The Little Vineyard

 

Matteo and Carolina Carozzo left their families in the Monferrato hills, to take work in a Delaware gunpowder factory. After several years, in 1928 they were able to pool their life-savings to purchase an abandoned field near the town of Avondale. The small field occupies a knoll between a concrete factory and two manure composting plants. The ground is littered with old horseshoes, musket balls, and veins of the black mushroom soils
that are infamous to the area. The first vines of the home vineyard were planted here in 1999.

 

Pop Pop Jim ran over 100 miles of wire to erect a trellis for the seven acres of vines. The initial planting coincided with the longest drought in the regions history, which ended suddenly when 10 inches of rain fell in one evening. The next morning, a deep sink hole had opened-up in the field. At the bottom of the crevice, a large crucifix was discovered. The crucifix was mounted atop a fence post overlooking the young vines,
and he became known as Vineyard Jesus." He now watches over the wine table in the tasting room.

 

This hill has been visited by hurricanes and hail, disease and cold snaps, deer, insects, and the endless legions of birds. New members of our family have been born here, and others have left us. Great Grandmother Anna, into her late-90s, always admonished us to rack the wines on the new moon. Our daughter is now the fifth generation of Matteo and Carolina to live and work in this field. It is a place pregnant with memories,
and full of ghosts.