The Martinelli Family has been farming their estate vineyards for over 135 years, continuing their rich history and making them 6th generation wine growers and farmers. The Martinelli children have always been raised working in the fields from a young age. Leno Martinelli was making wine at 5 years old, and farming his own vineyards at the age of 12. Leno taught his son, Lee Sr., to make wine alongside him when Lee Sr was 5. This tradition continued with Lee Sr. having his children tying vines, suckering, and picking apples at ages as young as 6 years old. A strong work ethic was the byproduct to the stewardship of the land as a way of life, a gift to provide for your family and a privileged obligation to the next generation. Many decades later, Lee Sr. and Carolyn’s four children are stilled happily involved in the farming and businesses on a daily basis.
The Martinelli family has been growing grapes in the Russian River Valley since the 1880s. At the ages of 19 and 16, Giuseppe Martinelli and Luisa Vellutini eloped from their small village in the Tuscany region of Italy, making their way to California looking for land to farm and start a . Giuseppe had been a winemaker in Italy and with his viticulture knowledge he was hired to plant a vineyard for a farmer in Forestville. Within two years he earned enough money, and borrowed some from a local wood cutter, to purchase land of his own. Working side by side on a 60 degree slope, Giuseppe and Luisa planted a small area of Zinfandel and Muscat Alexandria vines, which later became known as the Jackass Hill vineyard. Over 135 years later, this south easterly exposure remains the steepest non-terraced vineyard in Sonoma County.
In 1918 Giuseppe died, leaving Luisa with four children and the farm to care for. Their youngest son, Leno Martinelli was twelve years old at the time and had wanted no other career in life than to be a farmer. Leno’s two older brothers wanted nothing to do with the impossibly steep hillside, so after completing the eighth grade, Leno finished school and took on the sole responsibility of farming the Zinfandel vineyard. His family told him that only a jackass would farm a hill that steep. Hence, he and his vineyard earned the name Jackass Hill. Leno received all of his farming knowledge from his parents and through his own lifelong experience of tending the vines the way his father had. He even continued using a horse and plow until 1950’s. At the age of 89, Leno decided to hang up the keys to his John Deere, and handed the vineyard over to his son, Lee Martinelli Sr. Following the family tradition, Lee was introduced to vineyard work at the age of seven, performing all seasonal tasks necessary, and learning the old viticulture practices handed down through the generations.
