By Virginie Boone

Consider this: George Martinelli of Martinelli Family Winery is a fifth-generation Sonoma County farmer on his mother’s side (Carolyn Charles Martinelli) and fourth-generation on his father’s side (Lee Martinelli Sr.). That’s a lot of generations to get to this point. His kids (two daughters) are sixth and fifth generation on either side and their kids will be seventh and sixth, and so on and so on.

Therein lies the tale of the Sonoma County Winegrowers’ Century Club, with the Martinelli family representing one of the oldest family farming legacies in our region.

In 2018, the family made a point to cement that legacy by purchasing 465 acres of the Charles Ranch, including two vineyards, the Charles Ranch Vineyard and Three Sisters Vineyard, with 27 acres planted to wine grapes.

Set two ridges in from the Pacific Ocean near Fort Ross, first homesteaded in the 1860s by her great-grandparents and later worked as a sheep and bison ranch by her father George Charles, who planted it to Chardonnay grapes in 1981, Carolyn had previously owned the vineyard with her two sisters. The Martinelli family felt it was important to keep the ranch viable for winemaking and grape farming for future generations, the Charles Ranch an important symbolic and practical piece of that vision.

In addition to Charles Ranch and Three Sisters, which grow Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, the Martinellis own 19 vineyard sites across Sonoma County, amounting to about 475 acres. And while they make their own Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah and Muscat of Alexandria wines at Martinelli Winery, they remain first and foremost grape growers, selling about 90% of their 100% certified-sustainable grapes to other wineries.

Today, three generations of Martinelli family members work together on all aspects of the business: Lee Sr., his children George, Lee Jr. and Julianna, and granddaughter Tessa, Julianna’s daughter.

The most famous of the family’s sites is the 60-65-degree sloped Jackass Hill, planted primarily to Zinfandel, the steepest non-terraced vineyard in California.

This was the original site of the Martinelli Winery established in the 1880s by Lee Sr.’s Tuscan grandparents Giuseppe and Luisa Martinelli on Martinelli Road. Nearly a century later, the current Martinelli Winery & Vineyards opened in an historic hop barn on River Road by Lee Sr. and Carolyn, hiring Helen Turley as their first winemaker.

Of course beyond the steepness, the difficult thing to imagine about Jackass is that someone had to plant it before mechanical tractors, meaning, by hand. The dry-farmed vines began to be designated as Jackass Hill in the 1980s, comprised of only three acres, including a small amount of Muscat Alexandria. Lee Sr.’s father Leno farmed it until around 1968, well into his 80s, reluctant to hand over the reins to his son.

Leno’s second wife Helen was the one to say only a “jackass” would be foolish enough to farm it. First wife Alma was a Bondi, who were potato and apple farmers. Her brother Tony’s early death in 1971 is what prompted Lee Sr. (a high school teacher at the time) to become a full-time farmer, taking over the Bondi apple farm on Watertrough Road to keep it alive, leaving apples behind to plant Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah at what is now known as Zio Tony Ranch.

Zio Tony is just one ranch within the 400 total acres farmed by the Martinellis in Russian River Valley alone, joining Jackass Hill, Jackass Vineyard, Giuseppe & Luisa, Moonshine Ranch, Lolita Ranch, Vellutini Ranch, Chico’s Hill, Hop Barn Hill and Martinelli Road. In Fort Ross-Seaview is Charles and Three Sisters, but also Blue Slide Ridge, Sky Ridge and Wild Thyme Vineyard, while the 17-acre Bondi Home Ranch sits in Green Valley.

To hear more about the Martinelli family’s long legacy as Sonoma County grape growers, tune into this Saturday’s episode of “The Good Stuff” on KSRO 103.5 & 96.9 FM/1350 AM from 1 pm to 2 pm, with guests George Martinelli and Tessa Martinelli Gorsuch.