Knee Deep in Sangiovese: The Real Story of Harvest (Encore Episode)

Podcast EpisodesWine EducationWine Industrywine tipsWine TastingNapa ValleyWine Spotlights

Aug 24

Written By Nicole Lamberti

Episode Notes:

Follow us on Instagram for all the behind the scenes footage!

It's Officially Harvest — A Month Early

It's harvest season in Sonoma and Napa, and this year Mother Nature moved up the calendar. We're picking almost a month earlier than usual — the earliest harvest in this region in nearly 40 years — thanks to an unusual spring bloom. Ready or not, crush is on, and on this episode of Sip with Nikki, I’m re-sharing a popular episode from Harvest 2024 where we brought the microphones straight into the vineyard and the crush pad to capture it live.

First, Some Good News

Before we get into the field, a little celebration: our 2023 Sangiovese just earned a 92-point score from Wine Enthusiast, with our 2023 Grenache right behind it at 91 points. They're our first official scores as a winery, and it's a great feeling to have professional judges confirm what our members have been telling us all along. If you'd like to try the wines that earned those scores, head to sollevatowines.com and use code PODLISTENER for 10% off.

We also just brought in our second-ever Rosé of Grenache from the same Dry Creek Valley fruit. Our first vintage — only about 25 cases — sold out fast, so this year we doubled production to roughly 50 cases. It should be ready to drink in about six months. And this week marked our very first Sip with Nikki Tasting Room virtual tasting, a live Zoom session paired with custom kits from our partner Vinebox. If you want in on the next one, email nikki@sipwithnikki.com or send a DM on Instagram or Facebook.

Custom Crush 101

Sollevato doesn't own a vineyard. Instead, we work on what's called a custom crush: we buy grapes from a grower by the ton, then make the wine at someone else's winery, paying to use their space and equipment. This year marks five years of Sollevato Sangiovese, and five years of partnering with the Ramazzotti family — Joe, who planted the vineyard back in 1989, and his son Travis, who runs it today.

On pick day, we showed up at their Dry Creek Valley vineyard at sunrise. Premium wine grapes are picked entirely by hand — a small curved knife, cluster by cluster, into a bin, then dumped into a tractor bin once it's full. It's slow, physical work, and watching an experienced crew move through the rows is honestly mesmerizing. By the end of the morning, Joe and Travis's team had hand-picked a full ton — 2,000 pounds — of Sangiovese for us.

A Family, Five Years in the Making

Joe has been growing grapes since 1982 and planted this particular block of Sangiovese in 1989 — 35 years ago. Before that, he worked in vineyards his whole life, tried logging for a couple of years, and ran a food distribution business before coming back to farming. It's a story we love, because so many people in wine came to it sideways rather than in a straight line.

Sollevato's very first vintage, back in 2019, was a half-ton hand-picked by our small crew of friends and family — it took us three hours to do what Joe and Travis's team now does in a fraction of the time. We're endlessly grateful for their work, their land, and the relationship we've built over five harvests together.

Sorting, Second Growth, and a Listener Question

From the vineyard, we hauled our trailer 45 minutes to the winery in St. Helena, where the real hands-on work began: sorting. Every cluster passes down a table where we pull out anything that isn't ready — translucent, underripe berries that would add unwanted acidity; shriveled or dimpled fruit; the occasional stray green "shot berry" that never fully developed. Some boutique wineries use laser-guided optical sorters for this step, but for a ton at a time, hands do the job just fine.

A listener, Carrie, asked a great question: do growers leave grapes behind on the vine? The answer is yes. What's left is called "second growth" or "second crop" — smaller, less-developed clusters higher up the vine that never reach the same sugar levels as the primary fruit. It's not wasted, exactly; it's just not premium wine fruit. (True confession: Sollevato's very first at-home wine, ten years ago, was made from exactly this kind of leftover fruit.)

When the Crusher Broke (And the Feet Came Out)

Every harvest has its moment, and this year's came when the destemmer/crusher on the processing line stopped working mid-crush. With fermentation timing on the line, we needed to break the grapes open by hand to get things moving — so, after a quick change into spare workout pants, a foot wash in ozonated water, and a fresh "Sangiovese pedicure," Nikki got in the bin. Literally knee-deep in fruit, doing an old-school grape stomp to release the juice while the team figured out a fix.

It's messy, it's funny, and it's exactly the kind of thing that doesn't happen every year — but it's also a good reminder that winemaking, especially at our scale, is hands-on labor from start to finish. No shortcuts, no assembly line, just people (and occasionally feet) getting the job done.

What Happens Next

This 2024 Sangiovese has a long road ahead — about two years before it's bottled and in your glass. In the meantime, our 2021 Sangiovese is available now at sollevatowines.com (code PODLISTENER for 10% off). It's a medium-bodied, fruit-forward red that pairs beautifully with classic Italian dishes like pizza, carbonara, and Bolognese — or really, whatever you're in the mood for.

Want to see more of harvest as it happens? Follow @sollevatowines on Instagram, where we're posting daily throughout the season, including footage from the exact day you just read about. And if you'd rather hear it than read it, the full episode — sounds of the vineyard, the sorting table banter, and the entire crusher saga — is out now wherever you get your podcasts.

Sip well. 🍷

As always, you can find Michael's and my wines at sollevatowines.com — our 2023 Grenache and Sangiovese are available now and ship to most states. Use code PODLISTENER for 10% off. Wish us luck as we kick off the 2026 harvest, and until next time — sip well.

One More Thing: The Tasting Room Is Open

As of this week, The Tasting Room — my wine tasting membership community — has officially launched. This has been in my heart for a long time: a place where you can literally sip with me, with wines from around the world shipped to your door through a partnership with Vinebox.

I've been talking about this for a long time, and I'm finally doing it. I'm launching a virtual tasting room membership— and I want your input before it goes live this summer.

Here's the concept: members will join me on Zoom for regular live tastings of wines from around the world. I'm partnering with a company called Vinebox, which makes curated wine tasting kits featuring 100ml vials — almost like a large test tube of wine. That's a real, generous tasting pour, and it means we don't have to open five full bottles at once. I'll customize boxes that I'll send to members ahead of each tasting, so we're all sipping the same wine at the same time, together, live.

What excites me most about this isn't just the wine — it's the community. After 100+ episodes of podcasting, I love what I do, but it's a one-way conversation. The tasting room means I get to see you, hear your questions, answer them in real time, and watch you discover a wine you've never tried before. That's the whole point.

Membership will include the curated tasting kits, access to our live virtual sessions, and other perks and resources I'm building in to help you develop your palate, get out of your comfort zone, and explore wine regions you might never have tried on your own.

An Exciting Offer for The Tasting Room Founding Members

Here's the news I'm thrilled to share: Gökhan is gifting one free year of SOMMO Premium (a $30 value) to every founding member of Sip with Nikki: The Tasting Room.

That means when you join the membership, you get the tasting kits, the live virtual tastings with me, the private community — and a full year of SOMMO Premium already unlocked so you can track every wine we taste together, build your palate profile, and explore on your own in between our sessions.

The timing of Gökhan finding me — right as I was about to launch — felt like the universe sending me exactly what I needed. I'm so grateful, and I can't wait for you to experience it.