Gianlorenzo and I met around 2010 at his winery. I was there with a group of customers to see the vineyards for the first time after just starting to work with the winery through a relationship I'd developed with a restaurateur in Telluride, CO. I'll never forget this lunch because we got into an argument with the restaurant owner over a panna cotta. The literal definition of this classic Italian dessert is "cooked cream" so when asking how the owner was able to make such a light, delicious dessert I was a little surprised to hear him say he didn't have to cook the cream. Instead he attributed the perfect "Panna" to the eggs from his hens. I think I asked him questions for 20 minutes about how the diet of his hens led to not having to cook panna cotta ... and there may have been a lot of grappa involved after lunch and coffee. I've loved seeing and hearing from Gianlorenzo and his family ever since. About two years later I was at the winery and they were talking about their new gravity fed process to limit the use of oxygen when pumping from the tanks to the press and back. I was excited to see the improvements made at the winery, but was a bit surprised when they showed me they'd backfilled dirt up against the winery so they could drive their tractor on the roof and drop the grapes in a hole that led directly down into the tanks. I loved the improvement and inexpensive innovation, and it ended up making a world of difference in the freshness we now see year over year in these great white wines.