WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
About 150 years ago, my grandfather came to Fresno, California from Switzerland to work for Andrew Mattei, his uncle and the owner of MatteVista Winery. The winery sat on Central Ave., just west of Fowler Ave. The sales office/tasting room was in downtown Fresno, where the Gaurantee building is now.
Even though my grandfather worked long hours at the winery he still found time to farm and keep up with the family history of wine making at home. When my father was still a very young man, he learned from his father the traditional Italian wine making passed down generation after generation. Even as a young man myself, I can still remember helping my dad make his wine in the old barn that his father built.
A lot of things have changed in 150 years but a lot of things have remained the same. The wine making style here @ Milla Vineyards keeps up with the wine making tradition of my grandfather. We only use natural yeast that grows on the grapes to start the fermentation on it's own and we let the fermentation stop on it's own too. After 10 to 14 days it's time to pump the juice into the barrels, this is called free run juice, since we don't press. This makes our wine more fruit forward that is low in tanins. After aging in barrels for 8 to 14 months it's time to bottle and enjoy.
We hope you enjoy the very unique and old world style of wine making.
And as we say here, "Bringing the Grape to the Glass for Three Generations"
Thank you,
Joey and Debbie Milla
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