‘Benvenuto a Tuscany.’ That’s what the welcome mat to Ardie Tavangarian’s upper Bienveneda hillside home should say. On a clear day, with soft and diffuse sunlight blanketing his four-acre vineyard, and the ocean peeking out in the distance, it looks remarkably like a shot from ‘Under the Tuscan Sun.’ Tavangarian’s vineyard began as a major landscaping project almost three years ago, on the long stretch of steep, open land behind homes on Bienveneda and Tellem. A designer and builder who owns the West L.A. firm Arya, Tavangarian built his Tellem home in the mid-1990s and subsequently purchased a handful of adjacent landlocked properties. When brush clearance became ‘a monumental task’ in 2002, he decided to transform his land into an Italian-style kitchen garden. This plan, he told the Palisadian-Post at the time, would reduce the area’s fire danger as well as his yearly maintenance costs, and improve the view from his house, which looks down on the hillside from Tellem. Concerned neighbors questioned Tavangarian’s intentions. They worried about the noise caused by clearing the brush, as well as potential mudslides once the area had been denuded, and whether Tavangarian planned to build on the land. He said he simply wanted the garden. ‘We had to think about what would be a good, deep root structure that we could plant without grading,’ says Tavangarian, who originally planned to plant many citrus trees. Realizing that the ground wouldn’t support them, he chose to plant mainly grapevines, in addition to a variety of English roses, Italian cypresses, and Italian and French olive trees, among other vegetables and fruits. Some neighbors were upset about the idea of a vineyard, and they created a Web site in protest. But Tavangarian was not in violation of city codes and there was no evidence that he was going to use the vineyard for commercial use; he said he planned to grow grapes for personal use, to make wine for his family and for gifts. A drip irrigation system was installed, and Tavangarian began working with UC Davis professors and attending classes there to learn about viticulture. ‘I’m really a layman; I’m not a wine connoisseur,’ he says. ‘The process has been really interesting to me.’ In addition to his learned knowledge of grapes and winemaking, Tavangarian also has been inspired by trips to Tuscany, the hill country of northern Italy, where his company is converting a 17th century village between Siena and Montalcino into an exclusive resort while preserving its old-world charm and history. Tavangarian’s involvement in the area influenced his decision to emulate a Tuscan-style vineyard, which made sense because the Bienveneda hillside (with a slope greater than 40 percent) and topography are similar to that of Tuscany, where sloped vineyards are common. Planting roses within the vineyard to protect the grape vines from disease is also consistent with Tuscan-style vineyards, according to Tavangarian. The roses would be first to catch a disease that could afflict the grapes. He initially wanted to grow a Cabernet/Merlot mix but he reconsidered after planting in early 2003, and ended up replanting entirely with a different red grape, Sangiovese, a Tuscan variety from Brunello. Sangiovese is the primary grape used in Tuscany to make Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino. Tavangarian says the grape hasn’t been as much of a success in California, which is why it’s not a household name like Cabs and Merlots. ‘It generally hasn’t been a major commercial product.’ Tavangarian is using a certified Sangiovese Grosso (Brunello) clone of the root stalks grown in the Montalcino region, on a 1,200-acre vineyard with a winery and stable. ‘This is a true replica miniature version of that vineyard,’ he says of his backyard vineyard. The grape, he adds, ‘has done incredibly well here.’ Tavangarian’s vineyard benefits from Pacific Palisades’ temperate, Mediterranean climate’warm days and cool evenings’which allows grapes to ripen slowly and evenly. This climate is similar to Napa Valley, but there are also soil and climate differences (such as foggy mornings and evenings, or the heat wave we recently endured), which make his vineyard a real experiment. Tavangarian is using native, existing top soil and limestone to grow his grapes. ‘You have no idea what’s going to come out of it,’ he says. ‘Our goal is to maintain a high-quality process for a winemaking vineyard.’ He’s using a trellis system, modeled after trellising in Montalcino, in which the vines grow one meter apart on rows that are spaced 7 ft. apart. Planting the grapes tightly together like this produces fewer grapes per vine but a higher quality of wine. ‘The amount of fruit we get is not a lot,’ says Tavangarian, who has 9,000 vines and expects about 1,500 bottles of wine to come from the harvest. Starting in mid-September, his team of workers begins measuring the sugar brix (sugar content) of the grapes daily, using a refractometer; this measurement helps determine when to harvest the grapes. ‘Timing is extremely sensitive,’ says Tavangarian, who also measures the pH levels with other equipment. He recently had his second harvest, on October 3, and the grapes were transported by truck to Napa for custom crushing. Meanwhile, Tavangarian prepares to start the whole process all over again. ‘It takes almost five years for grape vines to mature, and this is the end of the third year,’ says Tavangarian, who has tasted samples of his first vintage (harvested last year) over the last few months. ‘We think it’s a good quality for what it is.’ He describes the wine as ‘full-bodied, with a deep color, strong aroma and characteristics, with great tannin and flavor.’ Tavangarian says that an Italian wine consultant, Alberto Antonini, who traveled from Italy to see his vineyard during the summer before the first harvest, and then after fermentation and barreling, was pleasantly surprised by the Tuscan look of the vineyard and the taste of the grapes, though the latter really depends on the DNA. In order to maintain the vineyard and surrounding garden areas, Tavangarian has three to six workers at any one time, cleaning, trimming and pruning. ‘I believe it has added value to the neighborhood,’ he says. He’s received kind e-mails from some of his neighbors telling him that they like having it there. ‘People are understanding it better, that more than anything it’s a major commitment. I think that, longterm, it’s not something a lot of people would want to take on.’ Tavangarian acknowledges that some neighbors are still unhappy about the vineyard, especially after a section of the land that borders homes on Bienveneda slid down the hill during the heavy rains in January. ‘The City has made recommendations, and we’re going to take care of those,’ Tavangarian says, explaining that one recommendation is to build a wall at the top of the slope where the hillside moved. ‘I hope we can show the community that it’s a well-intended process,’ he says. For Tavangarian, the process of land transformation and the creation of the vineyard is ‘consistent with what I do, what my passions are and what I very much enjoy.’ He’s referring not only to his profession but also to his passion for the Italian culture, and cooking with the fresh vegetables and fruits grown in his garden. In addition to the grapes, Tavangarian has planted oranges, tangerines, sour lemons, sweet lemons, apples, pears, persimmons, watermelon, mulberries, tomatoes, zucchini, parsley, cilantro, basil and walnuts. His Tuscan olive trees produce olives generally used for oil while the French varieties are for eating and making olive oil. Asked if he has the desire to have his own winery, Tavangarian says, ‘Winemaking is not my dream at this moment. The winemaking part is a whole different ballgame; it takes resources.’ Furthermore, he says that for the minimum amount of product that his vineyard produces, it doesn’t make sense to have a winery. ‘If I choose to, it would be a different scale.’ Tavangarian’s first vintage is scheduled to be bottled before the end of the year, in bottles imported from France, with a label that includes the name of Tavangarian’s firm and a topographical map of the vineyard. The label will read: ‘Sangiovese 2004 Los Angeles.’ ‘At the end of the day, we’ve done everything we can to get a good product,’ he says. ‘It’s like kids; you’re not sure how they’re going to turn out but every day you do it [parenting] as best you can.’ Tavangarian and his wife, Tania, have lived in the Palisades since 1991. They have four daughters, Sade, Shana, and twins Emila and Nila, three of whom attend Village School. Tavangarian’s company is in charge of the school’s two-story expansion project at the corner of La Cruz and Alma Real.
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