in their family for generations and even before the brothers sold the property to us, their Uncle Oreste, had tended the vines for several years. Oreste sold the grapes, along with those from his own vineyards, in bulk (sfuso) to local producers.

The property is planted mainly in Dolcetto grapes but up towards the top of the hill (bricco) there are small fruit trees, straggly with neglect. We have peach, pear, cherry, and a variety of apples. Large rosemary and lavender bushes grow wild around the base of the house and volunteer grape vines have rooted beneath the fruit trees.

Two of our important buying criteria were that we wanted a vineyard in the Barbera/Barbaresco/Barolo region, called the Langhe, of Piedmont and we had to be near our friend, Walter Lodali. Walter and his mother Rita own a large winery (cantina) and vineyard, about 30 hectares (60 American acres). Their winery was founded by Walter’s father, Lorenzo, who passed away when Walter was four. Rita struggled for 20 years to manage the estate while working as a hairdresser to make a living and raise Walter. Today Walter, a graduate of the Oneology School of Alba, along with master winemakerGiovanni Bailo are making exceptional Barberas, Barolos, barbarescos, Dolcettos, Moscato, and even a chardonnay. Walter will be our resident manager when we are away, taking care of our winery and vineyards, directing the harvest and wine making. Most of our wines will be made in his cantina. Giovanni will be our master winemaker.

The overall scope of our project is to renovate and improve the vineyard, maintain the old vines and create our own special wines. We will plant new vines in a different grape where some of the fruit trees grow to make an additional, limited production wine. We are fixing up the colonial farm house and we will welcome clients, staff, friends, and family, using the whole estate as a sort of laboratory, showing the full circle of wine making, from grape growing to bottling, and enjoying.

July 2007

Emanuele and the kids and I will be spending a lot of time here this summer. We have to make all the decisions for the renovation of the house on the property and we have to work out what needs to be done to the vineyard. Andrea, our contractor (and Manu’s brother) needs some assistance with the renovation and he already had me toiling away one hot afternoon moving two pallets of bricks from the outside of the house to the inside guest room, which is the first room he is

renovating. Andrea is more than just a contractor, he is a craftsman, an artist in how he lays brick, stone, and tile, in how he smoothes stucco onto the sub layer. He has an excellent eye yet almost always knows when to defer to us for a decision. He is unobtrusive. He also makes everything look easy, which sometimes makes me itchy to try whatever it is he is doing. One day he allowed me to lay a brick with mortar when he was creating a wall and he now claims that he lost three hours and almost had to dismantle the whole wall—my one brick was so poorly laid. I heard later from Rita Lodali, who owns and tends their bar in Treiso, that my neighbors were impressed when they saw the “American woman” working in the heat of the day with the wheelbarrow full of bricks. I am not sure why that would be so unusual since many women in the area work the land and their farms, but I guess construction is still a “man’s world.”

The first wine we made under the Bricco dei Tati label is a young Barbera from grapes we purchased from our neighbor, whose vineyard borders with ours to the southwest. The 2007 harvest, which will happen in September, if not before, will be our very first, and we will be making a Dolcetto from our own grapes for a 2008 release. We are also

talking to a nearby cantina about purchasing grapes called “Favorita,” in order to make a wine of the same name. This is a local varietal that we discovered and enjoyed drinking this summer; it has a small but growing following here in the Piedmont region and would fill out the Bricco Dei Tati portfolio perfectly.

August 2007

Our winemaker, Giovanni Bailo, came to visit several days before we had to fly home to the United States. It was his first visit to the winery. We have known Giovanni for many years, since he is Walter’s winemaker, but I have never walked in a vineyard with him. All our meetings have been in Walter’s cantina or over dinner with clients at La Ciau del Tornavento, the one star Michelin restaurant in our little village of Treiso. (One memorable dinner with Giovanni began with a glass of wine and appetizers in Ciau’s incredible wine cellar, just beneath the dining room.) Giovanni is gregarious and a charming dinner companion, happy to meet with our clients and talk the talk, but he seems most comfortable walking through a vineyard with his spectrometer, rolling grape bunches through his fingers. Some, if not most, of our vines are between 50 and 100 years old, and our vineyard is not in good shape having been tended haphazardly the last five years. Giovanni likes our idea of keeping the old vines but he despaired at their condition. The neglect, especially in the upper vineyard, is apparent even to me. The vines aren’t trellised carefully, and many are drooping onto the ground. The wooden stakes holding the ends of the lines upon which the plant is trained, are askew, and some are disintegrating. It is clear that Oreste preferred working the lower vineyard, and in particular the eastern lower half. He left the upper vineyard, which is on a steeper slope and is closer to the farmhouse, very much alone. Most likely the flatter terrain of the lower vineyard was easier on his knees.

