THE MARTINELLI STORY

LOVE SONOMA PINOT NOIR AND ZINFANDEL? THANK THE HARD WORK OF FIVE GENERATIONS OF THIS CALIFORNIA GRAPE-GROWING FAMILY

- TIM FISH

When you come to the edge of civilization in the mountains of the Sonoma Coast, and the road crumbles to dirt and stone, and just as the GPS fails and you're looking for a place to turn around and head back home, you're almost at Blue Slide Ridge Vineyard.

It's a path the Martinelli family knows well. On a morning in April, three generations of Martinellis are riding in an SUV as it treads up to a summit about 1,100 feet above the Pacific Ocean. At the wheel is Lee Jr.; Lee Sr. sits in the back with his granddaughter Tessa Gorsuch and winemaker Courtney Wagoner.

After weeks of dark skies and storms, the land is green and glowing in the sun as everyone climbs out of the vehicle after the 90-minute trek from Martinelli Winery outside Santa Rosa, Calif. We're in the heart of the family's Sonoma Coast property in the Fort Ross-Seaview appellation, where four vineyards sit in proximity: Charles Ranch, Three Sisters, Wild Thyme and Blue Slide. Gorsuch opens a bottle of Three Sisters Pinot Noir 2021 and pours a taste all around. A taste of Blue Slide soon follows.

"I get winemakers asking me all the time if there's any Blue Slide for sale," Wagoner says. "No, I get 100%,' I reply, so a lot of them are jealous. This is a very special place, Blue Slide in particular. It gives [the wine] an intensity, but it's an approachable intensity and the age-ability of it is just incredible."