Martorana Family Winery

Mozzafiato — The signature estate red blend; the name means ‘breathtaking’ in Italian.

Estate Cabernet Sauvignon — Organically grown, a consistent value from Dry Creek fruit.

Zinfandel & Rosé of Zinfandel — Dry Creek Valley’s benchmark grape, still and pink.

Olio di Gio — Gio’s estate extra-virgin olive oil, pressed from 350-plus organic trees.

Everything is certified organic and estate grown, made in small lots and sold through the tasting room and wine club.

Martorana Family Winery works a hillside estate on West Dry Creek Road that Tony and Diane Martorana bought in 1983, after years of picnicking in the valley and saying they ought to own a piece of it. The family’s roots run back to Santo Stefano in northwestern Italy, where the Accornero sisters tended vineyards before Clara sailed for San Francisco in 1939 and married a young man named Martorana. Everything grown here is certified organic — grapes and more than 350 olive trees alike. The wine came second; the olive oil came first.

Gio Martorana, who grew up making wine alongside his father and uncle under the family’s first label, Due Sorelle, runs the winery now and farms it organically. He built the tasting room into the hillside in 2007 — an underground cave topped with a living roof and garden, bocce set along the bank of Dry Creek below. Production runs to about two thousand cases, sold only through the tasting room and club, and each November Gio presses the olive harvest for a members’ dinner built around the fresh oil. It is farming first, winemaking after.

Gio Martorana grew up making wine with his father Tony and his uncle Johnny under the family’s first label, Due Sorelle, and returned to the Dry Creek estate after college at the University of Northern Colorado. He worked alongside Rick Hutchinson of Amphora Winery to broaden his range, and farms the family vineyards organically. Gio actually came to olive oil first — his estate Olio di Gio predates the winery — and still presses the harvest each November.

Tony and Diane Martorana bought the Dry Creek hillside in 1983, after years of picnicking in the valley and imagining they might own a piece of it. The family’s winemaking runs back to Santo Stefano in northwestern Italy, where the Accornero sisters tended vineyards before Clara sailed for San Francisco in 1939 and married into the Martorana family. Tony planted the estate’s grapes and its more than 350 olive trees, and still farms alongside his sons.