There is a small cantina in the cellar of the house, and Manu told Giovanni our idea to make a limited production wine that can be made on premises for teaching purposes. Giovanni suggested that we plant a blend of Moscato Bianco and Moscato Giallo on the top of the bricco, where the fruit trees are, to create “Three to four hundred bottles of

world class Passito di Moscato.” His eyes gleamed when he said that. Since the production would be limited we can make this Passito in our own small cellar.

Our stroll through the property began with the upper vineyard and, despite the falling vines and disintegrated wooden stakes, Giovanni seemed pleased with what he found. He showed us tricks to analyzing the grapes, turning the bunches over in our hands to identify grapes that hadn’t ripened to their proper color. He stopped frequently to analyze the juice with the spectrometer, a small, cylindrical instrument that measures the sugar level of the grape. Sugar level, in turn, indicates the future wine’s alcohol content. We want an alcohol content of around 13% from these grapes. Giovanni squeezed a drop of grape juice onto the slanted glass lens and peered through the eyepiece, which shows numbers and bars similar to a thermometer. He always made us look in the spectrometer after he did, and we ate grapes as we walked to apply what we were learning to actual taste. By the time we had canvassed the upper vineyard, it was clear to me that what should take three men to harvest in one day would probably take Manu and me 10 if we were to do it ourselves with all the proper and careful analysis Giovanni seemed to be asking for.

We took the little path down to the lower vineyard, where Giovanni’s cheerful mood turned a bit grim. There the plants were well staked, with concrete posts at the end to hold the lines. The grass under the vines was scrubbed away, and the grapes were double-tiered meaning that there is a row of grape bunches in the middle of the plants and another row at the bottom. Double tiering spreads the branches of the plant along two lines, instead of one, allowing the sun to hit and ripen both the upper and lower grapes. This is not good—it turns out. “But NO, NO, NO” Giovanni roared, turning from one row onto another, glaring at the vines. “You can’t do that, you just can’t! What are they thinking? Double-tiered? Impossible! This can’t be done!” Giovanni was almost anguished, stomping between the rows, yelling to no one in particular. Walter and I, trailing several yards behind him, starting laughing. Giovanni was so tormented by the double-tiered vines, the poor trimming, and the horrendous vine training that I started to hope that the whole lower vineyard would displease him, just so we could hear him howl some more. Oreste had been selling the grapes to other wineries for the past five years, so double-tiers were fine for him—it gave him a high yield. The goal of Oreste (the Farmer), which is to get as many grapes out of the vine as possible, is completely counter to that of Giovanni’s (The Winemaker), which is to limit the grape production to enhance the quality of the wine. Limiting grape production usually is done in the spring and is called the “Green Harvest.” Most serious winemakers demand a green harvest, which gets its name from when the grape bunches are newly formed and the grapes are still small. The farmer (or his worker) walks the rows trimming from one to many bunches from each plant. Less grapes allows the vine to concentrate growth and energy in the remaining grapes, creating a richer, fuller fruit. Winemakers showing us their vines in the spring are proud of the beautiful grape bunches cut and tossed to the ground beneath the plants. The less grape bunches left to grow, the more proud they are. We represent one winery in Tuscany that cuts everything but one lone grape bunch per plant. Their wines are expensive, since the yield is lower and so much risk is involved. I’m not sure they sleep easy either, knowing so much is riding on so few stems.

Giovanni gestured in disgust at the whole eastern side of the lower vineyard, and announced that we would not even harvest this “poison” this year and we would work to fix it up for next season. Fortunately for the financial viability of our little winemaking venture, the western part of the lower vineyard turned out to be suitable to Giovanni for harvesting, and he lingered at the end of one of the rows here to admire the shape of the old vines. He showed us how the vines were fighting their way through the tough, limey soil and misshapen terraces to make their way to the sun. He told us, “The French never pull out old vines without provoking a revolution!” I think he is excited to see how these vines do and the wines they can produce, like we are.

September 2007

Walter and three men went to the vineyard, and the grapes were harvested on Tuesday, September 4, 2007. We had just arrived home in the U.S. and Walter called to tell us that the harvest was complete, and it yielded an alcohol content of 13.5 percent. In a humorous twist, Walter had, contrary to Giovanni’s order, harvested the whole vineyard, including the “poison” from the eastern lower half, keeping those grapes separate until we can determine their condition after initial fermentation. Walter was surprised to see that even those grapes had an alcohol content close to 13 percent. If the quality is there we will mix it with the rest of the grapes for a total yield of 3,700 bottles. Therein lies our first lesson in Land Owner versus Wine Maker.