It’s no secret that we love, even swoon, for Martha Stoumen’s wines. Unfortunately, they are rare birds, leaving our shelves far too quickly, not to be seen until the next vintage release.
It’s no secret that we love, even swoon, for Martha Stoumen’s wines. Unfortunately, they are rare birds, leaving our shelves far too quickly, not to be seen until the next vintage release.
We became aware of Martha when she was still working with Chris Brockway at Broc Cellars. This was her last stop on her journey toward Martha Stoumen Wines. After her initial exposure to grape farming and winemaking in Tuscany, Martha began a series of apprenticeships, sandwiched around a master's at UC Davis. Along with Chris at Broc Cellars, Martha has had the pleasure of apprenticing under Reinhard Löwenstein (Heymann-Löwenstein, Mosel), Jordan Fiorentini (Chalk Hill, California) Chris Brockway (Broc Cellars, California), Clive Dougall (Seresin, Marlborough), Didier Barral (Léon Barral, Faugères, France), and Giusto Occhipinti (COS, Sicily). She has remained close to her mentors and continues to learn from many of them.
With all of that under her belt, it was no surprise that the wines she released in her first vintage had the poise and character of a producer that was decades in. Her wines are joyously terroir-driven, always complex yet never inaccessible, a testament to her talent, knowledge and patience. Patience in the cellar means letting the natural yeast and bacteria on the grape skins perform the fermentation. Patience means allowing longer macerations and aging to provide stability rather than adding tannin, acid, or stabilizing agents in the wines. Basically, the techniques she learned from her years in Europe.
