|
|
.jpg)
|
.jpg)
|
Villa Rose reaps fruits of Curico Valley vines
BY TEHANI SCHNEIDER
DAILY RECORD MADISON
The bushels of ripe red and black grapes were shipped from Chile last year.
They had sat in four oak barrels for the past 10 months,
fermenting into four wines.
For Carmine Toto III, master winemaker and proprietor of the
Villa Rose Wine School, the aging process for these wines had a
special significance.
"My son was born on April 29," said the Madison native, smiling.
"We started the (fermenting) process a week after. To me, these
wines are special because they're as old as he is."
The 34-year old entrepreneur and new father also had another
reason to smile on Saturday.
The wines, which were ready for bottling, represented another
first for his fledgling winemaking business: This was his first
foray into Chilean wine.
Tucked away on a corner of a four-acre property belonging to his
father, Carmine Toto Jr., the wine school on Edgewood Road opened in
2000.
Toto III, who offers classes each spring and fall wine season,
calls it a family-oriented operation. The Toto family, which has
roots in southern Italy, has resided in Madison for nearly 70 years.
"All my family and friends are involved in making the wine," he
said. "But the idea here is people pay to learn how to make homemade
wine and take it home with them."
Both his father and sister, Ann Marie Toto-Chervenak, 36, as well
as several of Toto's students, were on hand on Saturday for the
bottling process of the new wines.
Toto said he had 200 gallons of four wines in separate barrels to
bottle. The grapes, plucked from the vineyards of Chile's Curico
Valley, were chosen for the spring season. California grapes are
better for the fall, he said.
Located on the western coast of Chile, Curico Valley is a fertile
region known for its wine, Toto said.
"It's gained a lot of popularity with wine connoisseurs over the
past few years," he said. "The quality of the grapes is fabulous."
His sister agreed. "They're more robust, with a richer flavor,"
Toto-Chervenak said.
The more common merlot and cabernet sauvignon would be bottled
after the Malbec, a lush, dark wine that is a South American
specialty, and the carmenere, a fruity, full-bodied wine, Toto said.
He described the process, pointing to the 50-gallon, 450 pound
American oak barrel full of the Malbec.
"Wine from the barrel is pumped into the stainless steel tank,
and then surges into the bottling machine where it's dispensed into
the bottles," Toto said.
Branchville resident Larry Braun and Peter Raneri of Madison held
bottles up to the dispenser as the indigo liquid flowed freely from
the four taps of the dispenser.
The bottles then were brought to a table in the center of the
warehouse where they were corked, cleaned, labeled and stacked into
slotted boxes for storage.
Allan Walters, 56, of Florham Park helped Raneri cork each of the
bottles while Frank Cena shrink-wrapped a label around every one.
"I learned how to do this while making wine with my father in his
basement," said the 71-year old Cena, a lifelong resident of
Madison.
"All we drank was what we made -- a Chianti."
Toto-Chervenak said she helps with the bottling and with any
other part of the wine-making process when her brother needs
assistance. She said she also creates the labels for the bottles.
"The year is representative of the grapes when they were picked,"
she said, holding up the bottle to display the 2005 Chilean wine
label for the Malbec.
Cindy Braun, Larry's wife, said she and her husband are in their
second year of taking classes at the wine school.
She said she transformed their barren roots cellar into a wine
cellar with an enviable collection.
"We bought racks and everything for it,"Braun said. "We also
joined different wine clubs, and took trips to Sonoma and Napa
Valley."
Her husband said they had an appreciation of wine that has
broadened.
"All my friends say in case of disaster, they want to come to my
wine cellar," Larry Braun cracked.
