Wine ·Sep 11, 2025

Giornata's 20th Harvest

If you are a frequent reader of this newsletter you know that I'd rather talk about someone else than myself. Part of it is - I get pretty inspired by all the wonderful things happening all around us. The other, I find it a little crass to talk about myself. That being said, I feel that it's important to mention that our little winery Giornata, whom I'm sure many of you know by now is celebrating our 20th harvest in Paso Robles. Sure this makes me feel old, but Stephy and I considered it would take us 20 years to truly be taken seriously as a winery. Our goal was pretty simple, but also an endeavor that had failed, or had very limited success over the years - to create quality wines from Italian grapes on US soil.

By nearly every measure we have accomplished what we set out to do given our press and scores from major wine critics which has been satisfying. We also now sell our wine in many of the top markets around the country and overseas. Of course, we've accomplished all this through the efforts of my wife Stephy, who is currently picking grapes while I write this right now. I will be out to help her a bit, but she really barely needs any help from me. During our 20 years she's woken up during harvest in the dark (often as early as 2AM) to go to work. I always say that Etto is my baby, and Giornata is hers. She has been working in and passionate about viticulture for twenty five or so years (and she's only 27 as she likes to joke).

As many of you probably know, the wine industry is going through a difficult time right now (too much to go in to here) and small wineries like ours need your support more than ever. I'm not telling you to buy our wine (but you certainly can) but there are scores of small family wineries in our community that could use your support. The largest couple wineries in Paso make more wine than the couple hundred smallest producers. Also, most of the small producers live here, often on their land and care deeply about things like resource management and respect for the land and create a ton of jobs. You can talk to these owners about what they are doing and why, then decide who you want to support and why. These folks are our friends and neighbors and contribute a in many ways to our local community.

Here are the new wines this Fall please visit our Tin City winery to taste or pick up a bottle or two at Etto.:

2024 Fiano - This is decidedly our most serious white wine. For this vintage we aged the wine in amphora (minus skin contact). This is one of those white wines that will improve in your cellar over the next few years, if you can resist.

2024 il Campo Rosso - This is our family’s house wine. Hardly ever a week goes by when we don’t have this with pizza, pasta or both.

2024 Barbera - Barbera seems to be a local favorite as it’s lighter and fresher than most of the wines from around Paso. The 2024 might be our finest version to date.

2023 Sangiovese - Not to brag, but after our 2021 vintage received the highest score of a Sangiovese in California (by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate) this wine tends to sell out quickly. Luckily, we have a decent amount from the 2023 vintage and it’s a very pretty wine.

2023 Gemellaia - With the 2023 Gemellaia, we did something a little bit different and produced this vintage from 100% Merlot. It was the best blend hands down and we’ve always had a soft spot for Merlot. We hope you’ll find this to be as exceptional as we do.

All of these offerings are distinctive on their own, yet share a similar thread of balance, finesse and femininity with beautiful texture. Please visit the winery next time you are in Tin City to taste or look for all our wines in the market.