10-05-2013

Good Job

In Pozzuolo del Friuli, discovering the story of Alessandro, a crazy (in a good sense) wine producer

Villa Job’s vineyards in Pozzuolo del Friuli (Ud

Villa Job’s vineyards in Pozzuolo del Friuli (Ud), +39.0432.562555. A young Tuscan man, commuting between Milan the North-East, Alessandro Job (pronounced "iob") founded this winery 5 years ago, giving it almost immediately an organic focus

Perhaps it’s because of the surname, the same as the one of the famous Steve from Cupertino, though without the final “s”. Perhaps it’s because of his passion for Dalì and Baudelaire. In any case, when someone prefers a daily contract to a fixed-term one, when someone not yet thirty tells his father he will take care of his late grandfather’s winery, he definitely has something crazy in him. Stay thirsty, stay foolish.

Alessandro Job – pronounced "iob" – divides his life between Milan and Friuli. He’s a thirty year old management engineer, he works for a famous telecommunications company in the budget control and project advancement areas. He does so three days a week. The other two, plus all the remaining time, he spends working for his winery, Villa Job, located in the extreme Grave del Fruili Doc, in Pozzuolo. Alessandro was born in Tuscany, his father is an entrepreneur working in the marble trade. He’s hardly a preppy, as the words of his father, shortly before his graduation from university, confirm: "Finish your studies but I don’t want you to come to work for me, you need to learn your own lesson first".

The biologic Friulano

The biologic Friulano

Said and done. Alessandro is indeed learning his own lesson, thanks, mostly, to the passion he’s always had for wine, good food and conviviality. Spending some time with him has meant discovering a particularly curious mind. Eager to continuously try new wines and discover stories that are different from his own. This is a symptom of an open mind that is still too uncommon among those who produce wine and always risk ending in a self-praising attitude, denigrating the neighbouring vineyard-owners.

The new Villa Job was born 5 years ago. Three years later it began an organic production, even though this method was already used many years before, when his grandfather, from Udine, having moved to Tuscany due to his job, had created a business, the second one in Italy, that sold certified organic grapes. The person making the Villa Job wine is a local, a 37 year old man with whom Alessandro has shared, right from the start, his idea of producing a wine that would speak for itself, without too much chemical and human interference. Only copper and sulphur are used in the vineyard, together with an obsessive selection of each single plant and bunch: everything needs to be focused on that.

The last born, a red wine made with Merlot, Refosco, Cabernet and Schiopettino grapes called Serious, is the symbol of the “madness” to be found in Villa Job. Less than 5mg/l of sulphur dioxide, that is to say the quantity that the wine produces by itself. When we ask Alessandro what’s the meaning of respect for the earth and for the vine, according to him, without any hesitation he starts to declaim a verse by one of his life-teachers; the poet of correspondence, who reminds us of how wine is capable of speaking and how man must learn to listen to it: "A wine which is a homily. Wine is what gives you relief".

Pinot 2010

Pinot 2010

Extreme care, fatigue and satisfaction. There are no technicalities, only a great observation of nature. The result of this method, highly influenced by the object, not by the subject, can be sensed and tasted in the little over 10 thousand bottles divided between Pinot grigio, Sauvignon, Risic blanc and Risic Neri (Solera method), Friulano, Merlot and Refosco. These are wines to be appreciated by those who don’t like a standardised production but prefer the unexpected.

Villa Job
Pozzuolo del Friuli (Ud)
+39.0432.562555
info@villajob.com


In cantina

Stories of men, women and bottles that enrich the galaxy of wine, in Italy and in the world

by

Martino Lapini

Born in Milan, he works as a copywriter and lives in Romagna. He wishes he could age in a oak barrel. Twitter @martinolapini

 

Author's articles list