Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
STEPHY TERRIZZI
Vineyard Manager at Giornata
IN 2005, STEPHY Terrizzi almost moved to Italy. She and her winemaker husband, Brian, had secured jobs in Piedmont and were in the process of filling out dual-citizenship paperwork when they found out she was pregnant—with twins. So the couple stayed in California for the birth of their daughters and decided to launch their own winery in Paso Robles instead. As Terrizzi puts it, “We really started Giornata as a way to bring Italy to us.” Though French cultivars are the norm in California, Terrizzi was drawn to Italian wines during her time working in restaurants. She now uses favourites like Nebbiolo and Sangiovese to create lower-alcohol, higheracidity table wines. Her extensive education— she studied chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, viticulture at Santa Rosa Junior College, and enology, chemistry, and plant science at Fresno State—has equipped her with the know-how to grow grapes that are uncommon in the region. The couple’s first vintage was a small backyard endeavour that Terrizzi juggled with a part-time vineyard-management role for another winery, all the while caring for two newborns. In the 15 years since, however, Giornata has grown into a thriving business, with an estate vineyard; a tasting room and production facility in Tin City, Paso’s bustling industrial park; and a sister pasta brand, Etto, that makes for an ideal wine companion. While Terrizzi is certainly a forwardthinking entrepreneur, her processes are decidedly old-school— from dry farming, a style that eschews modern irrigation, to her skin-contact orange wines aged in clay amphorae from Abruzzo. “We want to pay homage to prewar Eastern European and Italian wine,” she explains. “They always had the skins on because that was the only way the wines could last a full year without oxidising. It’s these old, natural methods that create something with flavour and body.”
‘It’s these old, natural methods that create something with flavour and body.’