Winemaking Across Generations

The story of Louis M. Martini is deeply rooted in a multi-generational legacy that began more than a century ago. As a young teen in 1899, Louis M. Martini left his home in Genoa, Italy and traveled across the Atlantic, then across the United States, to join his father’s seafood business in San Francisco. But while he helped his father, he was also pursuing his own passion: winemaking. Martini and his father made wine together in their home before Martini eventually returned to Italy to study and refine his craft. After auditing enology classes at Universality d’Alba, he set out to California again, but this time as a winemaker.

In a daring leap of faith—confident that Prohibition would soon be overturned—Martini built the Louis M. Martini winery in 1933 in St. Helena. His decision to settle in Napa Valley was driven by a desire to produce exceptional wines by sourcing the best fruit possible. In the years that followed Prohibition, he established a legacy of craftsmanship and a passion for Cabernet Sauvignon that continues to this day.

Louis M. Martini’s son, Louis P., had worked at his father’s California winery before studying at university. His father paid him the same number of pennies per hour as his current age. He studied food technology at the University of California, Berkeley, and added classes in enology and viticulture at Davis. When the United States entered the World War II, Louis P. enlisted in the Air Force and served from 1941 to 1945.

For the Martini Winery, the single most important event of the postwar period was Louis P.’s decision to return to the winery after his service. In direct contrast with his father, Louis P. was described as, a soft-spoken man whose demeanor suggests none of the bragging rights he could claim. Still, Louis P. and Louis M. did agree on their overall philosophy and goals in the winery. An inventor and tinkerer, Louis P. demonstrated his ingenuity in viticulture early on by introducing wind machines to combat frost and developed many superior grape clones that are still used today.

In 1954, Louis M. Martini officially passed the responsibility of crafting complex, varietally expressive Cabernet Sauvignon to his son. And while Louis P. shared his father’s firm belief in blending, he shifted the Martini focus to showcasing the flavor of the grape variety from which the wine was made.

In 1977, Louis P. Martini’s eldest son, Mike Martini, took the helm as head winemaker. Soon after, Louis P. told him, “You’ve got to learn to make your own mistakes,” and walked out of the winery. By all accounts, Louis P. was a gentle man. Mike, however, was more in the mold of Louis M., saying that he and his father, “really went at it tooth and nail for a while.” Mike played in a blues band called Private Reserve with his fellow vintners, rode a motorcycle and was described by his friends as having the demeanor of a football player with a loud, raucous laugh. And although Louis P. and Mike were diametrically opposed in personality, they shared an exceptional talent for winemaking. Louis P. took great pride in his son’s work.

“My father’s wines are silk,” observed Mike. “Mine are velvet.” Mike says he admires both the ‘robust Italian-style wines’ of his grandfather and the ‘elegant’ wines of his father. He aimed to craft wines in his father and grandfather’s style. “What I’d like to do is make elegant, robust wines!”