Things are different out there where the paved road ends. Golden eagles fly overhead scouting out the small scurrying possibilities of the incoming day, as a small green tractor stamped with a yellow, 'John Deere', upon its side, starts its cranky engine and begins moving slowly between long rows. My mother and her two sisters have taken their heritage land, which over the past 100 years pastured 2,000 head of sheep, and established two supreme vineyards consisting of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Their family of six generations first homesteaded these steep rolling hills in the 1860's. The three sisters, Carolyn, Charlotte and Donna, have carried on the family legacy, protecting this coastal land by keeping it productive in agriculture and preserving its unique flora and fauna.

The climate is moderate in the far western reaches of Sonoma County due to the closeness of the ocean body of water. This grape studded view lies upon the second ridge inland from the coastline at Fort Ross. Here above the fog line the skies are clear and pristine, yet in the winter the rain falls harder and denser than anywhere else in Sonoma County.

This petite Pinot Noir vineyard is trained on a vertical trellis system with the fruit hanging just 24 inches above the ground. The vines are densely spaced at 2,ooo vines per acre and thinned between two and three pounds of fruit per vine. These practices all insure even ripening and mature fruit character in the wine. The grapes are picked at about 25 degrees brix to ensure ripe fruit flavors. The grapes are hand selected during harvest by Carolyn Martinelli, who walks through the vineyard tasting the grapes and then deciding which rows are ready to pick according to the developed mature flavors in the berries.

The wine is fermented with wild yeast in 75% new French oak, and encouraged to fully complete malo-lactic fermentation. The grapes are 100% barrel fermented with wild yeast, are unfined, unfiltered, neither cold nor heat stabilized and contain naturally occurring sediment. We recommend decanting or allowing the bottle to sit upright in a cool place prior to serving.