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 Name: Howard Jelleme Age: 74 Vineyard location: San Gimignano, Italy Company Name: San Lorenzo [Howard has sold the vineyard] What brought you to Nantucket? My grandmother lived here and I came to the island since I was 2 years old. She came here all her life and used to visit her every summer. My parents had a house here and my farther worked in Boston. When he retired he moved here permanently When did you first become interested in making wine? It started in the early 70s. We had a farm in East Andover, NH and decided to plant grapes for a winery in New Hampshire. We sold to him for several years until he went bankrupt. We sold to several other wineries in MA and started a pick your own for people to pick for wine, jelly, juice etc. Who did you work for? After service in the Korean War I moved to Nantucket and started my own business in 1956, Howard Jelleme Construction. I did that for 30 years and when my kids came into the business it became Toscana Corp. When did you first become interested in moving to Italy? I went to Italy in 1977 to visit friends who owned a winery in San Gimignano. I worked at their winery every year during harvest from 1980 -1998 until I started my own winery. In 1985 I had a career change and bought a farm in San Gimignan and started growing grapes for vineyards in Italy. How long have you owned a winery? I have owned a winery for 5 years but I have been a farmer and growing grapes for over 30. How many acres is your farm? 25 hectars, about 60 acres. Only 10 hectars is for producing grapes. We also grow olives and rent land to a neighbor who grows different grain crops that are rotated each year. What kind of wine do you produce? We produce three white wines, Malvasia and Vernaccia de San Gimignano, is fermented in stainless barrels. Another white wine we produce, Vernaccia Riserva is reserve which means it is fermented in oak barrels for about 5 months and has to be a year old before it’s released. We produce two reds. We have 100% Sangiovese and we have our super Tucson which is 95% Sangiovese and 5% Merlot and aged in French oak barrels for a year. That wine has a proprietary name is Rolenzo. We also produce a dessert wine called Vin Santo. That’s made in the traditional Tuscan manor. Its made of 50% Trebbiano and 50% Malvasia. It’s fermented to dryness but has a honey flavor to it. Does the soil play a big part in producing wine? Grapes are a major industry. We have a sandy, clay soil, with tuffo which is a volcanic soil and that combination is conducive for growing grapes. What different types of grapes do you grow on your property? We are primary Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabiba Savelyo, Vernaccia, Malvasia and we have Trebbiano. What kind of yield do you expect from your harvest? We keep our yields very low. We are allowed by law 80-90 quintianles per hectar. = 100 kilos. We harvest between 25-35 to have a concentrated grape for a higher sugar content. What do you try to do to make wine that is different from anyone else? We go for quality fruit and the healthiest grapes. Quality, healthy, fresh=the best wine. We spend 80% of out time in the vineyard. We feel fortunate to have a great consulting enoligist Andréa Giovanni and he’s been with us since the beginning 1998. We only have 1 full time employee and his name is Cesare Panti and he does everything such and planting, tending to the vines and bottling, everything is done on the property. What kind of barrels do you use? We use 2 225-liter French oak barrels. We also use temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. We sometimes change the temperature daily during fermentation. Temperature is critical during fermentation. We traditionally start at a lower temperature and raise it gradually during the course of fermentation. We are always experimenting. How many bottles do you produce? We are always asked this question. We don’t care about how many bottles. It depends on out yield and the quality of the wine. Each year we have been increasing our production and we will only produce wine from grapes we have grown ourselves. What kind of equipment do you use to produce the wine? We use a pneumatic press for crushing grapes and a crusher stemmer to de stem. We have a Raggazini pump, which is a tube pump. It moves the grapes, and wine along very gently. We also have out own bottling machine and our own pressure sensitive labeling machine. We are up to date with the latest modern technology. Are there any new discoveries in wine world? People say there have been more advances in the past 30 years in wine technology then there has been in the last 200 years. A lot has to do with sanitation. Wineries are like hospitals. Clean and fresh = better product. Everything is clean around wine making. Wine is food; it’s a living thing How do the vines grow, are they trained? Vines grow on a wire called a cordon and spurs maximum per cordon. Each spurse is pruned to 2 buds each year. As the vine grows its trained in between catch wires to keep them growing up straight. We don’t use herisides. We cultivate under the rows to keep a living environment in the soil. What do you enjoy most about owning a winery? I enjoy working on the vineyard. We are primarily farmers, very little of our time is spent making the wine. Most time is spent growing grapes, tending to the soil and land and trying to produce the best grapes. Who distributes your wine, and where can we find it on Nantucket? San Lorenzo is sold in most of the wine stores on the island and is distributed by Commonwealth Wine and Spirits in Massachusetts. We are distributed by Regal Wines in New Jersey. We are sold mostly on east coast and looking for other distributors to sell throughout the United States. Thanks for speaking with Nantucket Food & Wine, any last words? My wife Robin Marie Jelleme has been a big help and I would like to thank her for all her work, love and support.  |
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