Nervo (Advance Tasting Program wine)
Vineyard
First RIDGE Nervo: 1996
Location: Southern
end of Geyserville Township (Sonoma County) on the steep hills overlooking
Alexander Valley
Soils: Gravel clay loam
with weathered rock
Age of vines: Old
mixed zinfandel, planted late 1890s, ten acres. Zinfandel, planted 1990,
five acres.
Training: Head trained (no trellis), spur pruned.
Yields: 2-3 tons/acre
History
Frank and Marie Nervo left Italy's Veneto for the United States in the early 1890s. Like many such Italian pioneers to northern California, they settled at the Italian Swiss Colony in Asti. In 1896, they were able to purchase two hundred and fifty acres south of Geyserville; it included ten acres of hillside vineyard. They planted more vines and, in 1908, built a square, two-story stone winery, which they named Venezia, after their home region. This wine comes from the hillside of mixed zinfandel and petite sirah planted over one-hundred years ago; the rest from mature sixteen-year-old vines.
