This month we are breaking into a few goodies from some badass women in the wine world. We’re starting off with a couple fun & flirty wines from the notable Martha Stoumen from California and then for those of you who receive the 4 bottle club we will be adding in our limited allocation of wines from Joy Kull of La Villana in Lazio Italy.

Cheers!

Wine Club: 2 bottles

Martha Stoumen • Sebastopol California

Amidst a bit of a renaissance of Californian winemaking, you’ll find a few names that come to mind. Martha Stoumen being one of them. The concept of big bold and over oaked Cali blends is fading into the background and the New California is waving in obscure varieties, terroir, and clean, focused wines. Of course there will always be the big Cali cabs and chards that people want but if you know what to look for, you might just flip your opinion on Cali wines.

Martha’s background in wine comes foremost from working in the vineyard rather than the winery where working with the land as well as bees, farm animals and vegetables helped her to see it as a larger system. Martha spent 8 years apprenticing around the world ultimately to establish her own project. She sources grapes from parcels she leases and farms herself, supplementing with fruit from multigenerational, organic farmers.

‘Post Flirtation’ White • Colombard, Marsanna, Roussanne, Muscat Blanc

This zesty white is the first pick of the year for MSW - a blend of directly pressed Marsanne, Rousanne, and Muscat from First Generation Farmers with an early pick of Ricetti vineyard Colombard for pithy acidity.  Aged in barrel and bottled without fining or filtration with extremely low sulfite addition- think macerated pineapple, ocean air, and lemon pith!

‘Post Flirtation’ Red • Carignan, Zinfandel

This is Martha’s workhorse red, a goldilocks wine that’s ‘just right’ with enough thirst quenching freshness for glou glou geeks and enough structure and ripeness for folk that like a little more meat on the bones. Orange peel, juicy pomegranate & a touch of sweet spice.

Wine Club: 3-4 bottles

La Villana • Lazio Italy

Joy Kull; Swiss born, American raised, and an Italian winemaker. As with many of them, Joy was on a different path before pivoting to winemaking. She was becoming increasingly unfulfilled with studies of beverage management and WSETs so she up and moved to Italy to find an internship in wine. She intended to commence her travels in Rome when she arrived and upon learning that Le Coste was just two hours away she was able to get in touch and secure an unpaid internship. After falling in love with the region of Lazio and all it had to offer she invested her life savings into a one hectare plot of land and it all began from there. She started very small, making her first rogue vintage in 2015 and now makes 8 different wines and has several hectares planted to ancient red and white varietals.

The La Villana rosso & bianco were extremely limited this vintage and only 24 bottles of each came to Vermont, all of which we purchased for Cork.

‘Bianco’ • Procanico, Trebbiano, Malvasia, Roscetto

Grapes are crushed by foot and direct pressing for 70% of the fruit; the remaining 30% is macerated with the skins for a week. There is a fleshy texture and viscosity to this wine with notes of lemon verbena, tropical melon & tart acidity.

‘Rosso’ • Sangiovese, Montepulciano

Think sour cherry, candied grape and espresso. Light tannins and a full, juicy core. Serve with a slight chill!