Hidden Gem

Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon

Here we go again. I found another amazing bottle of wine that might easily have been overlooked. As with the Love Hammer Cabernet that I wrote about in the January issue, this too was sitting right there on the shelf getting very little attention, hiding in plain sight, as they say.

The perception of this wine is closely tied to its story. It begins with a 13-year-old Italian boy traveling halfway around the world to join his father in San Francisco, California. Life was different in 1900, and the journey to escape a life of poverty in Italy brought Louis M. Martini to America. From Ellis Island, he headed west with a couple of loaves of bread and some bologna, a trip that took seven days, four trains and a ferry.