Modern day Italian winemakers in the Walla Walla area following in their ancestors footsteps.
By Nick Tomassi
A trip to Walla Walla wine country for pre-arranged interviews with the descendents of the Italian winemakers who influenced Washington State winemaking also brought to light the current state of these winemakers.
A number of the current generation of winemakers trace their interest in winemaking to the influence of family winemaking for home consumption. A good example is one of the best known winemakers in Washington State, Leonetti Cellars owner and winemaker, Gary Figgins. His maternal grandparents, the Leonetti’s, arrived at Ellis Island from Serrapedsci, Calabria, (the toe of the boot), Italy in 1906.
They traveled to Eastern WA., and homesteaded a 20 acre farm with two creeks outside of Walla Walla, planting grapes on the high ground and crops on the low ground. They raised hogs and chickens and other animals, and became farmers, raising vegetables in addition to the animals for themselves and for sale. They also raised eight children.
Gary Figgins, owner and winemaker of Leonetti Cellars, told us his grandfather planted a vineyard with Black Prince grapes and made five barrels of wine each year. Gary spoke about his memories, as a youngster, of the old Italian families like his own making homemade wine from Black Prince grapes and from grapes brought up from California in railroad cars. He told an interesting story about how the Italian families hid barrels of wine from federal agents during Prohibition. He also remembers family gatherings and Italian weddings with Italian cuisine, wine, music, singing, and "...the great feeling of the warmth of the wine going down."
Figgins remarked that Bert Pesciallo was the last guy to make wine commercially until he started Leonetti Cellars in 1977. Figgins planted grapes in 1974 on the old Leonetti homestead. He made his first wine in 1978 and some of those grapes went into his first wine. The 1978 wine was rated as the best Cabernet Sauvignon in the nation by Wine and Spirits Magazine, propelling Figgins, and Leonetti Cellars, to instant fame.
Figgins has a long and varied experience in making wine. He started as a home winemaker at about age 20, in his grandfather's tradition. When he married wife Nancy, he made wine every year out of every type of fruit and grape that he could possibly get, cherries, choke cherries, elderberries, apricots, strawberries, anything that could be fermented, even bananas.
He gained a lot of knowledge and experience in eight years of experimenting as a home winemaker. He said that winemaking just kind of overtook him. He has a knack for knowing how to unlock everything, knowledge tempered by experience. And now he has more experience than just about any other winemaker making wine in Washington State, making wine for over forty years without missing a year.
After eight years he decided to become a commercial winemaker. He got all the books written to study the French, Italian and Californian methods. He read, studied at UC Davis, and traveled to the vineyards and wineries of Italy and France, studying their processes to increase his knowledge. So his ability to make wine has been rewarded by being acknowledged as one of the best.
Another Italian following in his ancestor's footsteps is Gordy Venerri, owner/winemaker of Walla Walla Vintners with Myles Anderson. He described their trip to his ancestral home in Calabria, Italy in 1981, as the inspiration to begin as a home winemaker. This eventually led to the decision to join with Myles Anderson to start Walla Walla Vintners in 1995. He told me they started making wine after their trip to Italy in 1981. They were making wine just for themselves, until the fall of 1995, when they began Walla Walla Vintners, and made their first commercial vintage.
Other Italians who got to Seattle often came after a short stop in California. They found to their delight that it was quite possible to enjoy the benefits of city and country life at the same time. They could make good wages in construction and in the mills and, following Italian family tradition, have gardens, rabbits and chickens in the yards of the single family homes that even working men could afford in this still spacious city.
They arranged with their family and friends in California to send train boxcar loads of Zinfandel grapes from places like Lodi, so they could make their homemade wine. Bringing grapes in by the boxcar apparently continues to this day. In fact, during grape harvest in Eastern Washington, grapes by the truckload are known to find their way to the Seattle Tacoma area for the Italian home winemakers.
Finally, a word about the producers of Italian varietals that can be found on store shelves today:
Sangiovese producers include Leonetti Cellar, Walla Walla Vintners and Yellowhawk Winery in Walla Walla, Andrew Will Winery, Vashon Island, Tefft Cellars, Outlook, Columbia Winery, Woodinville; Nebbiolo: Tefft Cellars, Cavatappi Winery, Kirkland; Barbera: Columbia Winery, Cascade Cliffs, Wishram, Woodward Canyon, Lowden; Dolcetto: Woodward Canyon, Morrison Lane, Walla Walla. The list is probably not complete, but they show the most notable producers.
