Antonio Gardella 1950–2026

Passion, enthusiasm, excitement, joy, and glee. If you know what these feel like, then you know what Antonio Gardella was like. I’m saddened to know that Antonio passed but thankful for the decades of wonderful gifts and treasures that he bestowed upon me and many others.

I first met Antonio in the early 1980s when I was attending Santa Barbara County wine festivals and events that he was participating in. Over the next few years, I would run into him occasionally while he was in the local stores stocking wines and adding shelf talkers as a wine wholesaler representative for The Henry Wine Group. It was at one of those times at Longs drugstore on State Street (now a CVS) that I stopped and we talked for a bit and decided that maybe we should establish a wine tasting group.

So, in 1988, Antonio and I and three other people who were his friends from Devereux and professors at the UC Santa Barbara started a wine group. To learn as much as we could, we tasted everything blind. I was such a novice and Antonio was my mentor, and I learned so much. I became impassioned with the whole world of wine.

This led to me doing more wine tastings and events, traveling all over the world to wine regions, reading books, joining more tasting groups, and posting wine notes online, while continuing to participate in this first wine group, which really only lasted a year and a half in its original form. When the other three all moved on and away, Antonio and I invited others to join.

This eventually included many winery owners, winemakers, and other wine-passionate people and we took on a name: Los Amigos del Vino. To name a few of the original and eventual members: Sid Ackert, Luis Goena, Bruce McGuire, Rick Longoria, Adam Tolmach, Chris Whitcraft, Steve Clifton, Greg Brewer, Mike Brown, Fred Brander, Mike Brooks, Art Morel, Art Lee, Ralph Sipper, Jim O’Roark, George Burtness, Craig Jaffurs, Bob Ornstein, Dave Yates, Ron Melville, Seth Kunin, David Goldmuntz, David Hardee, Dick Shaikewitz, Tom Daughters, David Ackert, Brett Escalera, Norm Grant, Bob Wesley, and many more over many more years.

This group is still going on thanks to Jim Phillippi and Greg Geyer, having been resurrected a few times with changes in leadership and attendees.

In 1985, Antonio joined with a couple other friends to form one of the finest unbonded home winemaking endeavors anywhere, Companeros. By converting a small redwood horse stable outbuilding on the premises of one of the partners into a “winery,” they made some really great wines, sourced from some of the best fruit from some of the best vineyards in Santa Barbara County. Many were sold at high paddle prices at charity auctions. That winery is still going, albeit with different people who are carrying the torch. I had a recently made chardonnay and it was amazing.

I would share my tasting notes with Antonio, and he would add his own impressions and insights. In many cases, he would remark about the winemakers and their styles from his personal experiences. In the past 20 years, my primary means of communication with Antonio was through email and texts messages. We always treasured our beginnings and the connection with all things wine.

I can remember when Antonio was turned on to Burt Williams, who was making stupendous wines in the early 1980s. Antonio joined the Williams Selyem wine list to receive allocations twice a year.

Thanks to him and Chris Whitcraft, I had tasted a few of Burt’s pinot noirs and loved them. The only way to get them was to be on the mailing list, and it had a long wait list. Antonio offered me a good portion of his allocation starting in 1987, and I jumped at the opportunity.

Later on, and as faith would have it, Burt bought a second home in Santa Barbara. A couple of my friends were invited to his housewarming party and with approval, added me. Once I met Burt and his wife and two daughters, I felt like I had an extended family. It developed that I would be invited to come over every time they returned to Santa Barbara. Long story short, Burt became one of my all-time best friends. We shared lots of his wines over the years from both of our cellars. It was always extra special to get all of the details of the vintage, vineyard, and the winemaking that Burt was so adept at remembering and recounting.

None of this would have happened had Antonio not added me to his Williams Selyem allocation.

Antonio, I shall open up something extra special to celebrate you.

RIP, my dear friend.