Lisa and Stefano Watson in their vineyard on Ridge Road with animals from the "Avio Ark."

When Stefano and Lisa Watson moved to Amador County from Atlanta, Ga. this past November, they were looking for "la bella vita" - the good life. After each spent 20 years in sales and marketing, they had reached a place where they were seeking more out of life.

Lisa, who was raised in the village of Perona, Italy until age 13, always appreciated the Italian convention of "family first." She said the 9-11 terrorist attacks gave her a new view on life. "It was a wake-up call," she said.

"After 9-11, we did some soul searching," Stefano said. "I was living on an airplane, traveling the country for work. We were seeking the balance in life everyone craves."

They had always wanted to retire and open a winery. But rather than waiting for retirement to make this dream a reality, the couple decided to make their move right away. Stefano and Lisa began searching for the ideal property. They looked at 40 properties over a period of four years and made two offers on sites close to their home and families in Atlanta. But as a home winemaker who purchased Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes from the west coast, Stefano knew that the ideal land sites were in California.

Then they saw Amador County. "Amador County reminded us of all our stays in Italy," Lisa said. "Once we saw this area, we said to ourselves, 'This is the place.'" The couple walked every acre of available property in the county and finally settled on a 77-acre parcel on Ridge Road (next to Sutter Ridge Winery), owned by the Martin Gates family. "The property spoke to us," said Stefano. "It had the best location and the best people and we knew we had found it."

Martin Gates is also a winemaker, so the land was already planted with 30 acres of grapes, including Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese, as well as a 2-acre test vineyard planted with many varietals. Gates is a landscaper and had also planted 50 fruit trees including apples, lemons, limes, grapefruits, cherries, plums, nectarines, persimmons, peaches, almonds, olives and 100 rose bushes. They purchased the property in December and began making it their own.

They plan to call their winery Avio, after the area in Italy near where Lisa was raised. They also named the various vineyard blocks after Lisa's uncles, who are winemakers in Italy and have been their advisors throughout this process. "If it hadn't been for the uncles," Stefano said, "we wouldn't have been able to accomplish this feat." Lisa's mother is the only one in her family who left Italy behind for the United States and now Lisa and Stefano have similarly left their families behind in Georgia to make their dream a reality. In homage to the importance of family, they have declared a motto for their vineyard and homestead: "Per l'amore di famiglia" - for the love of family.

In addition to the vineyards, the property includes a 3,200 square foot home, swimming pool, a barn that is being converted to a 500-square-foot-Tuscan-farmstead-themed tasting room and winery, a piazza and fountain and an event area. There are also a host of animals, including eight chickens, four ducks, four barn cats, two dogs, two indoor cats and one Selle Francis horse that has cost nearly as much as the property as of late because they had to fly it out to California from Georgia. Lisa is a competitive horse show jumper.

The couple hopes to wrap up all phases of construction in the winter, but plans to open to the public for the Summer Solstice Wine Daze event June 25 and 26.

Their first releases will be wines made by both Stefano and other Amador County winemakers and include an Estate Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Port and an Italian table red made from Zinfandel and Sangiovese. Eventually, Stefano will make all of the wines himself.

When the two are not working in the vineyard, they enjoy skiing, snowboarding, camping, hiking and mountain biking. Stefano is a licensed sailing instructor and Lisa is an amateur kick boxer. They also love to travel and have spent many months immersing themselves in other cultures around the world. With their love of animals, they have thought seriously about opening a petting zoo on the property and are toying with the idea of a B&B so others can enjoy their land as much as they have.

They are the type of adventurous people you just know will make a success of any endeavor they undertake.

Avio Vineyards is located at 14520 Ridge Road in Sutter Creek. It can be reached at 267-1515 or on the Web at www.aviowine.com.

Local wines take gold at 'Chronicle' tasting

Six Amador County wineries were awarded gold medals at the 2005 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. The event, held at the end of February each year, is the largest domestic competition in the United States, involving 3,200 wines from 560 wineries.

Montevina took gold with both their 2002 Terra de Oro Zinfandels, one from the Deaver Vineyard and the other from Home Ranch Vineyard. Sobon Estate also took two golds; one for their 2003 Amador Old Vine Zinfandel and the other for their 2003 Rocky Top Zinfandel. Cooper's 2002 Cooper Syrah and 2002 Deaver Vineyard Sangiovese won gold as well.

Boitano Family Wines won two gold medals for two Amador County wines: their 2003 Shenandoah Valley Zinfandel and 2003 Shenandoah Valley Barbera. They also won gold with their 2003 Mokelumne Hill Sangiovese. Renwood's 2002 Amador County Barbera and Bray's 2002 Shenandoah Valley Syrah also took golds.

Many of these wineries won numerous other medals (too many to list). For a complete listing, visit www.winejudging.com on the Web. This is an extremely prestigious competition, the results of which many individuals use to make their wine purchases throughout the year. Congratulations to all the winners!