A little background

I have been working with wine since I was 17 selling wine retail and wholesale on both the East and West coasts. Last year I left my job in California to participate in a three month long agricultural internship program outside of Siena on a 1200 acre diverse organic farm. I had a plane ticket home at the end of the internship, but fell in love with agriculture (and a beautiful woman) and felt the importance and satisfaction of helping to create products rather than simply consuming and selling them. I stayed another 6 months in Italy learning to prune grape vines and olive trees, bake bread, harvest vegetables etc.
I returned to Italy after being home for the summer to rejoin my friends at Casa Raia in Montalcino. This small organic Brunello producer is truly a family affair. The property is owned by Ludmilla Temerty, the mother in law of Pierre Jean Monnoyer, winemaker, and vineyard manager. His wife Kalyna, is active in the vineyard and cellar as well as vegetable garden and conserving room, when not looking after their cute as a button son Eliah. With another boy on the way for Kalyna and PJ, the Casa Raia family is expanding. This is the first vintage that PJ and Kalyna are producing in their own cellar; after almost a year of construction the new equipment is in and the barrels are ready to be filled with this years vintage...


P.S. Special thanks to Shelly Yerman for giving me the name for this blog over a couple glasses of wine during a great brainstorming session, and to Jason Bombaci for starting his blog first and allowing me to copy him (even his template!).