Gerard Zanzonico has been around the block, through the neighborhood and onto your stoop. Both in his native Brooklyn, where we hear he was quite a stickball player, and in the Napa Valley where he has been the winemaker for some high profile properties.

But now that he's arrived at Dave Del Dotto’s extraordinary piece of Rutherford, Zanzonico's street cred is about to rise exponentially. When Del Dotto gets through with him, Zanzonico will be able to balance those New York spaldeens (Spauldings to the rest of you outliers) on the tip of his considerable proboscis.

That’s because Del Dotto is a crazyman when it comes to barrels. The former real estate developer is giddy from experimenting with oak barrels whose collective staves come from various forests.

Not only that, Del Dotto is playing around with giant clay amphora in which to ferment some of his wine.

Not only that, Del Dotto has got it into his head to fool around with a myriad of yeast strains.

Not only that, Del Dotto has chosen to put all those barrels and amphora into a wine cellar with 40-foot ceilings and columns (at the tune of a guesstimate on the far side of $10 million), that are made from imported Italian tile and which make the cellar resemble a Naples museum. (It was scheduled for completion by mid-summer. The caves on Atlas Peak Road in Napa will be retained. The winery currently produces 8,000 cases, but there are plans now to bump that to about 12,000.)

So Zanzonico ( pronounced zan ZON ee co) has his work cut out for him. Stints at Chateau Montelena, Stonegate, Staglin, and Benessere hold him in high stead. But wait until Dave Del Dotto is through with him.