The Bountiful Valley

While enjoying the holiday dinner last night I happened to read a bottle label and that made me think of the Bountiful Valley, which many have written off as a failure. The bottle is Martinelli's Sparking Cider, and here specifically is what it said

"Established in 1868, S. Martinelli & Company is a fourth generation family business in California's beautiful Pajaro Valley near Monerey Bay, where the cool coastal climate and the fertile soils produce some of the world's most flavorful apples. More then 50 gold medals for product excellence have been awarded to Martinelli's Gold Medal apple juice products, including Sparkling Cider, the non alcoholic version of our founder's original Champagne Cider."

website http://www.martinellis.com

THIS would have been the perfect company for the Bountiful Valley. They are a family owned CALIFORNIA business, based on Agriculture, considered best in the business, and hold a special place for most individual's childhood and holiday memories. I think a demonstration of the old apple presses would be fun, in the summer you could have a taste of cold apple juice, in the winter there's hot apple cider.

Just a thought.

A brilliant idea.

I did a little more research here is the official history per the website

"Since 1868 S. Martinelli & Company was founded by Stephen G. Martinelli, a young Swiss, who in 1859 settled in Central California's fertile Pajaro Valley near Monterey Bay, where the apples were of exceptional quality for cider making.

In 1868 he started his cider business in his brother's barn, using apples from California's first commercial orchards. The original products were bottle-fermented champagne cider, hard cider, and carbonated soft drinks.. Deliveries were made by horsedrawn wagon.

The expanding business moved to its current location in the center of Watsonville in 1885. A steam-powered cider mill was constructed, new tanks and bottling equipment were installed, and a 40-acre apple orchard was planted to assure a supply of the best varieties.

Martinelli's cider soon became well known as the finest available anywhere, and in 1890 it was awarded the first prize gold medal at the California State Fair. This highest honor led to the adoption of the brand trademark, "Martinelli's Gold Medal."®

The founder's eldest son, Stephen G. Martinelli, Jr., while a student at the University of California, Berkeley, developed a process for making unfermented apple juice. In the summer of 1917 the company produced the first few thousand cases of unfermented pure apple juice, pasteurized in pint bottles.

After World War I, the fermenting tanks were dismantled, and the apple juice facilities were expanded. Thus the company was able to grow during the prohibition years by specializing in non-alcoholic apple juice products, including the first non-alcoholic sparkling cider.

Today the family-owned business is managed by the founder's grandson, Stephen C. Martinelli, and his great-grandson, S. John Martinelli.

Martinelli's unique "Golden Apple"® jug was adopted in the early 1930's, along with the appropriate slogan, "Drink Your Apple a Day."® Together they continue to provide strong brand name recognition."

Also anyone who is into vintage ads or labels might want to look at this.
http://www.martinellis.com/AppleArt/

I was slightly disappointed because the actual bottle labels also had historical photographs and I had hoped to show those as well...

Thanks, techskip. I love the vintage ads.

I'm sure this would have gotten mocked the way my beloved tortilla factory gets mocked. :(

It would have been throughly mocked. All the joke about the Disney Mint Julep would have been recycled about the 'champagne'.

Yeah...it s a nice idea...there are many woulda/shoulda/coulda situations when it comes to that part of the resort.

I LOVEEE Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider

Martinelli's would have been a good fit, but now that BVF is just Bugsland I don't think they'd be into it.

Who mocks the tortilla factory? I'll murdalize 'em.

Yeah, seriously. Until TOT, free tortillas were the best thing about DCA!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by composerboy

Yeah, seriously. Until TOT, free tortillas were the best thing about DCA!

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The tortillas were great if you could make it through the whole tour to get them. I'm not sure how it would have worked out because it never was. I started this thread because I sat there at the Thanksgiving table and thought "Wow, what a lost opportunity". Then I flipped the bottle around, poured some cider, and ate some more turkey.