Martinelli Winery Update

Categorized | California, General

Posted on 05 August 2021.

Martinelli Winery Update

Dear Brian,
Our favorite time of year is here! Harvest prep is upon us, and our highly anticipated Fall Release is about to open.
At 9am PST on August 10th you will receive an email notifying you that our Fall offering is live. All of our wines are sold on a first come, first served basis, and many are expected to sell out within the first week. We encourage you to secure your wines as soon as you receive the email, so you do not miss out.
Our Charles Ranch Chardonnay was planted 40 years ago this year, and we wanted to highlight this wine for such a notable milestone. We asked fourth generation, Julianna Martinelli, to share a story about this unique site, and why it is so special to our family.
Thank you so much for your longtime loyalty to our family winery, your support is very much appreciated!

Charles Ranch Chardonnay

FORT ROSS-SEAVIEW

The Charles Ranch has been in our family since 1866. During the homestead Act my great-great grandparents, George and Elizabeth Charles, traveled from Missouri to the Sonoma Coast in a Conestoga wagon. They soon realized that the ridge top soil in the coastal mountains was too thin and rocky to farm, so they raised livestock instead, supplying meat to the lumberjacks in the local sawmills.
Over 100 years later the livestock trade in that region began to dim economically, so my grandfather, George Charles, a third generation sheep rancher, researched planting a vineyard. George Charles always fed his entrepreneurial spirit, raising turkeys and also Buffalo on the ranch. When Pappa reached out to the Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner in 1979 seeking advice on his latest idea to plant a vineyard, the Commissioner told him that grapes would not grow "way out there" because it was too cold. Soon after that visit Pappa went to a nursery and purchased Wente clone cuttings and planted grapes anyway. In 1981 the Buffalo pasture was converted to 17 acres of Chardonnay. George Charles became the second person to plant a vineyard in what is now the world renowned Fort Ross-Seaview AVA.
Pappa was a born livestock man and when he first began working the new vineyard he did it on horseback. He dusted the vines with sulfur he poured into an old burlap grain sack and rode his horse between the rows while shaking the bag over the tops of the vines. The men in my family truly never retire as long as there is gasoline in the tractor and a fence to fix somewhere. At the age of 77, Pappa decided to slow down a bit and offered his grandson, Lee Martinelli Jr., the opportunity to farm the vineyard.
In 1989 Lee Jr. went to the bank and took out a loan worth more money than he had made in his entire life.
In August of that inaugural year of my brother’s vineyard management experience, 16 inches of rain fell with huge winds howling in from the Pacific Ocean. The crop was so huge that the weight of the vines caused the trellising to tip over. Pappa rode out on horseback and propped up the rows with wooden pickets. A neighbor brought over his chainsaw to help open up the canopy. Brother Lee made $5,000 that year when all was said and done.
As the crow flies, the Charles Ranch is just 1 1/2 miles on the second ridge inland from the Pacific coastline. The vineyard is still farmed by Lee Jr., but the farming practices have changed since 1981. Each vine is thinned down to 3 pounds of fruit and a John Deere tractor has been engaged to dust the vines.
The Charles Ranch was once the largest sheep ranch in Sonoma County and is now heralded as being in a Grand Cru AVA for producing the most sought after wines of the highest caliber.
Salute, from our family to yours,
Martinelli Winery Update
Julianna G. Martinelli

Available Wines

Chardonnay
2018 Charles Ranch Chardonnay
2018 Lolita Ranch Chardonnay
2018 Martinelli Road Chardonnay
2018 Bella Vigna Chardonnay
Pinot Noir
2019 Lolita Ranch Pinot Noir
2019 Moonshine Ranch Pinot Noir
2019 Bella Vigna Pinot Noir

Syrah
2018 Lolita Ranch Syrah
Zinfandel
2019 Lolita Ranch Zinfandel
2019 Vellutini Ranch Zinfandel
2019 Vigneto di Evo Zinfandel
Muscat of Alexandria
2017 Muscat of Alexandria