{"id":1448,"date":"2019-12-30T16:54:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T16:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1448"},"modified":"2020-01-27T15:00:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T15:00:58","slug":"louis-m-martini-winery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1448","title":{"rendered":"Louis M. Martini Winery"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are few if any wineries in Napa Valley with a heritage as long as that at Louis M. Martini, tracing back to 1922.\u00a0 Visiting this winery was among our earliest experiences<\/a> in wine tasting.\u00a0 And the familiar bottles with a horse pulling a cart full of grapes were staples in many wine stores around America.\u00a0 Today, the horse and cart are gone, replaced by a prominent crown.\u00a0 This is emblematic of the change at Martini, just as the new Louis M. Martini is emblematic of the changes in Napa Valley.<\/p>\n

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The old and new labels of Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon, with and without a horse drawn cart<\/em><\/p>\n

There is still a Martini winery on the same property, a recently opened building covered in terra cotta tiles, with a large garden alongside.\u00a0 The interior has majestic ceilings, beautiful appointments and some rather interesting wines.\u00a0 Perhaps not so much on the outside, but this is truly a Napa Palace.\u00a0 It is still named Louis M. Martini but the Gallo company that owns Martini has reinvented it; only the name remains.<\/p>\n

That is not quite fair.\u00a0 There is still the Monte Rosso vineyard just across the county line in Sonoma.\u00a0 It had long been the source of the finest wines produced by Martini and still is today.\u00a0 It was always best known for the Cabernet Sauvignon grown there and Martini still makes that wine.\u00a0 But now Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Zinfandel and a red blend also come from this historic vineyard.\u00a0 The Cabernet Sauvignon remains our favorite, but the others are quite good as well.<\/p>\n

When you arrive at the winery, you are greeted by a host who directs you either to the Crown Bar or the Heritage Lounge.\u00a0 While both rooms, as well as others in the garden and the library, are officially by appointment only<\/a>, our experience is that visitors can just walk in.\u00a0 However, we were there on a Thursday.\u00a0 We are sure it would be tougher on a weekend and even more so in the summer.\u00a0 So either reserve or call ahead.<\/p>\n

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The Crown Bar.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Louis M. Martini winery.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Crown Bar is a beautifully appointed room with a wide bar and dramatic lighting.\u00a0 This room features Martini\u2019s recent releases, where you can sip some of your old favorites such as the Sonoma and Napa Cabernet Sauvignons.\u00a0 We have nothing against these wines and have often bought them, but when we go wine tasting, we prefer to focus on the reserve wines.\u00a0 These are served in the Heritage Lounge.<\/p>\n

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The Heritage Lounge<\/em><\/p>\n

This room is also expansive and is furnished like\u00a0an assemblage of living and dining rooms.\u00a0 All tastings are seated.\u00a0 Here you can taste the Monte Rosso vintages as well as Martini\u2019s top wine called Lot No. 1, sourced from various vineyards around Napa Valley.\u00a0 It is pure Cabernet Sauvignon and is twice as expensive as any of their other wines.\u00a0 It is well worth tasting, but we will leave it to your tastes as to whether it is better than the Monte Rosso Cabernet Sauvignon.<\/p>\n

The new tasting room replaces a rather nice but more modest one on the same property, which in turn replaced the working winery where one tasted in the more distant past.\u00a0 Our server told us that they refer to the new tasting room as Louis M. Martini 2.0, referring to their new tasting facility.\u00a0 We reminded her that Louis M. Martini goes back to the 1920’s, so no, it is 3.0.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are few if any wineries in Napa Valley with a heritage as long as that at Louis M. Martini, tracing back to 1922.\u00a0 Visiting this winery was among our earliest experiences in wine tasting.\u00a0 And the familiar bottles with a horse pulling a cart full of grapes were staples in many wine stores around … Continue reading Louis M. Martini Winery<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1448"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1467,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448\/revisions\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}