Moonshine Ranch

The ranch is named for a Prohibition still in its barn, discovered by a detective the owner's wife hired because she suspected the midnight disappearances meant an affair.

History

During Prohibition the ranch's owner slipped out nightly to tend an illegal still in the barn; his wife, suspecting infidelity, hired a detective, who found the moonshine operation instead and had the husband arrested. The barn still stands, now full of tractors. Martinelli acquired the ranch in 1994 and planted Pinot Noir in 1995 and 1996, in the first wave of the family's estate Pinot era.

The Site

The parcel at 3855 River Road covers about 15 acres of warm, flat Huichica clay and clay loam studded with cobblestone, beside the family's ancestral home ranch.

Vines and Blocks

Pinot Noir only: Dijon 115, 114 and 113 on 101-14 and 3309 rootstocks, with a reserve selection added from 2010.

The Wines

Moonshine Ranch Pinot Noir is a core estate designate of nearly three decades' standing, ripe, textural River Road Pinot with the extra grip of the cobbled clay, in lots under 400 cases.