Weekly Special 479

Martin Estate Winery was built in 1887 by pioneer vintner and then Napa County Sheriff Henry H. Harris. Harris arrived in the Napa Valley in September of 1853, after traveling with his family by ox-teams in a train composed of fifteen wagons from Missouri, when he was 15 years old. The property functioned as the H.H. Harris Winery until Prohibition. In 1909 Harris leased his fully equipped building to Georges de Latour who was looking for a facility as well as a good winemaker to teach his young apprentice Joseph Ponti. The property was purchased in 1996 by wine aficionados Greg and Petra Martin who recognized the potential of the historic chateau and its untouched prime Napa Valley vineyard land. The Rutherford Estate Vineyard was planted, named "Puerta Dorada" with a nod to the past, and the H.H. Harris Winery was resurrected as MARTIN ESTATE after ninety years of dormancy. Dedicated to making the very best wine from the grapes grown on the Estate's small eight acre vineyard, the Martin family embarked on their journey to produce Cabernet Sauvignons that would compare to the First Growths of Bordeaux. Today, French trained award winning winemaker Aaron Pott is in charge of pursuing this goal, and the result can be seen in Martin Estate's unsurpassed cellar equipment of custom made French cement Nomblot tanks, oak fermenters by Radoux, state-of-the-art stainless steel tanks by Jejeune, an Italian Mori basket press and the most discriminating sorting equipment that allows single berry selection and fermentation. Just as it was in 1887, all Martin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is made on the premises, "Estate grown, produced and bottled".