Use my current location
Region: California - Sonoma - Alexander Valley
Grapes: Zinfandel
Alcohol: 14.8%
Notes on the Wine
Marietta Cellars sits at the entrance to a small canyon off Alexander Valley. Known as Angeli Ranch after the family who originally settled there in 1886, the property’s vineyards connect gravel swales from the Russian River to terraced knolls invisible from the valley floor. The extremes of this site create a wine that is powerful but has surprising elegance and clarity.
Notes on the Producer
At Marietta, we place a lot of emphasis on our instincts. In all facets of our business, when faced with a decision, we don’t just look at the trajectory of the industry, we look within. Our instincts tell us that good equipment is good equipment – it doesn’t have to be new. And our instincts tell us that in many cases the best tools are our hands. It still feels right to make the best wine possible and to sell it at a fair price. Our instincts tell us that being honest, being consistent, working hard, and thinking outside the box is more important than anything else in business.
Our cellar crew instinctively knows what we do and why we do it. They jump from harvest to barrel work, to bottling, to landscaping without blinking. We are hands on and busy year-round. During lunchtime, the crew can be found without fail playing cards in the winter and basketball or soccer in the summer. There is a community garden onsite where much time is spent after work producing beautiful fruit and vegetables. The majority of the crew has worked with us for over ten years.
We farm over 400 acres of our own vineyard. We acquired them by some strange combination of chasing overheard stories, hunting and fishing, and buying grapes from wonderful farmers all over two counties, while constantly keeping an eye out for potential… After years of work and play we owned gnarly, historic, semi-productive vineyards that needed care and attention. We have been happily investing time and energy dreaming about what they might become.