Monte Rosso

AVA

Moon Mountain

Decade

1880s

County

Sonoma

Current Owner

E. & J. Gallo Winery

Planted by

Emmanuel Goldstein

Location Notes

Southwest side of the Mayacamas Range, close to the town of Agua Caliente

Wineries

Louis M. Martini, Orin Swift

Historical Producers

Louis M. Martini, Rancho Zabaco, Biale, Ravenswood, Bedrock Wine Co., Rock Wall Wine Co., Amapola Creek, Repris, Lasseter, Carlisle, Ridge Vineyards

Characteristics

The vineyard historically produces wines of high acidity across all varieties and producers due to the volcanic influence and minerality in the homogenous Red Hill Loam soil, the southern facing aspect of the vineyard, and the 1300’ elevation.

Description

Emmanuel Goldstein and his business partner Benjamin Dreyfus were business partners in the grocery business in San Francisco in the early 1880s when they decided to move out to Sonoma Valley and begin cultivating and planting Monte Rosso Vineyard. At the time the land was known as Monte Rosso (red earth), but the vineyard was originally called Mount Pisgah. The first vines went into the ground in 1886 and some of the Zinfandel and Semillon vines that were planted then are still producing fruit today. Also in 1886, a three-story, gravity-feed winery was completed and it was named Mount Peak.

Fast forward to 1938, when the Goldstein family no longer wanted to continue farming and managing the vineyard, they sold to Louis M. Martini, who was one of the buyers at the time and had his namesake winery located in St. Helena. Martini planted the first Cabernet vines in 1940 and those vines are still producing fruit today. The vineyard at that point had grown to 250 acres and was planted to Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Semillon, Riesling, and other varietals. Three generations of the Martini family continue to farm the vineyard up until 2002 when the vineyard and Louis M. Martini winery was sold to E. & J. Gallo Winery. Today, the vineyard has 10 varieties planted including the old Semillon, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Phone

707-331-8228

Submitted by

Brenae Royal

Certified