Winemaking: a blend of art, science and philosophy

For vintner Gino Razzi, winemaking is not a process – it’s a philosophy.

A delicate combination of perfect growing conditions and clever aging decisions, there’s a less tangible aspect involved in creating a bottle of wine, said Razzi, owner of Penns Woods Winery in Chadds Ford, Pa.

“It is a true expression of the person who makes it,” he said.

Razzi hopes some of his philosophy finds its way into each bottle.

He believes emotions drive people – the feelings elicited by the peaks and valleys of life – and a good glass of wine should evoke those same passions.

“They should find something in that glass that actually moves them,” he said.

But all pontificating aside – making 1,800 cases of wine each year is a lot of work, he said.
Razzi harvests grapes from his nine acres of vines from August through October, takes them to his Eddystone, Pa.-winery where they are pressed, fermented, aged and bottled in a process that could take anywhere from three months to five years.

And during that process, there is a litany of challenges and choices that shape the wine, he said.

It starts in the vineyard, where everything from proper pruning to soil quality can have a huge impact on the quality of the grapes, he said.

Some things are out of his control – like this summer’s plentiful rain and high humidity that wreaked havoc on the crop.

Once the grapes are squeezed, there’s a whole host of other choices to make, from deciding whether the wine can stand up to barrel-aging to figuring out when it’s ready to drink, he said.

Razzi, who immigrated from Abruzzo in southern Italy to Delaware County in 1962, said he is consistently surprised by the quality of wines made from Pennsylvania grapes.

But, becoming a skilled winemaker has a lot in common with making wine – it takes time. Though he has been making wine in Chadds Ford for four years, Razzi said he is still figuring out the nuances of the local grapes and his best wine is yet to come.

“Making wine and painting a masterpiece is exactly the same thing,” he said.