Page 23 - Sonoma County Gazette - June 2018

Farming for Generations - Martinelli
By Jane Rogan
Farmers are by nature more ants than grasshoppers.
They work hard and store their goods for the cold, rainy winter when they’ll need them. Inherent in that Aesop Fable is the importance of planning and patience. Grasshoppers, according to Aesop, are impulsive, like to play cards and live for today.
Regina Martinelli hands me her business card with a straight face. Just above her title, “Executive Vice President,” is her other title: “Great granddaughter of the original Jackass.” It’s good to know these ants are not all work and no fun.
The “original Jackass,” Regina tells me, is Giuseppe Martinelli – who
– in the 1880s
left Tuscany
with his young bride, travelled
to California and settled down in Forestville. They worked and saved, ‘ants’ that they were, and soon bought land of their own. They planted grapes on the property, which was on a
60- degree slope. This did not make farming easy.
generation to farm, Giuseppe’s two oldest sons did not want to take on the steep hill saying, “only a jackass would farm a hill that steep.” But Leno, the youngest, leapt at the opportunity. To this day, some of the finest Zinfandel grapes in Sonoma County are grown on what is fondly known as Jackass Hill.
That’s just one story.
With a family history that goes back six generations in Sonoma County there are many more stories. Mostly, during my conversation with Regina, I heard stories about the land. The business of growing grapes and apples is a physical and mental “dance with nature.” Martinelli Winery is not a large production facility. These are estate vineyards, family farms. There is one crop a year. What happens happens, so to say. Too much rain, not enough rain, it is the hand the farmer is dealt.
It is the unique skills of the farmer and winemaker that make the best of it. Regina also compared the physical and mental challenge to professional baseball. “You’re trained to take or hit depending on what’s coming at you.”
About that – like her relatives before her – Regina grew up tying vines and packing apples. She wasn’t crazy about it. She told me, “I missed a lot of pool parties, but at least I could buy my own Barbies.”
When Regina went off to Cal Poly she wasn’t so sure she wanted to be in the winery business. After working for other companies in Sales and Marketing Management she began to see the sense of applying her master’s degree and work experience to the family business. She came back to the family farm in 2008. “There was no direct deposit; no online sales and not much of a website,” she explained. The family always put farming first. With a limited number of family members, they all wore different hats and IT was not a big priority.
Taking the business to the next level and managing the implementation of
a new IT infrastructure is exciting to Regina. She knows upgrading Internet access and speed is not news to most people, but for the Martinellis it’s a big deal. “Bringing the Internet to the crush pads, for instance, is going to really increase our efficiency. If you can believe this, we were manually processing customer orders until very recently. Now customers can submit their orders and we can retrieve that data just like everyone else.”
When it came time for the next
The public is welcome to make an appointment to taste the wide variety of wines Martinelli Vinetard offers in their barn/tasting room built in 1900. The winery is located at 3360 River Rd in Windsor. The tasting room is a veritable museum of family photos and displays. When I asked Regina her favorite Martinelli wine, she laughed and said, “That’s like asking about my favorite pair of shoes. It depends on the occasion!”
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