Laurie Jervis: Piazza Family Wines presents the estate’s red wines to pair with family and friends | Homes and Lifestyle

After planting their first vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills in 1989, Ron and Nancy Piazza spent three decades looking for a second vineyard to purchase.

In 2019, they found it at Harrison Clarke Vineyard, on Tapadero Road just outside Los Olivos in Ballard Canyon AVA, and renamed it Bella Vista.

Located at an elevation of 1,100 feet, the 14-acre vineyard offers a “beautiful view” of the neighboring ranches and vineyards along Ballard Canyon Road.

Harrison Clarke was planted in 2001 and their original blocks of Grenache and Syrah grapes were organically grown.

This year, Bella Vista was certified organic, said Gretchen “Gretch” Voelcker, winemaker for Wines of the Piazza Family and its own brand, Luna hart. Italian Sangiovese and Montepulciano grapes, as well as Spanish graciano, also grow in Bella Vista, she said.

When the teenager Piazza, originally from Queens, New York, was growing up near Long Beach, he got a job at Mcdonalds. As he rose through the ranks, he became a supervisor, then a manager.

Once in his twenties, after years of hard work and saving, Piazza bought that McDonald’s franchise and ultimately the other 19 McDonald’s he currently owns, said Tymari LoRe, who helps market both Piazza. Family Wines and Luna Hart.

Voelcker sources grapes for Luna Hart, but for Piazza Family Wines she uses fruit from the Bella Vista estate and the original Piazza vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills – the Mont Carmel vineyard.

The windy, hillside site of Mount Carmel grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on limestone soil for several winegrowers in the region, including Wines from the postal route, co-owned by the Piazzas and Michael Palmer, who is co-owner with his wife, Eva Ein, of the Santa Barbara-based establishment McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams. Matt Dees is Mail Road Wines’ third partner and winemaker.

Gretchen Voelcker, left, uses a wine thief to serve samples of Piazza Family Wines barrels to Nancy and Ron Piazza. (photo Piazza Family Wines)

Mount Carmel was the second vineyard planted in the highly regarded Santa Rita Hills region, recognized as AVA in 2001. History Sanford & Benedict vineyard, seen towards the south, was the first of the appellation, planted in 1971.

The story of Mount Carmel Vineyard is legendary in Santa Barbara County: when Piazza learned that a group of Long Beach cloisters, Carmelites was hoping to move and build a monastery on a cliff north of the Santa Ynez River, the devout Catholic met the nuns in a denominational booth to seek permission to lease part of the property for a vineyard, said Tymari LoRe, owner of LoRe Consulting Group and a longtime friend of Voelcker.

The nuns had a similar goal – to keep part of the property for farming due to zoning regulations – and the deal was sealed. The Piazzas parked a trailer at the site and got to work planting the vines, LoRe said. The couple’s initial 30-year lease has since been renewed for another three decades.

Mount Carmel Vineyard, LoRe continued, aligns with the Piazzas belief – and Italian culture – that wine is meant to be shared with family and friends over a meal.

Voelcker says she is “very lucky” to be involved in the Piazza label, the Bella Vista estate’s grapes that grow in limestone soil similar to that of the Mount Carmel vineyard, and to make her own wines on the property.

“I’m still a mechanic (little winegrower), but with all the toys,” she laughs.

While the annual production of cases of Piazza Family Wines has grown to around 850 cases since the first vintage in 2018, Luna Hart remains at around 300 cases, Voelcker said. Both labels are sold direct to the consumer at the winery via tasting flights organized to an outdoor table by Voelcker and LoRe, as well as to select restaurants.

In 1989, Nancy and Ron Piazza planted the Mount Carmel Vineyard, making it the second vineyard in what in 2001 would be referred to as the Santa Rita Hills AVA. The first was Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, visible in the distance and planted in 1971. (Photo by Piazza Family Wines)

“We are able to provide all of the history and information ourselves,” LoRe said, adding that Bella Vista guests “can see how a vineyard’s territory works.”

The current vintages of Piazza Family Wines include a Pinot Noir Mount Carmel Vineyard 2019, a Grenache Bella Vista Vineyard 2019, the Cuvée Nancy 2018 (50-50% syrah and graciano), a Bella Vista Graciano 2018, a Syrah Bella Vista Reserve 2018, Bella Vista Syrah 2019 and a Graciano carbonique 2020.

When I met Voelcker and LoRe at the end of July, a bottling of the Mount Carmel Vineyard chardonnay was scheduled for August, and Piazza, continuing to develop the family brand, had recently sourced some Cabernet Sauvignon from Grimm’s Bluff Wines at Happy Canyon, LoRe said.

Voelcker worked with graciano grapes during his previous winemaking concert at Martian ranch and vineyard in Los Alamos and, in Piazza, used the carbonic style to give the wine what she calls “a mid-palate lift”.

“It’s sturdy, but delicate,” she noted.

The Luna Hart and Piazza Family labels pair well in a range, as the Piazza label is all red, and although Voelcker makes a cabernet franc, it focuses on rosé, grüner veltliner and sauvignon blanc, LoRe said. .

The 2020 Luna Hart Rosé Syrah comes from Hinnrich’s Vineyard, also in Ballard Canyon, where a “syrah jungle” grows on the double-curtain trellis of Geneva, Voelcker said.

Nancy Piazza, on the left, and Gretchen Voelcker de-stem the wine grapes by hand. (photo Piazza Family Wines)

For the 2019 Luna Hart grüner veltliner, she got her supplies from Lance vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills and used eight hours of skin contact, resulting in a semi-cloudy wine with a hint of herbaceous lemon and a bold mid-palate. This vintage, Voelcker said it will produce a sparkling grüner veltliner.

Voelcker still produces the wine that launched her brand, Sauvignon Blanc, and in 2020 they used 25% skin contact during fermentation, creating a wine that gives off a ‘tropical fruit salad’.

Armed with a 2012 degree in plant science with a specialization in natural medicine from UC Santa Cruz, Voelcker’s passion for plant physiology brought her to Santa Barbara County.

Her first job in the industry was as a harvest lab technician at Solvang Rideau Vineyard, in collaboration with winemaker Adrienne St. John. A subsequent harvesting internship in Central Otago, New Zealand, gave Voelcker a ‘taste’ of the various Pinot Noirs of this region, and it was there that she ‘fell in love with Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. as well as pinot gris, pinot blanc and orange wines, ”she told me in a Noozhawk column in 2018.

At the end of the New Zealand harvest concert, St. John offered Voelcker a full time job as an assistant winemaker. She remained at Rideau until June 2018, when she accepted a position as winemaker at the Martian Ranch.

Today, referring to Mount Carmel, Voelcker said: “I am very fortunate to be able to make wine from such a historic vineyard.

– Laurie Jervis tweets at @lauriejervis and reachable via [email protected]. The opinions expressed are his own.