Two Families. One Wine. No Complaints.

 One of the best parts of being in the wine business is meeting terrific people that share your passion for great wine. Although we have met many people since the inception of Armanino Family Cellars, one of the greatest stories is bottled in our Paesani Zinfandel. One day I received a call from a club member, John Armanino. After spending some time investigating if we were actually related (there are quite a few Armaninos in the San Francisco Bay Area) we sadly concluded we were not-at least directly. What we did discover is that we have a lot in common. We have wonderful families that we cherish, we are both licensed attorneys and we love to eat great Italian food and drink great wine. The relationship began with a dinner out with my brother, dad and our wives and developed into much more. What we also discovered is that John’s wife Michele has family in the grape growing business, growing Zinfandel grapes in the Yorkville Highland’s vineyard of Mendocino County. John called me one day and proposed a great idea-he’d give us a ton of grapes and we’d make the wine to share between our families. We had moderate expectations having never made a Zin. After having my brother-in-law, Kevin Akers design a label under a new name, Paesani, representing our two families, we bottled a wonderful zinfandel, too good not to share. This year we made the wine again to share with our wine club and friends. When you open a bottle of Paesani, I hope you experience the same sense of family as we did in making it.