About Us

The History Behind Poca Terra Winery

The story of Poca Terra (Italian for “small land”) begins around 1910 when John’s maternal great-grandfather, an Italian immigrant named Giovanni Bianchi, settled in Chicago.  One of his first purchases was a wooden wine press, along with a manual grape crusher and wooden barrel.  His much-used equipment was eventually passed down to his son, Luigi.  John remembers his grandfather purchasing California grapes from the farmers’ markets, filling every available space of his car with crates, and using that same press to make homemade wine in the basement of his Chicago home.  John holds fond memories of his grandfather’s wine being served at holiday feasts and other gatherings of his large, extended family.

Four generations later, Giovanni’s wine press found its home at John and Karen’s farm in Marshall County, Kentucky.  For many years those old tools served merely as conversation pieces, but in the back of John’s mind grew a desire to continue the family tradition.  After much research on grape varietals that grow well in the climate and soil of western Kentucky, we planted a small vineyard of Chambourcin vines, a French-American hybrid that produces superb dry and semi-sweet wines that pair well with a wide variety of foods. So far, every step in making our award-winning, estate-bottled Poca Terra wines is done by hand, from the grape harvest, to pressing the grapes in that handed-down wooden press, to bottling and labeling.  Our dry reserve is aged in Kentucky white oak barrels.