Choosing the Extraordinary
Embracing Wine, Life, and Love in Italy
by Anne Fashauer
Alyson Morgan credits her extraordinary life to one of her high school teachers. Mrs. Huber, who taught Italian and Humanities at Fort Bragg High School, told Aly and her other students: “Don’t be ordinary. Be extraordinary.” And in search of the extraordinary, Mrs. Huber took Aly, her sister Ilse, her friend Melissa, and others on a high school trip to Europe, where Aly fell in love with Italy and decided to study Italian for three years in high school. Today, Aly is a winemaker who lives in Italy, Ilse lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Melissa lived in Italy and now is a professor of Italian at U.C. Davis. Life doesn’t get much more extraordinary than that.
Aly was raised on the Mendocino Coast in the town of Westport, and she attended and graduated from Fort Bragg High School. Her interest in wine-making started with her father, who made wine in the basement of their home, but she never indended it to be her career. Instead, influenced by Fran DuBois, another Westport denizen and a legendary figure in California agriculture who founded the Rice Growers Association, Aly decided to go to the school of agriculture at U.C. Davis. Aly spent six years there, first studying fruit flies and then grape genetics. While working at the fruit fly lab, Aly went on a trip to Napa to collect fruit flies from fermenting punch-down bins. During this trip she realized that it was imperative for her to live in a beautiful place and not in the Midwest working with corn, soy, and wheat genetics. So she decided to study grape genetics after she completed the research with fruit flies, and she got a job working for Dr. Andy Walker, the leading rootstock geneticist in the Viticulture and Enology Department.
Aly did her first wine internship in Anderson Valley at Edmeades in the late 1990s with Van Williamson, former winemaker for the Kendall-Jackson Edmeades label and current owner and winemaker at Witching Stick Wines in Philo. Aly said, “I owe Van so much. He took a chance on me and let me experience the harvest without pampering me or giving me special treatment. It was the most grueling job I have ever had physically and mentally, but it changed my life for the better. I learned so much during my time at Edmeades. I use those skills every day.” After her exposure to winemaking at Edmeades, Aly decided to double major in both Genetics and Viticulture and Enology, and in 1999, she successfully graduated with two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in each of those fields.
In 1998, Aly made her way back to Italy on a vacation, working in an interview with Tenuta di Arceno, an Italybased Kendall-Jackson winery. The interview went well, and she was hired to work with them after graduation. During this trip, Aly’s high school friend Melissa introduced her to Fabrizio Polloni, who invited a group of people, including Melissa and Aly, to his home for dinner. They immediately hit it off. Aly says, “During the evening, he touched my shoulder, and I could see our life together. It was surreal.” He asked her to have lunch the following day, but she was unable to meet him due to other commitments, and she had to fly home the day after that.
Fast forward a year later, after arriving in Florence for her new job: Aly and Melissa were walking down the street and happened to bump into Fabrizio. ”We ran into him out of the blue,” Aly exclaimed, still surprised. He asked her to lunch again, and they’ve been together ever since. Aly shared, “I had butterflies in my stomach, which I still have to this day when I see him.” A former professional soccer player, Fabrizio is now the coach of a semi-professional team in Florence, and he teaches sport science at a university for study abroad students. Aly continued, “From that moment we have been together. I do recognize that the love we have is rare. Not everybody finds their soulmate, especially on the streets of a city on the other side of the world. We are incredibly blessed with two amazing children [Niccolo, 15, and Gaia, 17] and our beautiful life in Tuscany. It really is just as romantic as it sounds.”
After meeting Fabrizio, Aly accepted a job at a different Italian winery, Villa Sant’ Andrea, where she spent a year setting up their lab. She worked for next three years at Azienda Uggiano in Chianti, where she held the title of winemaker but in actuality was in charge of bottling. While that may not sound like much, they were bottling 15,000 bottles a day, every day. After she left that job, she gained experience at three other Italian wineries, finally settling in where she is now at Podere Capaccia in 2012, first as product manager, then head winemaker. Aly’s cumulative experience—which included managing estates, building wineries, and creating brands, as well as making wine—prepared her for her current role at Podere Capaccia—as of 2015, she is the company’s CEO and manages the entire estate.
Sitting high atop a hill on the north side of Radda in Chianti, Podere Capaccia overlooks the Pesa River valley with spectacular views of Radda and Volpaia. The estate includes a Medieval hamlet made up of six buildings that date back to the 1200s, surrounded by six acres of vineyard, three acres of olive orchards, and 20 acres of chestnut forests for Belgian owner, Herman De Bode. The forest of chestnut trees, which surrounds the estate, produces chestnuts that fall to the ground in October. While some are kept by the estate to cook and enjoy over an open fire, they are shared with the people from the village of Radda, who come to collect the chestnuts every year.
Podere Capaccia is in the heart of Chianti Classico, and it is the home of Sangiovese. The 1500 foot elevation, the limestone, shale, and sandstone soils, the southern exposure, and the constant breezes and cool nights make Podere Capaccia the ideal site for high quality wine production. They make primarily Sangiovese wines, but also a very small production of a Supertuscan called Capaccia—50% Cabernet sauvignon, 25% Cabernet franc and 25% Sangiovese.
I met Alyson through my husband, Van Williamson, at her home in Florence, Italy, and it was one of the highlights of our visit. She made us the best meal of our trip and shared her incredible wines with us. Dinner was white beans cooked with large garlic cloves, spinach sauteed with olive oil and more large garlic cloves, polpettine (fried Italian meatballs made with ground veal and pork, parmigiano, bread, and egg—which are even more delicious than they sound), and a Fiorentina steak from the Chianina cattle local to the area. Aly’s cooking tip for the beans and spinach is to keep the garlic cloves whole, as this allows the flavor to stay very subtle.
The wines we shared from Podere Capaccia were the fruity, fresh, and smooth Chianti Classico DOCG 2021 made with 100% Sangiovese that is aged in large oak casks; the rich, concentrated cherry and balsamic Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2017 made with 100% Sangiovese from a very hot vintage that was aged in oak barrels and oak casks; and the Querciagrande IGT 2019 which is a vineyard designate 100% Sangiovese from 12 year old vines—smooth, elegant, and full of cherry, rhubarb, and wildberries that marry with soft oak tannins. The last wine, Capaccia IGT 2019, is a Bordeaux blend that has a powerful cassis nose with a clean and elegant palate. All the crisp, pleasantly acidic wines paired wonderfully with the rich flavors of the dinner.
Learn more about Podere Capaccia at www.poderecapaccia.com.
Landscape photo and Aly in barrel room courtesy of Podere Capaccia.
Anne Fashauer is a real estate broker working in Anderson Valley who loves mountain biking, travel, and amazing local wines.