History
Tony Bondi bought the ranch around 1961, one of the county's last working hop farms, intending to develop it into a trailer park; he died in a tractor accident before he could, and his nephew Lee Martinelli Sr. inherited the land and kept it agricultural. In the 1980s Lee renovated the old hop kiln into the winery and the hop barn into the tasting room, both still in use. The Syrah went in on the slope behind in 1996, the first parcel Helen Turley planted at the winery site.
The Site
The winery parcel on River Road, with the Syrah on a heavy Huichica clay slope above the barn, the clay reining in the variety's natural vigor.
Vines and Blocks
Syrah on 420A rootstock on the hill.
The Wines
Hop Barn Hill Syrah is one of the rarest Martinelli bottlings, made only in some years and often under fifty cases: dark, peppery Russian River Syrah named for the hill it grows on.