Pellegrini-Olivet Lane
Vincent and Aida Pellegrini planted this in 1975, forty acres of Wente-clone Chardonnay and twenty of Martini-clone Pinot Noir, when California had about five hundred acres of Chardonnay in total.1
Why go
Nello Pellegrini left Lucca in 1915 and worked his way across the country from New York with his brother Gino.1 The first Pellegrini wine came in 1925, made from Sonoma County grapes in a gravity-run winery in San Francisco.1 Through Prohibition the family shipped Sonoma fruit around the country to home winemakers.1 On repeal in 1933 they were issued Winegrower License No. 4 and bonded their first winery.1
Nello's son Vincent took over in the early 1950s.1 He and Aida bought a seventy-acre plum and apple orchard on West Olivet Road, and the winery's prose says 1972 while its own timeline says 1973.1 They planted vines in 1975.1 The Russian River Valley did not become an AVA until 1983.1
Robert Pellegrini bottled the first Olivet Lane Chardonnay in the late 1970s and farmed the estate for three decades.1 His daughter Alexia has run it since 2017.1 She has a design degree from Art Center in Pasadena and an MBA in wine business from Sonoma State.1 The winery says Williams Selyem, Merry Edwards, Gary Farrell and Darioush have all bought this fruit.1 It also says that fifty years on, these are the oldest still-producing Pinot Noir vines in the region.1 Both are the family's claims.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the estate Pinot Noir. It comes off the 1975 Martini planting and that is the whole argument for this address.1
- Order: the Chardonnay beside it, off the Wente heirloom clone in the same 1975 block.1
- Order: the Catered Tasting at $60 if you want lunch with it, five wines plus a shared board of house breads and crackers, salumi, cheeses and seasonal produce over ninety minutes. Give them 48 hours.1
- Avoid: overstaying under the olive trees. A picnic table is ninety minutes and past two hours they charge more.1
What locals & experts say
- The winery on its own aim:
Our winemaking style emphasizes balance over power and exhibits regional characteristics representative of each appellation.
1 - The winery on the 1975 planting: at the time there were only about 500 acres of Chardonnay in all of California, and putting Pinot Noir in this ground was considered experimental.1
Good to know
- Thursday to Monday, 11am to 4pm. The Classic Wine Tasting is $30 for five current releases over an hour, free for members and up to four guests, and same-day bookings are welcome.1
- The Heritage Olive Grove picnic is $30 a table with a wine purchase, one to six guests, minimum one bottle per two adults bought on arrival.1
- Friendly leashed dogs are welcome.1
- Ten minutes off Highway 101 at the River Road exit, with the tasting room entrance on the east side of the winery building.1
- No critic has written about these wines in anything I could read.
Verdict
could-visit — Fifty years on, the winery says these are the region's oldest still-producing Pinot vines, and it says Williams Selyem, Merry Edwards, Gary Farrell and Darioush have all bought the fruit. Both are the family's claims and nobody has checked either, which is the whole reason this sits where it does. What is not in doubt is the run behind it: Nello Pellegrini landed from Lucca in 1915, the family shipped Sonoma fruit to home winemakers through Prohibition, and on repeal they were issued Winegrower License No. 4. Thirty dollars for five wines, or the same for a table under the olive grove with a bottle, Thursday to Monday.