Our winery, which is family owned and operated, is located in Tuolumne County, California in the foothills of Central Sierra Nevada Mountains. We have a long growing season with warm days, cool nights and dry climate. We believe that these conditions, along with much tender loving care, generates rich, fruity flavors, and excellent color.

Many of the earliest plantings of wine grapes, and indeed, wineries were located in the foothills of California by those of Italian and Spanish and Portuguese heritage because the growing conditions were similar to that of their native southern European lands. Those early wineries were shut down and many of the vineyards were pulled out during the Prohibition era. Following Prohibition, the money to restart was not in the foothills but in the cities. The investments were made largely by wealthy San Francisco entrepreneurs and they were made close to home, the Napa and Sonoma valleys. While these areas have proven to produce excellent wine, there is now a resurgence of interest in the foothill vineyards by those looking for robust, full-bodied red wines.

Our vineyard is 14 years old. Our estate varietals are Sangiovese, Merlot, and Zinfandel. We also purchase grapes from other Tuolumne County vineyards giving us access to excellent Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

THIS IS TRULY A FAMILY OPERATION

Jim Costello is the winemaker, business manager, and overall ‘godfather’. He was inspired by his Grandfather who was born in Italy and often spoke, with a twinkle in his eye, of making wine in the ‘Old Country’. In this country, the truck would come from Sonoma, dump the grapes on the driveway of Grandpa’s San Rafael, California home, and the winemaking would begin. Jim was only 8 years old but never forgot that and would never be satisfied if he ignored the dream born of those early days of his childhood and encouraged by his own father, who also had the twinkle in his eye and the love of wine. It would be many years later that Jim made his first wine and gained forever the unmistakable twinkle in his eye. Jim is now in his twelfth year of winemaking. He believes that the quality and flavors of wine are achieved in the vineyard and the winemaker is merely God’s little helper in converting fruit to wine.

Pam Costello is the bookkeeper, helps Jim with retail sales programs and creates our gift packs. She loves working in the vineyard and winery. She is well known as a gourmet cook and is strict in her diligence to using wine, olive oil and lots of garlic in her recipes. Maybe that is really where the Costello twinkle comes from.

Dennis, the eldest son of Jim and Pam, is the Operations Manager for the vineyard and the production aspects of the winery. He is an accomplished millwright/mechanic and is also trained in viticulture through the UC Davis Ag Extension Program. Dennis did the research, selected the original varietals and root stock, and laid out the original vineyard. He did everything from drive the D7 to rip the hillside selected for the vineyard to installing every post, wire, and emitter of the trellis and irrigation system. He will tell you he is too busy to think about a twinkle in his own eye but at each harvest, crush, or barrel tasting, if you pay attention, you will see it.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention son #2 Jeff, and son #3 Matt who with their own families, and often their friends, make the pilgrimage to the winery when needed for help in harvest, crush and bottling.

GETTING STARTED

We made wine for many years just to share with friends and family in the celebration of life and heritage. As the story of our wine and the twinkle that comes with it grew in popularity, it became obvious that we must increase production. You could say, “By popular demand”, our winery was licensed in mid-2003 and that fall we experienced our first commercial crush.

The first release of our wines was November, 2004. We have very limited supply of wine and it going very fast.