Chadds Ford Life: Q&A with Carley Razzi, President Penns Woods Winery

If the original roots of Penns Woods Winery in Chadds Ford were the vision of founder Gino Razzi, then the tendrils of its growth and in many ways its profile are the continuing work of Gino’s daughter, Carley, the winery’s president. Recently, Chadds Ford Life caught up with Carley to talk about the quality of Penns Woods’ grapes, its key contributors, the current harvest season and the partnership of the growing wine industry in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Chadds Ford Life: Your father Gino – the founder of Penns Woods Winery -- is without question at or near the top of the southeastern Pennsylvania legion of winemakers. He is quoted as saying, “I aim to make wine that is unique, whole and balanced, with a power and complexity that separates it from the others.” So, the question is, how does Penns Woods wine consistently produce whites, roses and reds that are of superb quality?
Carley: Making wine is the balance of the science and the love, and if you don’t have both, it’s not going to happen. It starts in the vineyard. My dad has always said, “You can’t make a great wine without great grapes.” If you have good grapes, you can make a good wine, but if you’re grapes are of 95 percent quality, your wine is either going to be at 95 percent quality or below.
You can’t make wine any better than the grapes you grow.
It’s also about experience. My father grew up on a farm and he has been around vineyards since he was a child working on the family farm, and it was broadened when he started importing wines into the U.S. in the seventies and in the nineties when he began making wine. He’s been to literally hundreds of vineyards around the world, and he knows so many winemakers intimately as friends to the point where they’re practically family.
Quite literally, you grew up in what has become the family business that your father began in 2001. In 2009, you began to manage the winery and its growing business and over the past 14 growing seasons, you have overseen the growth of Penns Woods through its expansion to Sandy Hill and Woodward Farm. Progress of this kind involves many hands. Talk about the work of the talented individuals who have helped you and your father make this expansion happen.
I have to start with Andrea and our winemaker Davide Creato, who have been with us since the beginning. When I joined my father in 2009 at his wine import company, I thought, “This is cool, but I want to do something more grass roots, fun and creative that doesn’t involve having to attend meetings all day.” My father and I agreed that he would be the winemaker, and that I would operate the tasting room. Andrea was my first full-time employee and when she started here as part-time, she and I immediately connected. We are polar opposites; I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my pants thinker and Andrea is incredibly calculated. After one month, I hired her full time, and she has been invaluable.
My father continued to travel with is import company and he met Davide in Italy, who worked at the time at the Zaccagnini winery in Italy, and he asked my father if he could intern with him at Penns Woods. He lived with my father, and he fell in love with the land, the people and in particular, Andrea. He came back on a one-year work visa, and he and Andrea ended up getting married. While Andrea and Davide are at the top of that list of our amazing staff, it’s a very long list of devoted and passionate people.
Unless one is in the business of growing, cultivating, processing and ultimately selling wine, it’s not likely that one knows about what it’s like doing it. How has the 2024 growing season been for Penns Woods Winery?
It’s a baby that you’re constantly taking care of and too often, the weather never seems to work out in your favor. This year’s growing season has been excellent. The summer was a bit rough because it either rained every weekend or was 100 degrees, but the fall has been very kind to us thus far, and we can’t say enough about the quality of the grapes this year. It’s been a good crop.
Penns Woods is at the forefront of a movement that is continuing to draw attention to the great wines being grown and cultivated in southeastern Pennsylvania. While wineries like Va La in Avondale, Acadian in West Grove and Wayvine in Nottingham – to name just a few -- are enjoying the same recognition and success that Penns Woods has. Do you look at these other establishments more as partners than as competitors?
We have to all be partners. We’re small and mighty here at Penns Woods, but we can’t have any recognition just by ourselves. It has to be as a whole. I want wineries around us to also make quality wines and have tasting rooms popping up and sell their products in state stores and receive the recognition that we – as partners – well deserve.
A few years ago, when the lanternflies affected our crops, we all came together and asked each other what each of us was doing to eradicate the flies. We need to band together in order to stake our reputation for the entire wine industry in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Dispel one horribly inaccurate myth to all of the California wine snobs who read this: You can’t create great wine in Pennsylvania because of its rocky terrain.
That’s like saying you can’t grow a good apple in California because you can only find them in New York or Washington, or that you can’t grow a great orange anywhere else but in Florida. Wine should be respected because it’s one of the only beverages you can create where you’re actually tasting what that soil composition is. If you grow a Merlot in California and grow a Merlot in Pennsylvania, they will not taste the same. People’s palettes are conditioned to like California wines, because every glass of a particular wine tastes exactly the same.
The difference is, we don’t have to put sulfites and additives in our wine, and a lot of time there is very little mitigation from the vineyard to the winery, and that’s because we’re small batch and hand harvested and we work with the fruit we have – and all of these factors go into the making of a great bottle of wine.
If you eat goldfish crackers every day, you are conditioned to have the same taste every day. You no longer have a palette that is conditioned to different tastes and textures. Similarly, if all you drink is California wine, it will be all you like, but if you expand your palette, the more your tastes will be able to mature.
I see the hay bail maze on the farm. While the wine at Penns Woods Winery is certainly just for the parents, this is a vineyard that is perfect for the entire family, yes?
I have kids. I have a female-run crew who have kids. The way that society is shifting these days, we don’t have a lot of free time in our days, so when we want to hang out with our friends, we also want to bring our kids with us. Childcare is expensive, so why can’t you come out to a beautiful vineyard, get your kids away from the digital aspect of the world, and allow them to run around on a farm while you and your friends enjoy a glass of great wine and conversation?
We have an adults-only section of our farm, but we also have a section that is family friendly.
A visit to Penns Woods Winery is a treat not just for the palette but for the eyes, as seen in the sweeping acreage of row upon row of a beautiful vineyard. You have enjoyed this view since you were a child. During your busy week, is there a visual vantage point that you stop to enjoy, and if so, take us to that view.
We are very lucky that this vineyard sits on a national park, on which there are park trails, so every so often, we hear one or a few of our staff tell everyone else that they’re “taking a lap,” a little hike around the vineyard. You get to see every angle of the vineyard.
What is your favorite spot in Chadds Ford?
Giggy Bites in Glen Mills is a local pet store, and they make all different kinds of doggie treats and cakes and meals. I also enjoy O’So Sweet. That’s my jam.
What food or beverage can always be found in your refrigerator?
Boat loads of fresh fruit and my kids love the Chiobani yogurt cups.
Penns Woods Winery is located at 124 Beaver Valley Road, Chadds Ford, Pa. 19317. To learn more about its wines and see a list of special events coming up, including the Holiday Market from November 30-December 1, and the Artisan Exchange on Dec. 14 and 21.