Just got back from the debut tasting of wines from Martha Stoumen’s new eponymous label, at Ordinaire in Oakland. Six wines, all really good! Much of the fruit for Martha’s wines comes from Mendocino County, while some comes from Solano County Green Valley and elsewhere.
Hard to pick a favorite - if I had to choose, the Sparkling Zinfandel Rosé, “Post Flirtation” (refreshing light red), and Nero d’Avola would be my picks, but all six wines were very tasty and distinctive. I’ve known Martha for several years - she was the assistant winemaker at Broc Cellars in Berkeley. She’s also worked in France, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, as well as other California wineries. She recently left Broc to focus on her own label, and I’d say she’s off to a very good start.
You know that I just signed up for the release notification. The website gave me the impression that she grows her fruit but, from the list of wines you have provided, it cannot be 100% the truth. I must have misread something…
For my wines I lease and farm around half of the vineyards myself. The other half are farmed by multi-generation farmers who understand their land, and their family’s land, far better than I ever will, and who farm with my same philosophies in mind.
She has a good deal of experience in viticulture as well as winemaking.
I just got the release email (didn’t even know I was on the list), and picked up a six-pack. I purchased a few bottles of her Ama Nero d’Avola last year after listening to her I’ll Drink to That episode, and I enjoyed them, so I’m expecting good things.
Thanks to Ken’s mention, I reached out to Martha (again, after interest in Ama previously) I received samples last week of her new releases with the exception of the Sparkler, and Benson. I think the wines are delightful examples of old vine varieties and all priced $30 or under. Experiencing a new producer always holds a lot of promise. In this instance it delivers. Micro production well worth pursuing.
If you were lucky enough to get your hands on the now-defunct Living Wines Collective wines, Ms Stourman was 1/3 of the LWC trio.
From the release email:
"I made a very limited Sparkling Zinfandel Rosé (with an aged 2014 vin clair, a dab of fermenting 2015 must, and absolutely no added sulfur, yeast, or sugar), a still red wine from Nero d’Avola (only 74 tons of the 4.23 million tons of grape crushed in California in 2016 were Nero d’Avola), and a still red blend of Nero’Avola and Zinfandel named Mendocino Benchlands (inspired by Cerasuolo di Vittoria, a traditional Sicilian blend, and by a Broc Cellars wine that never came to fruition during my tenure there). I can confidently say none of these wines have existed before—they are a patchwork of personal experiences overlaying California terroir—and these 3 wines are only available as part of the six pack.
"I only made 850 cases of wine total for this Spring Release, so although all are somewhat limited, they are not meant to be precious (i.e. drink them up!) Also included in the six pack and available à la carte are the 2016 Post Flirtation (the 11.3% alcohol chillable red pictured above, destined for casual summer drinking), the textured, aged Teal Drops Rosé that can stand up beautifully to food, and the 2015 Venturi Vineyard Carignan, consistently one of my favorite vineyards and wines to work with and drink. All three of these wines are either Carignan or Carignan/Zinfandel blends from old vine (mostly 65+) dry farmed vineyards historic to California, just expressed with a fresh new voice. If you do have a hankering to age something, the Mendo Benchlands, the Carignan, and the Nero are all great contenders. They’ll be great young or old. Just like we all hope to be. "
Yes, I think there is some similarity, but I’d say that Martha’s wines are made with perhaps an even lighter hand than Broc - though the Nero d’Avola and the Nero/Zin “Mendocino Benchlands” are still appropriately bold and tannic, as you’d expect, even with modest alcohol.
For some reason I was compelled to post these notes to my site about a month prior to publishing in the magazine likely because I determined they would probably be gone by then. Website Login - pdwr | purely domestic wine report
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
"