Farming Is What We Do. The alarm goes off at 4:30 a.m. Every morning. Mark Pisoni needs his sleep. He hopes the diesel pump motor on the south side of his old farmhouse hums regularly throughout the night, while pumping well water to irrigate the vegetable fields of Pisoni Farms.
If Gary Pisoni had followed the common wisdom, he and sons Mark and Jeff would not be celebrating three decades of farming cool-climate grapes and the beautiful vintage of 2012 Pisoni Estate Pinot Noir, Pisoni Estate Chardonnay, and Lucia Susan’s Hill Syrah.
Long before sea salt met caramel or dark chocolate paired with Parmesan, Gary Pisoni and Gary Franscioni were a study in contrasts that clicked. Seventeen years ago, they successfully established the Garys’ Vineyard on the bench of the Santa Lucia Highlands.
ASSEMBLING LUCIA WINES has nothing to do with assembly-line practices. Henry Ford could produce a Model T in 93 minutes. His practices of division of labor, repetition and mechanization are cost effective and efficient. But Gary, Mark and Jeff Pisoni work together as a team dedicated to handcrafting their wines. The 2012 Lucia Soberanes Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah and the Santa Lucia Highlands cuvées took two years in the making.
