Martinelli Vineyard Reserve
Pinot Noir
From Sideways to Sidewalks
In some of the past newsletters, I have written about Sonoma County's
disastrous misfortune regarding its indecision on whether to be a farming
community or a housing community. Agriculture's deadliest and most relentless
adversary finally gobbled up one-hundred plus acres of prime vineyard land,
causing the 2003 vintage of the Reserve Pinot Noir to be the last ever produced.
My family has been aware that this impending deal would eventually come to
fruition and as the long emerald rows of grapevines were slowly but surely
converted to wall to wall tract homes, we harvested what we could of the
diminishing acreage. To soften this final farewell of our cherished Reserve, we
are offering magnums to the mailing list for the first time.
At the age of 24 my brother, Lee Jr., became the fourth generation
grapegrower in the Martinelli family. The vineyard site, which would eventually
be known as the Martinelli Vineyard Reserve Pinot Noir, had been purchased by a
developer in 1989 with the sole intent of ripping out the vines and building a
sub-division the size of a small city. These land owners were unable to
immediately develop this area of the planet because the land was in an Ag Zone.
Eventually, for political reasons that I won’t go into, the land cycled out of
being an Agricultural preserve and its neck went into a cement noose. Meanwhile,
the owners offered Lee the opportunity to lease the vineyard. Long before
everything went Sideways, there were some immortally famous years in Sonoma
County when farmers had a difficult time selling their grapes. In fact, in 1991,
Lee didn’t farm one whole five acre corner of the vineyard because he did not
have a buyer for the fruit. My brother’s saving grace turned out to be Canadian
home winemakers, thrilled to get their hands on grapes from the Russian River
Valley. Overnight Lee, Jr. became a bonafide fruit packer. Beneath the heat of
the harvest sun he loaded lug boxes filled with 38 pounds of sweet red grapes
onto a refrigerated truck, and north they went. These "garageists" paid a sum
between $300 and $600 per ton. After the Pinot craze hit a decade later, fruit
from this same vineyard sold for ten times the amount.
Grapes
In the early months of 1993, when we first started working with Helen Turley,
Lee toured her through the Reserve vineyard. She was quite impressed by the site
and suggested that he keep some of the fruit for the family winery. We selected
a section of the vineyard to harvest for ourselves and this became the
Martinelli Reserve block. The particular clones in the vineyard are a mystery
because clonal selection was not the exact science that it is now. Until ten
years ago nurseries sold grape cuttings by the varietal and did not distinguish
between specific clones. When grapegrowers asked for Pinot, they got Pinot. When
grapegrowers asked for Zin, they got Zin. To preserve the beautiful flavors that
we so loved in the Martinelli Vineyard Reserve, my brother took cuttings and
planted them on the Moonshine Ranch vineyard site to fill future bottles of
enjoyment. Thank you for supporting agriculture in our wonderful country. Enjoy
every last sip!
Salute, Julianna Martinelli ~ Farmer’s Sister ~ Fall 2005
1995 Vintage ~ 92 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr.
1996 Vintage ~ 94 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr. ~ 92 pts. Stephen Tanzer
1997 Vintage ~ 90-92 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr. ~ 91 pts. Stephen Tanzer ~ 90 pts. Wine Spectator
1998 Vintage ~ 93 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr.
1999 Vintage ~ 93 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr.
2000 Vintage ~ 90 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr. ~ 91+ pts. Stephen Tanzer
2001 Vintage ~ 90 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr. ~ 93 pts. Wine Spectator
2002 Vintage ~ 92 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr. ~ 90 pts. Wine Spectator ~ 91 pts. Stephen Tanzer
2003 Vintage ~ 93 pts. Robert M. Parker, Jr. ~ 92 pts. Wine Spectator ~ 91 pts. Stephen Tanzer
"Saturated, bright ruby-red. Superripe but lively aromas of crushed blackberry, dark, chocolate, licorice, violet and spices. Sweet, plush and creamy, with superripe flavors of black fruits and violet. Finishes with very ripe, chocolatey tannins.
The exotic side of pinot noir." Stephen Tanzer
