Wine & Spirits - June 2019 - 44

but there was a lot of rot out there. And you did something
you never did before: went out and cut off the rot in the
vineyard so it wouldn't spread.
John: The grapes were getting too sweet. [Gallo] was still
coming around telling us when to pick, but it got away from
them. There was a little mold in the rachis [stems], so now
they have an excuse and they rejected the load.
The guy says to me, "John, we're gonna stop and come
back Monday. I'm gonna show you what I want to pick and
what to leave behind." Well, like Dan said, I had already
gone through there, working very hard to bring them nice
stuff, and they're telling me it's not good enough? I know
the game. They had a lot of grape that year-it was supply
and demand.
Dan: In years when there's less crop than normal, they'll
let stuff go.
John: I didn't like to be treated that way, so I called Joel.
He says, "John, I'll take it sight unseen." I said, "We've got
one load that was rejected. We already crushed it." And he
says, "I'll buy that too."
Not all farmers are ignorant. Some of them are smart.
You gotta be careful with these contracts; I called up the
buyer from Gallo and said, "I can't meet your criteria, so
don't even bother coming out tomorrow." He says, "What?"
I said, "I'm not jumping through your hoops to get rid of
this grape. There's nothing wrong with it. I understand the
game-you guys have too much. So: I can't meet your criteria." And he says, "You sold this somewhere else for more
money, didn't you?" I says, "Well, maybe."
After that I told Joel, "This is all yours next year if you
want it. I'll break the [evergreen] contract with Gallo." He
says, "Hey, don't cut your nose off to spite your face." I
said, "No, I'm done. And I want my name out there [on the
bottle]-it's time to make the move." Joel has always helped
me when I needed help. So whatever he wants, he gets.
Dan: There was a lot of personal stuff with my dad and
Julio [Gallo], just like with us and Joel. When my dad died,
OLD VINES AND
YOUNGER DOGS AT THE
TELDESCHI VINEYARD

Julio was the only one who offered help to Mom. During
harvest, he came up every Thursday with his helicopter and
hung around the winery. In the early eighties, Julio took Papa
out to Catelli's [in Geyserville] for lunch; as soon as they sat
down, Papa goes, "I know why you're inviting me here-
you want to buy my ranch. The answer is no, but if I ever do
decide to sell it, you'll be the first one who has a shot at it."
There are only five or ten family grapegrowers in Dry
Creek now. Most of the people around here were Lucchese-Unti came from Segrimigno, which is fifteen minutes out of Lucca; Forchini I think is from Lucca; Foppiano
is Genovese. Our great-grandfather came at the turn of the
century and worked for Sargenti Brothers, which turned
into Frei Brothers [and was later bought by Gallo]. When
our grandfather came over in '22, he worked on the ranch
too. When Dad and Uncle Mike got out of the Navy in '46,
they bought that vineyard across the road, and then this
one in 1952. When Dad and Mike split up in 1958, we kept
this ranch and Mike's family kept the first one.
Dad used to experiment. He planted grey riesling and
a couple of other weird whites-he even had some green
Hungarian. In '71 he pulled out prunes and planted gamay
Beaujolais, which was a hot variety then. We learned from
that. Dad said, Never plant what's trendy in the wrong
place, because you'll have low quality, and then when the
wine is out of favor you won't be able to sell it. That's why
we planted zinfandel, carignane and petite sirah, because
they've been doing well in Dry Creek since the 1880s. This
is zinfandel country. My dad didn't like cabernet-he
thought it was overrated.
John: The old Italians knew something about this soil. I
don't know where they got their information back then, but
Manzanita Red Loam is beautiful for zinfandel. You don't
have to water it-it's got its own moisture, so it's something
you can dry-farm. Let's go back in time: The old-timers
didn't have a drip system. So the mentality they had was:
"How are we gonna grow this crop and not water it?" They

Wine & Spirits - June 2019

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