Draft:Gabriele Rausse

Gabriele Rausse (born November 15, 1946) is an Italian-born winemaker whose many contributions to the Virginia wine industry since the early 1980s have earned him a nickname of "father of Virginia wine." Rausse has overseen the planting of dozens of vineyards in the state, including Barboursville Vineyards, Monticello, Blenheim Vineyards and Kluge Estate (now Trump Winery).

Early life
Rausse was born on 15 November 1946 in Valdagno, Vicenza, Italy. His father was an accountant who also owned two small farms that provided the family's food. "I fell in love with what was happening there." His mother suffered from poor health. As one of five children very close in age, he was raised in part by Swiss nannies who spoke French.

Despite his father’s wish that he study law, Rausse studied agricultural science at the University of Milano and earned a PhD concentrating on plant pathology.

Career
Following compulsory service in the Italian military, Rausse began working in wineries in Australia. Visa issues led to his deportation, so he went to France and was working in a nursery south of Paris in a nursery in 1976 when he received an offer to go to the United States.

In early April 1976, Gianni Zonin, president of Italian winemaker Casa Vinicola Zonin as well as a family friend and neighbor, invited Rausse to start a vineyard planted with Vitis vinifera grapes on a farm he had not yet purchased. Thinking it provided an opportunity to improve his English, Rausse left for the United States with the intention of continue on to Australia when his visa arrived. Zonin closed on the property that is now Barboursville Vineyards on 13 April 1976, the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, who had designed a nearby mansion for James Barbour, the town's namesake. When Rausse's Australian visa finally arrived in December 1977, "I was sort of in love with what I was doing in Virginia." In its first year, the winery produced three bottles, but despite the challenges of new terroir, unpredictable weather, humid summers and inconsistent soils, by 1978, Barboursville Vineyards had more than 100,000 vines. After serving as manager and vice president, Rausse departed in 1981 with the intention of other vineyards and wineries to get established.

Following his departure from Barboursville, Rausse went to work for Stanley Woodward, whose Colle Farm was where Fillipo Mazzei, a Tuscan recruited by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and George Washington settled in 1773. In 1984, Rausse grafted the vines later used to resurrect the vineyard at Monticello, producing the first wines. Following Woodward's death in 1992, his heirs renamed the winery Jefferson Vineyards.

In 1995 he became the Assistant Director of Gardens and Grounds at Monticello. Soon after his arrival, he worked with historians and staff to plant 21 varietals on the estate's southern slope. The first vintage in 2000 succeeded where Jefferson had previously failed. In 2012, Rausse was named the Head Gardener and Groundskeeper at Monticello.

In 1997, Rausse began his own vineyard, Gabriele Rausse Winery, with fermentation and storage rooms containing stainless steel vats and wood barrels located below a hillside home. Vineyards for the 9-acre winery is spread across two locations, with plantings of Nebbiolo, Grüner Veltliner, Roussanne and Merlot, among other varietals.