about

ABOUT US

The Bordogna Family has a long and rich tradition of creating wines from grapes and traces their heritage back to the Romans! Over the centuries our wine making practices have been passed down through the generations, refined, updated, and now made available to the public. Although modern wine making techniques utilize pumps and filters to present a modern wine, the Bordogna wines follow family traditions by using gravity and old time siphoning to delicately move the wine from fermentation vessels to finished bottle. We believe these old time wine making techniques allow for today’s consumers to experience the rich original taste of wine the way the Romans and Greeks had so many centuries ago.

The Wine

Since our grape musts and juices are moved around with gravity, the wine is exposed to the air throughout the whole processes, which makes it more approachable. You will not have to buy our wine and keep it for years to have it reach its optimum age. We age our whites for up to 12 months and are reds between 18- 24 months. When you buy our bottles of wine, you know it is ready to be consumed.

We only clarify our wine using the ancient practice of racking. This is siphoning off the clear wine in a vessel and leaving the sediment behind. We are not using microns filters; we believe this allows you to have a more flavorful experience when drinking our wines!

The Inspiration

Growing up in a family of Italians gives one an appreciation of the most important things in life. Faith, Family and Great Food. Being exposed to a Grandmother's love, cooking, caring and protection is a gift from God; especially when you are in the same household. Later being able to give back that love to her while she was aging was an even bigger gift. The time spent learning and listening to our traditions as a child was deeply embedded in the fibers of my being. I was inspired by how the family immigration to the United States occurred simply due to the dream of my grandfather. The proud heritage of not only being Italian but having your Grandfather gaining a citizenship to the United States by fighting in WWI and bringing the family here after 7 years is very much appreciated. To that extent, I had to visit the town my Grandparents arrived from to fully understand what was given to me just because I was of their lineage.

Visiting Guardi Lombardi, in North of Avellino, was like walking back in time. Arranging to meet my second cousins put me back in the kitchen with my grandmother, tasting the same food and feeling the same love. It was meant to be. Viewing the property that the Bordogna's held for years was breathtaking and awakening. It's view is similar to the one I chose for our winery. Great and vast.

The Dream my Grandfather had when he left that beautiful site was to have a better life for this family since the mountainous economy of that area had very little to offer. In fact the burial site of my Grandfather has a great view, that he chose for his parents and his family because it reminded him of the area in Italy.

Ever since visiting Italy for the first time and finding the ancient home site of his ancestors, I realized how my life has come full circle to that of my Grandfather. I also realized that he understood that contentment in life is achieved not only with what you do everyday but where you do it and whom you share it with.

We hope to bring that same Italian feeling to Tennessee. Sharing our great Pizza, over looking the fantastic view of the Tennessee River and of course, enjoying a bottle of our Bordogna family crafted wine. To all who want that feeling of contentment and the escape from the everyday struggles of life, come and visit us at Lookout Winery!