Some people brew their own beer. Steve Nannini is making wine from grapes he's growing in his own yard.
When Nannini's grandfather Sam arrived in Tucson decades ago, he was struck by how the landscape reminded him of Tuscany. Northern Italy. Home.
Sam Nannini would go on to buy many acres of northwest-side land that he would later sell to his son Bill, who developed the Tucson National golf course on them.
Although Bill's son Steve Nannini, also a developer, didn't grow up in Italy, his Italian roots remain deep, as does his love of the Tucson area.
So it wasn't much of a stretch for him to decide to start a vineyard at his home near North La Cholla Boulevard and West Magee Road, he said.
Originally, he wanted to purchase a vineyard in Tuscany — which he has visited throughout his life — but when he found he wasn't able to do so, he contacted the University of Arizona agriculture department to see what it would take to begin growing grapes literally in his backyard.
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What he found was that the property was good, but grapes need lots of water.
No worries — he has his own well, 600 feet deep.
Nannini planted his first grapes in 2007 with little hope of much harvest.
It's important in the first year for the grapes to establish a root system, he said.
The vines did yield some grapes, so he sent them to Sonoita to be processed into wine, just to see what would happen.
"I made a little wine, and I tested it, and I said, 'You know what? This is going to be pretty good,' " Nannini said.
The following year, he harvested more than 2,000 pounds of grapes.
This year, the yield was a little more. He's shooting for three to four tons per acre, and he has about an acre planted, he said.
That would be enough to yield around 10,000 bottles of wine or less, he said.
"I'm not producing this wine for stores or public consumption. I'm doing it for my own enjoyment," he said. "I do it all because I'm interested in all of it. You've got to take care of the grapes like they're your kids or something. You wonder how they're doing today."
Yet he's got plans in the works that just might offer the wine for public consumption after all.
He has teamed up with famed restaurateur Joseph Keller to design and open an Italian restaurant in honor of his late grandfather Sam — it would be called Silvio's, after the Italian name Sam Nannini dropped when he came to the United States.
Slated to open on the southwest corner of Magee and La Cholla late next year or early the following year, the restaurant would be one feature of an entire shopping village Nannini has envisioned to honor his late grandfather.
And it would possibly serve Nannini's wine.
Keller acknowledges the duo have what he even calls a "lofty" vision for the space.
"This whole project is such a special project," Keller said. "It's more than a restaurant."
He sees it as a showplace for celebrity chefs to come and cook to raise money for charity, he said.
"It's more than putting a sparerib on a plate. It's creating something Tucson can use and have a good time using it," he said.
Though he loves wine, Keller is leaving the passion for grapes to Nannini, he said.
"For me coming onto the scene, I would love to see him develop a wonderful wine that we could call our house wine."
The partnership with Nannini is thriving in part because of how Nannini feels about dedicating it to his grandfather, and mostly because both men are incredibly fastidious, Keller said.
"Steve's a perfectionist. And I'm a perfectionist," he said. "And I know that it will be done correctly."
Nannini is looking forward to finding a home for all his wine.
He expects to be producing in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 12,000 bottles a year once his vineyard is really going.
"That's plenty," Nannini said. "Do you have 10,000 friends you could give away a bottle of wine to?"
