Louis M Martini Wines

Louis M Martini Wines from Great Wines Direct.

Louis M. Martini, an Italian native of Genoa who emigrated to the US in 1900 at the age of 13 to live with his father in San Francisco, started the winery. He had minimal formal schooling and didn't speak English.

He went back to Italy at the age of 19 to pursue winemaking studies. Upon his return, he and his father joined up with other individuals to start a wine company, eventually founding the Louis .M. Martini Grape Products Company. It only offered non-alcoholic and sacramental goods due to Prohibition.

Louis P. Martini, a food science graduate of UC Berkeley, succeeded the grandfather Louis M. Martini as company president in 1946. He worked to advance Napa winemaking and grape growing practices by introducing innovations like chill chambers and wind machines. In 1974, Mike Martini, his son, joined the family business. 

Martini's business strategy was to make a wide variety of wines, mostly reds, in great quantities and sell them for affordable prices. By the 1980s and 1990s, when white wine was more prevalent and more expensive wines were doing well, this was a disadvantage. The Martini family's fourth generation had no desire to work in the winery. As a result, the entire business was sold to E & J Gallo Winery in 2002, a Modesto-based company looking to enter the Napa Valley. Gallo kept the Louis M. Martini Winery name but greatly boosted production and narrowed the wine portfolio to concentrate on Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon.

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