Marco Lucchesi vividly recalls the time when he was 10 years old and tasted a lineup of new wines from Piedmont with his grandfather and father at their family’s restaurant in Pisa, Italy, where his dad was one of the early professional sommeliers in the business.
“I was stuck to the glass,” remembers Lucchesi, who now makes Section Wines, as well as a higher-end eponymous brand from Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley grapes in a Buellton warehouse. “I could taste the fruit and then a developing flavor profile that I couldn’t even name.”
Though he was supposed to take over his parents’ restaurant — called Marcellino Pane e Vino, which they owned until four years ago — when he grew up, Lucchesi came to the United States for a visit in 1998. “I promised my mom that I’d come back in a couple of months,” said Lucchesi. To her dismay, he’s never left.