Giornata Italian-Inspired Sampler
$49.99 + $5 shipping
CONDITION: Mixed
PRODUCTS:
1 2010 il Campo Red, Central Coast
1 2011 Vermentino, Paso Robles
1 2010 Gemellaia, Central Coast
CT links above

Winery website

No, Paso Robles is not just a sea of Syrah, Cab, Zin and Merlot . . . there are a few tasteful pioneers making wines with other objectives in mind. I've had these three just in the last few days - the Vermentino's bright, spicy, and fresh (oldest vines of this varietal on the Central Coast, I think) and the Il Campo red is absolutely delicious right now - I might hold onto the Gemellaia for a year or so (if I only had one bottle) though the oak is quite sexy. How are those for wine pro tasting notes?

Brian from Giornata here to answer questions. Let them fly, just no embarrassing questions from Stillman. We traded our new releases recently and all I asked him for is honesty. I'll be poppin' his open tomorrow night - Can't wait!

Great points from the pro!

More CA winemakers in warmer areas should grow and make Italian and Spanish variety wine because the weather is much more suited to it than Cab, Chardonnay and Merlot!!

ThunderThighs wrote:Where the heck did the winery post go? I didn't delete it!! =( The spotlight is still there!

Please post again.

you been ratting the samples again, TT?

zenophile wrote:Great points from the pro!

More CA winemakers in warmer areas should grow and make Italian and Spanish variety wine because the weather is much more suited to it than Cab, Chardonnay and Merlot!!

Thank you! We agree of course. We pick our grapes long after the Paso Syrah guys (Sorry Stillman) at much lower brix with incredible natural acidity.

Brian Terrizzi

ThunderThighs wrote:Where the heck did the winery post go? I didn't delete it!! =( The spotlight is still there!

Just so you know you are not crazy, I saw the post. Came back a minute later to mull over the selection, and the post was gone.

I think the post was deleted because it referred to me by name . . . probably the Randall Grahm virus . . . .

Not sure where my post went, but I was messing around with my account so maybe I did it. Ask any questions you want about what we're up to. We generally pick our grapes a month or two later than the Syrah guys at low (22-24) brix with great natural acidity. The Central Coast seems perfect for growing Italian varietals.

The marketing text has Il Campo as "petite" and the Gemellaia as "petit" verdot, sourced vineyard is the same... Typo?

ThunderThighs wrote:If I had deleted the post, the spotlight would have gone away automatically. It's just out there in limbo somewhere.

I saw it too . . . weird.
Merlot Mafia?

I hope I didn't break woot, but I just created a new password since my posts weren't coming through - Is Stillman hijacking me?

Probably the slowest first sucker ever - 36 minutes. But I would have pulled the trigger sooner if the Nebbiolo had been in the mix.

Stillman and I just traded our new releases and I knew he'd give some honest feedback. I will be popping his tomorrow at the Earth Day Wine Festival after party. Can't wait. Please ask me anything about us and what we are up too. The Central Coast is a natural place to grow Italian varietals as mentioned above. We pick a month or two after the Pinot and Syrah guys usually at lower brix with great natural acidity.

trismic wrote:Probably the slowest first sucker ever - 36 minutes. But I would have pulled the trigger sooner if the Nebbiolo had been in the mix.

Maybe some day some nebbiolo, but we make such a small amount of that wine with some very tiny quantities on the horizon I couldn't let it go.

neilfindswine wrote:Not much of the Nebbiolo to go around... I had to twist his arm to get the Gemellaia in the mix...

the Gemellaia caught my eye with "Full-bodied, rich and silky" being right up my alley.

neilfindswine wrote:Welcome Brian from Giornata!

...love these wines. Enjoyed the Vermentino this eve as I was grilling up some prawns. Juicy, lush, tropical goodness. Perfect for this warm, spring eve.

The Gemellaia super-paso-Tuscan is great too, I may open a bottle tomorrow and pass on some live notes. She's young and needs decanting... But what a wine.

A very unique, small producer making wines from Italian varietals grown in the Central coast. These wines are impossible to find unless you get them from the winery or in a handful of Cali eateries. This is a rare find and a nice price.

The Gemellaia could use time and will improve with age. If you drink it soon I would open the bottle in the morning taste it and then probably decant for a few hours before drinking. Our wines have lots of acidity and low VA and most will hold up for several days after opening them.

Luckily most of our wine goes to amazing Italian restaurants in California that embrace the locavore movement and a couple other states and our mailing list

teebodo wrote:The marketing text has Il Campo as "petite" and the Gemellaia as "petit" verdot, sourced vineyard is the same... Typo?

Typo - yes. Kills me, but when you do everything yourself that stuff happens. Petit.

trismic wrote:the Gemellaia caught my eye with "Full-bodied, rich and silky" being right up my alley.

With that wine texture is really the focus. Italians put as much or more emphasis on the palate (in "la Boca you often hear) than we do in the states. Texture of wine to me is incredibly important and I think Gemellaia has just a wonderful silky quality especially when paired with the right meal.

Brian, how about a quick wine bio, to distinguish you from marketing cogs and guys who made $50 million doing something that nobody wanted to hear about, so they started a winery?

stillmanbrown wrote:Brian, how about a quick wine bio, to distinguish you from marketing cogs and guys who made $50 million doing something that nobody wanted to hear about, so they started a winery?

