About Graziano Family of Wines
The Graziano family has grown grapes in Mendocino since 1918, when immigrants Vincenzo and Angela Graziano planted their first vines near Calpella; through Prohibition Vincenzo kept the family afloat selling grapes to home winemakers back east, and in the 1940s he co-founded the Mendocino Vineyards Winery that later merged into Ukiah's historic Cresta Blanca. His grandson Greg Graziano, with wife Trudi, carries the tradition forward today, having opened the family's first tasting room in Hopland in 1999.
That intimate room in the middle of town pours as many as thirty wines across four distinct labels: Saint Gregory for Burgundian varieties, Monte Volpe for the grapes of central and southern Italy, Enotria for the Piedmont heritage of northwest Italy, and Graziano for Mendocino's own heritage varieties, many from head-pruned old-vine vineyards. Estate-grown extra virgin olive oil under the Monte Volpe label joins the tasting lineup.
It adds up to one of California's great Italian-variety deep dives, from Arneis and Barbera to old-vine Zinfandel and the collaborative Coro Mendocino blend, poured daily in a room small enough that the person behind the bar has time to tell the whole century-long story. The modest tasting fee is waived with any purchase.
