Orsi Family Vineyards

​I missed it.  Not sure how, but I did.  It was right there in front of my eyes.  Sure, you might have missed it, but I write about these, I should have seen it.  But I did not, and missed the opportunity.  But I digress from my main story, a visit to Orsi Family Vineyards.
After our visit to Armida, we ventured closer to Healdsburg to a winery I found on the Sonoma barrel tasting website that focused on Italian grape varieties.  Great call!  Orsi Family Vineyards is a must while wine tasting in Sonoma.  For me, it is a reason to return to Sonoma, and, along the way, do what I should have done that afternoon.  Were it not that they were set up for barrel tasting, we would probably have spent the entire afternoon there.  Yeah, that’s the ticket!  I’ll blame my error on the barrels…
Now the facility is closer to ones found in our area of the California wine scene, with a nice tasting room, side room with tables, and outside seating area with a wonderful view.  See pictures below.  As seems to be the case at every winery, the staff were great.

​They brought the barrels into the tasting room, and set up a pasta tasting, probably to remind everyone of their Italian focus.  They had three barrels set up, for three of my favorite wines – Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, and Montepulciano.  As this was a barrel tasting event, we tasted the wine still in the barrel and the earlier vintages available for sale.  All three are great!  So maybe that’s why I missed it….

​The list of wines for purchase is shown below.  Most of the names are familiar to me, and varietals made from these grapes are produced in Southern California wineries.  Two new ones for me are Biancolella, a white grape grown extensively in the region around Naples, and Schioppettino, a red grape variety from the far northeastern corner of Italy.  I did not see them at the time.  There they both are, one at the top of the Italian list, and one at the bottom.  The white, well, it is a white wine after all – I might not have done anything even if I had seen it on the list.  But the red, Schioppettino!  I should not have missed it!  I should have tasted the wine made from this rare grape.

​As it turns out, this grape was almost extinct, nearly wiped out about fifty years ago, saved by one family in Italy.  According to Mark Orsi, General Manager of Orsi Family Vineyards, a friend of his father had been sourcing the fruit from Gallo to make wine.  About fifteen years ago Orsi was able to get some cuttings from the Gallo vines.  Gallo has since stopped growing the grape, so Orsi is probably the only winery in the country where you can get Schioppettino.  And yours truly did not even get a taste of it!  A very rare red wine that I can only taste at Orsi along with six of my favorite Italian reds (Aglianico, Montepulciano, Negro Amaro, Nebbiolo, Sagrantino and Sangiovese) – yeah, I need another trip up north…