We got out of her car. “Yep. There’s always been a winery on property. That old barn was where it all began.” She pointed off in the distance, “The 1931 Wine Barn, reconstructed from the original. There was a fire earlier this year.” A catch in her voice told me all I needed to know. “We lost it, but everyone was safe.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” I said as we walked under a large wooden sign with “GVV” and a picture of grapes in the middle. The posts were planted in two wine barrels, and from there, the estate sprawled out in front of us with a large courtyard in the middle.
“So we’ve got the Wine Barn, which I run. All of the wines in there are named after women in my family,” she said. “So I’m particularly fond of them.”
“I love it. A woman-powered winery.”
“Exactly. Then over there, the mainstay of our estate, the 1942 Wine Cellar.”
Despite its name, it was not a cellar at all. Alanna and I passed that building the other day. Massive, with a wraparound deck around the back, it was about four times the size of Sunset’s tasting room. Which made sense. Grado was a much bigger enterprise.
“You have on-site cottages too, right?”
“We do. All of my siblings and I live there.”
“Oh wow. I can’t imagine working and living that close to my brother. We’d kill each other.”
Dominica laughed. “We get on each other’s nerves sometimes. I mean, you’ve met Marco. It’s easy to do.”
A vision of Marco popped into my head. I shook it out.
“When did you all take over?”
“Just last year. My parents had been talking about retiring for a while, but my dad was having a hard time letting go. They finally took the plunge and have gotten used to being world travelers by now. But it wasn’t easy at first.”
We walked toward the Wine Barn.
“You’re all in the business, yes?”
“We are. Cosimo, the oldest, is Grado’s proprietor. He has a viticulture and enology degree from Cornell.”
I whistled. “He knows his stuff.”
“For sure. And then there’s Marco, who we don’t talk about...”
Laughing, I said, “I can see why. Seems like a bit of a handful.”
“You can say that.” She shrugged. “He’s Grado’s VP and now in charge of the brewery, being it was his idea and all.”
“It was?”
Dominica nodded. “He likes wine, hard not to in this family, but Marco’s always been more of a beer guy. He started brewing it in college and has been asking for a brewery for years. But our parents never loved the idea.”
“So when they retired...”
“Exactly. But even my dad, who was most opposed to it, has sort of come around. It’s a fantastic addition to the estate and sets us apart even more.”
She stopped talking then. “It’s ok,” I said. “Honestly. Like you said, we can work together to make our strengths bring more people to the valley. Not really competitors. I think the brewery is great.”
Dominica’s smile was my reward for doing nothing more than being open to a partnership.
“Anyway, so Marco’s Marco. As long as you don’t date him, you’ll be fine.”
A pit in my stomach reminded me that, when his hands were on my hips, I wanted to do a hell of a lot more than date him.
“Ladies man?” I guessed.
As we got to the top step, Dominica actually laughed out loud. “That’s the understatement of the year. Marco has yet to bring home the same woman for two weeks straight, and at thirty, that’s quite a streak.”