What you don't find those stories interesting that they do every week in the local papers about then next gazillionaire that decided to open a winery that has a name that is a fusion of all his grandchildren's names.

Multi-talented (barrel-washing, foot-stomping, leg-breaking) cellar-rat who may or may not be employed by above noted winery for "dirty work" here to answer the ugly questions.

dmc69 wrote:Multi-talented (barrel-washing, foot-stomping, leg-breaking) cellar-rat who may or may not be employed by above noted winery for "dirty work" here to answer the ugly questions.

Can you offer up any additional production notes? Maceration, cooperage, acidity levels? Thanks!

stillmanbrown wrote:Brian, how about a quick wine bio, to distinguish you from marketing cogs and guys who made $50 million doing something that nobody wanted to hear about, so they started a winery?

I started my career working at Rosenblum under Jeff Cohn and Kent Rosenblum early 2000's. Next I traveled to Italy and worked under Paolo De Marchi at Isole e Olena in Tuscany during the hot 2003 vintage living in a 1000 year old building with no AC and later in the year no heat. My goal was always to make Italian varietal wines with the proper character, but this stage taught me how to do it. Any free time I had I spent driving a very old and bare bones Fiat Panda (my favorite car) to every winery that I could. The Italians approach winemaking very differently it seemed to me and I was sure if I could find the right fruit I could do Italian varieties justice.

Upon returning I decided to attend Fresno State to receive more formal winemaking training and research Italian grape varieties. I began traveling California to hopefully discover where Italian varieties would work best. My obsession with nebbiolo led me to a small vineyard in Paso Robles in 2005 that had a new planting of nebbiolo that didn't have any buyers and the owner gave me a 1/2 ton of grapes. I very quickly realized that with the diverse soils and micro-climates Paso and the Cental Coast was the spot to begin my winery. The owner of that small vineyard hired my wife Stephy to manage the vineyard and here we are today. We began with 1/2 ton of grapes and have grown a little every year and now make close to 1500 cases. Our sales from one vintage pay for the next and we don't take any money out of the company. We plan to keep our production around this level and begin planting our own vineyards now instead of growing our production.

The point that should be made is that my wife Stephy serving as vineyard manager and liaison of all our fruit sources is really the brains behind the operation and without her attention in the vineyards Giornata would not exist.

Is that what you were looking for Stillman?

ThunderThighs wrote:Now what label do I give you? [cellar rat]

hmm... some call me assistant winemaker, some brand-ambassador, others not so kind, I'm sure - though I'm happy to take whatever comes my way.

dmc69 wrote:hmm... some call me assistant winemaker, some brand-ambassador, others not so kind, I'm sure - though I'm happy to take whatever comes my way.

Cellar rat offered himself up to me last harvest being a friend and fan of the wines and it has been extremely useful to have a second set of hands at times. He decided to stick around - we'll see what happens when my wife starts making him plant vines with her on our nearly vertical vineyard hill.

chipgreen wrote:Can you offer up any additional production notes? Maceration, cooperage, acidity levels? Thanks!

Yes, brianterrizzi can help much with these details. I merely embrace our few new Gamba Barrels (a minuscule percentage each year) with much gusto and admire their prestigious woods.

chipgreen wrote:Can you offer up any additional production notes? Maceration, cooperage, acidity levels? Thanks!

I do pretty standard maceration with the reds in this offer. I do longer macerations more with my nebbiolo and aglianico. il Campo is all neutral wool and even some stainless (for stylistic reasons). This gets bottled after about 9 months of aging to keep all the juicy brightness I'm looking for. Gemellaia is 50% new wood from Boutes (French Oak). This is the barrel favored by famous italian enologist Roberto Cipresso for many of his Super-Tuscans. It really gives the wine seamless texture. This sees about 15mos. aging. pH of the wines are about 3.3 if memory serves. I don't rely on numbers much unless something I'm tasting doesn't make sense.

I'll freely admit I know nothing about Italian wines. What is Vermentino, besides a grape variety, and how does it compare to other white wines?

Also, is it treated like other white wines or it prepared in a different way?

Kao1138 wrote:I'll freely admit I know nothing about Italian wines. What is Vermentino, besides a grape variety, and how does it compare to other white wines?

Vermentino is actually found all over italy (with different names Pigato in Liguria and Favorita in Piemonte researchers think) and also Corsica and France (known as Rolle)

I liken mine to a rhone white based on viognier although much more elegant and restrained both aromatically and in body. It would be interesting to get Stillman's take since I know he's worked with Vermentino from time to time. I know it's way past his bedtime though so it might be tomorrow.

Kao1138 wrote:I'll freely admit I know nothing about Italian wines. What is Vermentino, besides a grape variety, and how does it compare to other white wines?

Also, is it treated like other white wines or it prepared in a different way?

I simply press mine whole cluster and age in ss barrels for 4 months without any yeast or nutrients and cross my fingers and hope it turns out great. I haven't been let down yet. Some producers leave theirs on the skins for a bit, but it seems to me like this is more successful with some varieties found further north in Italy.