Today’s Story: Martha Stoumen Wines
Martha Stoumen Wines is a project dedicated to making natural wines in a patient, environmentally considerate manner. Following her study of traditional agricultural systems and Italian as an undergraduate, Martha worked the vineyards, olive orchard, and winery of a small farm and learning center in Tuscany. These experiences built her foundation as a grape grower due to her time spent mostly in the vineyards, something that would prove instrumental in how she would view winemaking back in the US.
Today, Martha herself leases and farms about half of the vineyards yielding fruit for her wines, while the other half are farmed by multi-generation farmers who share her philosophies. One of the most important words for Martha’s growing philosophy is “patience.” This includes composting rather than using fertilizers, not using insecticides but rather allowing nature to take its course, and working largely by hand. Martha also prunes her vines for a long life ahead rather than focusing on yields like many other producers nowadays.
During her winemaking process, Martha is as hands-off as possible. For example, fermentation is accomplished with only natural yeasts and bacteria present on the skins. She also allows for longer maceration and aging in pursuit of stability of her wines, rather than adding tannin, acid, or stabilization agents. For all of this above and more, I encourage you to visit her website here.
Today’s Wine: 2018 Zinfandel Venturi Vineyard
100% Zinfandel; 12.7% ABV
The wine is medium purple in appearance while being opaque and slightly hazy. Once this opened up a bit, the nose showcases aromas of plum, wild blueberry, perfumed lavender, charcuterie (especially an earthy prosciutto), wet slate, and slight baking spice. On the palate I get notes of jammy plum, black raspberry compote, allspice, black tea, and sweet tobacco. This wine is medium-bodied with high, lip-smacking acidity, medium (+) tannins, and a very long grippy finish. 462 cases produced.
Price: $38. This is most definitely worth a try. The wine is very true (an honest representation of California Zinfandel) and this is quite different from all of the Zins I have tried so far. Really cool wine to pair with bbq pork, bbq chicken, lamb, or even pizza and pasta.
JB's Wine Talk 