Named after her great grandfather who left Italy to settle in Hollister, Alison Thompson founded L.A. LePiane in 2013. But her predisposition for the craft began much earlier, as she studied biology and Italian at UC Santa Barbara before studying abroad in Siena, Italy for a semester. Her obsession with Italian food and wine was no passing fad, and while pursuing her master's in viticulture at UC Davis, she jumped back across the pond for a chance to make wine in Barolo. And thus, her love affair with Nebbiolo was born.
Alison's wines are singular in California's Central Coast, tying the region's similarities in climate and topography back to her ancestral homeland of Italy. There are dozens of incredibly unique, nearly undiscovered vineyards planted along the coast by missionaries and early Italian-American settlers, many of which still feature surviving vines of Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, and the like. Alison seeks out these kinds of sites and brings them to fruition with minimal intervention in the cellar and the kind of mouth watering deliciousness that screams for comfort food.
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