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Pietra Santa was born out of Joseph Gimelli's vision to create an artisan wine estate incorporating much of the winemaking style and traditions of Italy, his family's ancestral home, with the best of California viticulture and modern winemaking techniques. The name Pietra Santa, which is Italian for "sacred stone", was chosen because of the rich limestone deposits in the vineyard's sub-soil. Joseph Gimelli was born and raised by and Italian-American family in San Jose, California and throughout his life he has remained deeply interested in his family's Italian heritage. His family was involved in agriculture throughout his youth and his fondest memories of his early life always included strong family ties, great food, often grown by the family, and good wine on the table. In 1989 Joseph discovered a 455-acre parcel tucked in a picturesque, little valley near the town of Hollister, California. The sunny valley was just 25 miles inland from the Monterey Bay with cool ocean breezes moderating temperatures in the area resulting in a very desirable long growing season. Joseph knew that the hillsides surrounding the valley were rich with limestone deposits and upon investigation he discovered that the subsoil in the valley contained substantial amounts of limestone and granite. Joseph purchased the property in 1989 and Pietra Santa was founded. Pietra Santa's first wines were produced in the 1992 vintage. In
1998 Joseph broke ground on Pietra Santa's stunning state of
the art winery. Architecturally, the 12,000 square foot
winery was designed in the style of the old Spanish missions
that are found in the area. The winery was designed to
facilitate production of wines of the highest quality, and the
winery was furnished with some of the finest winemaking and
olive oil producing equipment available. The first vintage
was crushed at the new winery in 1999. Also in 1999, Joseph
began digging caves for barrel aging Pietra Santa's wines.
When finished, the caves will encompass approximately 30,000
square feet and in addition to barrel aging will be used for
hospitality events. The
first Pietra Santa wines were released in 1994 and today the
wines are sold throughout the US and internationally. LOCATION TELEPHONE WEBSITE
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