A long and rich history greet anyone who learns about Madonna Estate Winery. Since 1922 the Bartolucci family has been producing wine in the Carneros region of California, which falls approximately 45 miles north of the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge. Yes, Carneros and not Paso Robles, many people are confused by the now famous Pink/White Madonna Hotel. The two businesses are not related!
Although the family tradition of winemaking starts in Italy and extends to previously held property in Carneros, the most important history of the family and the winery have come since 1977 when the current vineyard and winery site was purchased. An interesting point on the Carneros American Viniculture Area, it is perhaps the only AVA in the United States that was created in the French model of terrior and not the American model of ownership or political connection.
Andrea "Buck" is the current patriarch of the family and oversees current winery production from the vineyard all the way through winemaking. As the third oldest winemaking family in Northern California they have a peculiar appreciation for the need to use sustainable farming practices. Andrea believes that organic farming is much more then not using chemicals, the goal of Madonna Winery is to leave their soil better each year then it was the year before. As you might imagine this is an especially difficult task given that crop rotation is clearly impossible with grapes, so they must allow natural ground cover to spread between the vines when ever possible.
In addition to running an organic vineyard, Andrea uses dry farming techniques. Dry farming, for those who are not familiar, means that the vineyard is never watered. This is only possible where there is some sort of water table that the plant roots can access, this table is often hundreds of feet below the surface. The end result of these difficult growing conditions is that the vines produce less fruit, but the fruit that is produced tends to have more intense flavors. Especially when combined with the rather unique soil types found in the vineyard, Haire and Diablo. These soil types traditionally also reduce fruit size, so you can imagine that the vines are constantly stressed and producing incredibly small amounts of wine per vine.
If you're interested in trying wine from this historic winemaking family and wine region, try their Chardonnay or Pinot Noir which were the original reason for starting this vineyard.
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