Louis M. Martini

Louis Michael Martini was born in 1887 near Genoa, Italy. At age 12 he traveled to San Francisco to help his father, who had a small business selling fresh seafood to local merchants.

Father and son first made wine in their backyard in 1906. From that moment Louis knew what he wanted to do with his life. At 19, he went back to Italy to study winemaking with the masters there, then returned  to California to begin a lifetime with wine, vine, and land.

Louis made wine with his father, and when his parents returned to Italy in 1918, he worked as a consulting winemaker, taking a variety of jobs in and around the wine business. Throughout Prohibition he made wine to be used in religious services. He opened his first winery in 1922, during the depths of Prohibition, showing foresight and intuition that would serve him all his life.

At the end of Prohibition in 1933, Louis M. Martini began building a new winery in St. Helena, a few miles north of the town of Napa.  It is here that the Martini family winemaking continues today.