Martinelli Road

The Martinelli Road Chardonnay Vineyard is one of our coolest vineyard sites in the Russian River Valley and is consistently one of the last vineyards to be picked. A large portion of the vineyard remains shaded for most of the day by a ridge of old redwood trees. Lee Martinelli Sr. planted this vineyard in 1989 using clone 95, and the vineyard borders the Jackass Zinfandel vineyard on the original Martinelli family homestead ranch.

2021 was the driest year on record since they started keeping records 127 years ago. It was also the third year of drought conditions for Sonoma County. Contrary to these conditions, the summer was relatively cool and started two weeks later than the previous year. The drought conditions did bring ripeness to each of our varieties at just about the same time. By the end of the first week, we had 40% of the total tonnage in the winery. This included Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel from both Fort Ross-Seaview and Russian River Valley. Despite being a very compact harvest, small clusters and berry size have yielded exceptional quality which makes 2021 a standout vintage.

Beautiful aromas of fresh pineapple, white flowers and barrel spice fill your nose.  Thick upon entry this sensation continues in the mid palate with flavors of ripe pineapple and lime zest.  Juicy tropical fruits are present in the long fresh finish.