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Fanucchi Vineyards The Winegrowing Story
I Peter Fanucchi am The Hands On Winegrower
For Fanucchi Vineyards Wines.
Once the grapes are cut from the vine all the best possible flavors of the potential wine have been determined by how they grew in their environment (determined by NATURE & Farmer's decisions that year & in years past.) Since wines are keen reflection of the exact place they were grown, all my farming practices aim to protect, nourish, & enhance nature’s biologically diverse & balanced environment. (Make no mistake careful winemaking with attention to the details must also occur to preserve natures little fruit packages as wine!)
My passion for learning & working with the grapes HERE started in 1972, with my father (who passed away in 1984) where we learned from the families who planted Wood Road. Today I continue learning from others & from the latest research (I even spent 2 years as ‘President’ of the Local Technical group). The most important factor is adapting the site-specific experience to the demands of the latest environmental conditions!
I
prune each Old Zinfandel Vine. I mow & or till each row as many times as
needed…Maybe, most importantly, I walk and monitor the approximately
9,000 vine vineyard nearly a thousand times a year…
I farm the Fanucchi Wood Road Vineyard on the Wood
Road Bench in the Russian River Valley vine by vine & row by row!
Some say I actually have names for each vine—I do know
them very well but they don’t all have names.
The
only thing I may need to watch for when I “monitor grape flavors” or feed them
to my children is Nature! I am not “Certified Organic”, but
I do not use non-Organic pesticides (I don’t believe in “kill-em”). I
protect & “feed” the microorganisms & “good guys” with such things as compost &
green manure (Mulch
Some people ask why our old vine Zin is so “expensive.” I explain it’s a bargain! Though ~25% smaller than the more modern Trousseau Gris it takes 10 times more of my time to maintain. ...I am constructing this page over the next few months to highlight some of it is in the meticulous details of how I continue to restore & maintain the dry farmed Zinfandel planted in 1906 which my Father had planned to tear out in 1984 & Illustrate some of the "greener" farming practices that consume much of my time.
Here are some of the Growing details: both fields require more hands on attention, year-round-monitoring, & Labor (all usually mine!) to keep away from pesticides. For example, I have used a number of devices to control weeds & cover crop under the vines with no herbicide: In 2002 I operated our little 1979 Ford tractor with a heavy under the vine mower slowly through the Trousseau Gris. (This had to be done several times as it continues to grow - a herbicide spray would have been possibly one quick pass) I have also used our Flamer behind either tractor in both blocks but with some fragile projects in the Zin we often subcontract to have it hand shoveled or hand hoed!
The Seasons:
...Lets
start out at the beginning of a wine grower's year: A mature vine gets about 96%
of it's yearly growth pruned off in the dormant season. What remains is the most
obvious first impact on the new vintage; from controlling quantity of fruit
clusters to it's, quality based on where & how the remaining buds are aimed. A
properly pruned vine will be balanced & cut clean to minimize unnecessary
growth which can overly shade fruit & take precious nourishment
which
cannot soon be replaced in a dry farmed* vineyard. It sounds easy (&
finished) when I say that since 1984 the nearly 100 year old vineyard has been
completely retrained by me, but the fact is that with a widely diverse
conditions in the field vines are constantly readjusted & retrained....
because of this & the fact that over the century each vine became very different
by adapting to the exact conditions of the precise spot rooted in. ..So every
dormant season, I still hand prune each of the ~5,000 Old vines myself. The
Trousseau Gris which I don't usually prune all myself, is trained
uniformly on a wire & like 99% of all modern vineyards, so I can show a
contractor's crew one or two samples of how I want each vine to be pruned &
after about 300,000 cuts all 4,500 Trousseau Gris vines will be basically the
same!
As this year goes on I plan to add more about what I do that season in the vineyard.
Much of the challenge in the near Century old Vineyard lies in the fact we are dry farmed on a Shallow Sandy Loam with a limiting Hard Pan layer which leaves the soil at an average of 18 inches (~.5Meter) but the field actually varies from 6 inches (~.19Meter) to about 4 feet (~1 Meter). So to start these areas can be "Wetter" or "Drier" in all seasons & it is my job to grow a uniformly top quality crop on it each vintage!
*Dry Farmed means: not irrigated/we rely on rain water -In Russian River Valley most of the rain falls in the winter but in can be concentrated in a short period any where from November to May.
Year round wine grape farming centers on efficient photosynthesis supported by healthy topsoil.
Fanucchi Vineyards Back Ground Trousseau Gris Back Ground 2001 Trousseau Gris 2001 Trousseau Gris Wins 4 Star Gold! 2000 Trousseau Gris 2000 Trousseau Gris #1 Most Awarded Other White! 1998 Old Vine Zinfandel 1998 Old Vine Zinfandel Wins 12 GOLD+/GOLD & 98 Points! 1997 Old Vine Zinfandel 1997 Old Vine Zinfandel Quotes & Medals August 2002 Home
“Peter Fanucchi began his career in wine in 1972… Today his Old-Vine Zinfandel as well as his Trousseau Gris, an aromatic white, are highly sought after by those in the know.” Master Sommelier
Catherine Fallis In:
Great Wines You Can Buy Online
Of the Trousseau Gris:
“A unique grape originally grown in the Alsace and this is one of the only examples in the U.S.”
Of the Old Vine Zinfandel:
“Excellent varietal Character. Old-vine intensity.”
Published 11-2006
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