It’s clear Aidan, 2, just woke up as he rubs the sleep from his eyes. He sees strangers in the kitchen, talking to his parents and he’s shy, hugging the wall, hesitating before he comes in, until his mom, Eileen, gives him the OK.

Then, Aidan notices his dad and runs to him. His father scoops him up in his arms, gives him a hug. The curly-haired blond boy smiles and Michael and Aidan Chiarello share a smile together, a special love that only a father and son can share.

Michael Chiarello is home early on this Friday afternoon — glad for the appointment that got him out of the office, glad for a chance to walk through his beloved vineyards and glad to open a bottle or two of his wine and share it.

When Chiarello was growing up, he used to play in the vineyards, planted with zinfandel and petite sirah vines. Even then, the vines were old and the juice from the grapes was sold to various Napa Valley wineries. Chiarello said when the vines were planted, they were spaced seven feet apart, and for the first 10 to 15 years after they were planted horses pulled the plows to till the soil.

Seven-acre vineyard

Fast forward 30 years. Chiarello saw the old seven-acre vineyard, now covered with trees and brush and had an opportunity to buy it. He built a beautiful home and leased the adjacent 13 acres. Then he began clearing the land, with a Cat bulldozer, being careful of the old vines. It took a while to clear the land, grade the parts that were not planted and reclaim the old vineyard. That was about a dozen years ago. Since that time, he has planted Rafanelli-clone zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon vines.

Chiarello, who has always loved wine, walks through his carefully tended vineyards between Fulton Lane and Pratt Avenue in St. Helena. They are adjacent to the railroad tracks. He manages Chiarello Family Vineyards with a ranch foreman and advice from his longtime friends, including Jim Barbour, who has a local vineyard management company, and Larry Turley, who has a wide range of knowledge and skill.

When the brush was finally cleared, Chiarello said Turley offered to help him prune the old zinfandel and petite sirah vines. Much to Chiarello’s dismay, Turley brought his chainsaw and helped prune the dead wood from the old vines.

Later, Chiarello turned to Turley for his expertise when he planted new vines that he wanted to be head trained. “Who has that knowledge anymore?” he asks. “That’s a lost skill.”

As Chiarello walks the edge of his vineyard, he said he sometimes pesters his friend and vineyard expert Jim Barbour with so many questions that finally Barbour answers, “Because we do it that way.”

Learning to farm

Chiarello is learning to become a farmer and said every year he tries something new. Years ago, to take care of flooding, he installed huge French drains adjacent to the vineyards that carry the water to a creek. This year, he has refined his efforts and dug smaller drainage ditches around his vineyards, leading the water away from the vines. Additionally, in the lowest block of vines, he placed an electric pool pump — with an orange cord running from an electrical source far away. A garden hose carries the water to a ditch and drains into a creek.

This year, that decidedly low-tech fix has worked and he’s able to get his tractor into the vineyards earlier than in years past. In winter, he grows fava beans, vetch, clover and wild mustard, which gets tilled into the soil each spring to provide vital nutrients. After the grapes are harvested, the grape skins and stems are composted and folded back into the soil.

Along the creekbed, he grows other plants to attract the bugs that like vines, which are all organic. When asked why he farmed organically, he replied that his daughter, Giana, explained it best when she was 11 years old. “There are more rabbits here now than when I was a little girl. There are ducks and geese here. The creek has watercress plants and the frogs have come back,” Chiarello said. “She was describing the coming back to life of the ecosystem.”

A statement on Chiarello’s Web site talks about the family’s commitment to sustainability. “We encourage a balanced ecosystem and natural habitat that plays home to so many wonderful creatures. Brush piles and unsprayed ditches provide safe places for the quail and the ducks to lay eggs. Longer spring grasses are left knee-high for the geese.

“Finally, living sustainably means taking responsibility for our ranch foreman, Lorenzo and his family in Mexico. We provide him with year-round work and a steady income, allowing him to plan for reuniting with his family. Our farming activities are a bit slower at times, but we feel much better about it in the end. All told, farming sustainably affects both what you do and how you do it.”

96-year-old zin vines

The zinfandel vines are now 96 years old, as old as St. Helena’s Hayne vineyard, and Chiarello said farming them is a “labor of love as it makes no financial sense whatsoever.” Chiarello claims the petite sirah vines, planted before Prohibition began, are the oldest in St. Helena. He says he loves the old vines.

Chiarello harvested the grapes and first made wine in 1997, but quickly adds that his family drank most of the wine produced. Then he began planting more vines, pruning the old vines aggressively and becoming a farmer.

“Yesterday, I was out at 4 in the morning,” he said. “The joke around here is that I am the reason John Deere puts lights on its tractors.” Chiarello was turning over the soil and by the time the sun came up, a few hours later, he had tilled many rows, turning the moisture back into the soil.

An irrigation system is used to help establish the newer vines, but the older vines are dry-farmed and get water perhaps four or five times a year, especially in hot years.

Chiarello Family Vineyards produces six wines; all named after the Chiarello family members. One cabernet sauvignon wine is named for his wife, Eileen and the second cab, called “Bambino,” is named after 2-year-old Aidan.

“Roux” is the name of the old-vine petite sirah. It stands for Margaux, who at 23, is the oldest of the daughters.

Felicia, who is 20, is the namesake of the old-vine zinfandel, while the field-blend zinfandel — the 2005 vintage was released Monday — is named after Giana, 16, Chiarello’s youngest daughter. It is made from both old and new zinfandel vines.

The newest wine for the Chiarello Family Vineyard is Chiara Rose, which was first released last June.

CFV produces nearly 2,000 cases each year of all their varieties and, as one would expect, the old-vine zinfandel wine is the rarest, with only 100 cases made last year.

One last story

The vineyard tour over, Chiarello and his guests end up in the large kitchen in his house. Chiarello, the founder of  NapaStyle, which has four stores throughout California, will soon open two more, including one at VMarketplace in Yountville, He doesn’t talk business, nor about his Emmy-winning Food Network television shows. Instead, he opens a Giana Zinfandel and decants it in a wide-topped Amalfi wineglass decanter, which allows the wine to breath and release its flavors and aroma.

Chiarello grabbed a salami that he had brought with him and a sharp knife. He cut slices and added them to the various cheeses that were on cutting boards. He pours the wine, invites his guests to sniff it and taste it, and one could tell that he was a natural at this kind of thing.

The label, a big colorful “C” was made from finger-painting from his four children. “I didn’t want the wines to be collector-only wines, I wanted people to drink them,” he said. To that effort, you don’t see the name “Chiarello” until you’ve studied the bottle.  

With his engaging personality, fine wines and stories of reclaiming his much-loved vineyards, the late afternoon appointment turned to early evening and it was time to go, but not before one more story.

The Chiarello family shares its St. Helena home with a large golden retriever named Dash, who unlike Aidan, greets strangers warmly and puts his paws on the counter next to the strangers who are sitting on barstools.

While Chiarello was sipping the zinfandel, he comments, “This zinfandel is like a golden retriever, it goes with everything.”

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