For decades, the El Dorado AVA’s mountain vineyard wines have received critical praise and gained a passionate following for their signature character and well-defined sense of place. It was to this region of dynamic viticulture and cutting-edge wine making that Marco Cappelli came to demonstrate the true roots of wine and why it matters more now than ever before.
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread…and Marco Cappelli
By Peter Mead
“Wine is a food, and when enjoyed in moderation at your dinner table, it enhances well-being, stimulates conversation and appetite, and may have beneficial effects on your heart and circulatory system.”
Marco Cappelli
For decades, the El Dorado AVA’s mountain vineyard wines have received critical praise and gained a passionate following for their signature character and well-defined sense of place. These wines extend our expectation of what the more than 70 varietals grown here can bring to the table and how brightly they whisper the nature of the year they were made.
It was to this region of dynamic viticulture and cutting-edge wine making that Marco Cappelli came to demonstrate the true roots of wine and why it matters more now than ever before.
“The longest way round is the shortest way home” – James Joyce
Marco’s deep commitment to the wine making arts did not come to him all at once. His parents were born in Italy but met and married in the U.S. after WWII. Neither of them drank. Marco was born in Fort Ord and because his dad was in the Army, they travelled often, including four years in Norway, before returning to California and settling down in Carmel.
When asked about his father, Marco’s strongest impression is how he hated waste and inefficiency. His dad would even reuse the bath and shower water for the plants around his house. In fact, he repurposed everything he could and never accumulated more than was needed. His dad passed on a strong sense of sustainability and adherence to the natural order of living. He was a minimalist, with a well-defined sense of what’s “enough”. This practical philosophy guides Marco today and has through his entire career.
Marco studied anthropology in his freshman year at UC Davis but got caught up in friends’ enthusiasm for fermenting and took a class in winemaking. The lights came on! This is something he’d like to make a career out of. So, following a lifelong trait of “act now!” he took a few months off college to work at the Louis Martini Winery in Napa Valley during harvest time. He only did “pumpovers” (a process of pumping fresh crushed grape juice from the bottom of the barrel over the layer of skins and stems on the top), but Marco was captivated by the magic of seeing the sheer amount of wine flowing through the winery, the beauty of the grape, and especially how the grape transferred the character of the terrior into the exquisite complexity of the finished wine.
His path was clear now but would take a plot twist later. Back at Davis, he switched majors and graduated with a BS in Fermentation Science. He knew what he wanted: to make great wine. What he needed was a lot more practical experience in a craft in which the art and techniques of making wine had been handed down through mentorship for thousands of years.
On the ground and into the heart of winemaking
Marco took off for Italy and for 15 months made wine in several wineries in Tuscany. He befriended the legendary Federico Staderini, a brilliant agronomist and inspired winemaker and a master class on all the villages, people, and history in Italy’s wine growing regions. Marco received an education few apprentice winemakers would ever get. In the following five months, Marco travelled through the villages and cities of France, joining in grape harvests and wine processing. He saw how local communities gathered publicly around conversation, friendship, food, and good locally crafted wine.
During his 20-month sojourn, Marco saw how tied to everyday life the local wines were. When food shopping, one gathered vegetables at the grocer’s, meat at the butcher’s, bread at the bakery, and wine at the wine shop. Wine was a food, and it went with everything, it elevated the culinary experience, and it wasn’t priced beyond everyday use.
Napa Valley and “Big Wine”
When Marco returned to California, he had the good fortune to be introduced to Andre Tchelistcheff by his friend Federico – two giants in the field of wine. Andre got him work at a Napa startup winery and for the next 17 years Marco and the owner worked side-by-side making many great wines. During this time Marco also gained experience selling wine, with some vintages priced at $100. Napa has long been internationally famous for its high-quality, big-ticket wines, innovative wine makers, diverse wineries, and a Mediterranean climate with rolling hills like Tuscany. Napa is also California’s first American Viticultural Area (AVA). Without a doubt, Napa was the place to be if you wanted to absorb the true craft of winemaking from the inside out.
But marketing expensive “special occasion” wines was not where Marco’s path was heading, so he moved to Fair Play in the Sierra Foothills and bought a 40-acre vineyard with the intention of selling grapes to vintners. The El Dorado AVA and nearby sub-AVAs produce spectacular fruit due to elevation, exposure and soil composition. The many valleys and slopes and drainages create numerous microclimates that pair well with specific grapes. The economics of the region make buying grapes here a bargain, which attracts a high caliber of vintners. While sometimes drowned out by the noise of the more famous AVAs, the El Dorado wines have stacked up so many top ratings year after year that they draw a steady stream of national and international connoisseurs.
Marco and his family worked their vineyard for twenty years, growing and selling grapes but he could feel something missing and it took a one-year trip to Italy five years ago with his family and mother for the final piece of his path to fall into place.
What is largely missing from the wine trade in the U.S. is the everyday local community and family gatherings in which wine plays a cohesive role as it has for centuries. Tourist flock to Europe to enjoy this cherished experience but rarely encounter it at home. Wine is a catalyst that brings food to life and hearts to the surface.
Marco bought a 130-year-old building right in the heart of historic downtown Main Street and updated the place in true minimalist style. Aesthetic, warm, inviting, and uncluttered with no unnecessary details. His father would have approved.
Marco now divides his time between consulting for top wineries in the area and maintaining his establishment where locals and visitors can meet over a rotating selection of wines that have been hand-crafted from grapes within a few miles of Cappelli Wines. Since 6,000 BC, wine has been an expression of cultural experience deeply rooted in community. Grapes are grown from the commonwealth of nature. Wine is about us sharing the experience of being alive and knowing that creation runs through all of us equally.
When I interviewed Marco for this article at his shop, he explained his business model and how he came the long way around to it. Then he paused and looked me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “This is where I have always wanted to be.“
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