Marimar Estate Tempranillo, Russian River Valley

Description

Marimar Estate Tempranillo is a Californian red wine made from grapes grown in the Russian River Valley AVA at the estate’s Don Miguel Vineyard. It is Marimar’s homage to the famous Spanish red wines of her home country like Rioja and Ribera del Duero.

Marimar Estate: Founded 1986

The owner of  Marimar Estate is Marimar Torres, the sister of Miguel Torres, CEO of the world-famous Torres Wine company in Spain. Marimar Torres moved to the United States to sell the family’s Spanish wines in 1975. Marimar managed to grow the sales of Torres wines in the US from 15,000 cases to 150,000 cases in just 10 years. Marimar began planting vines in 1986. Today, the estate comprises approximately 60 acres of vineyards at the original site and 20 acres of vineyards in Sonoma County. In 2023, Marimar’s daughter Cristina Torres, after whom the flagship Pinot Noir is named, was appointed general manager.

Planted In the European Style

Marimar Estate one of the few Californian wine estates to be planted in the European style. It features high-density planting with the vines planted on a southwest-facing vertical training system. The grafts are phylloxera-resistant, and the planting density is 5,000 vines per hectare, which is approximately four times higher than the traditional Californian planting density.

These characteristics promote competition among plants and roots, reducing grape yields, thus producing higher quality fruit. This also allows the vines to live longer and develop more intense and elegant aromas, greater concentration of flavours and better balance.

The Spanish Connection

The winery was completed in 1992 and sits on a hill surrounded by the estate vineyards. It focuses on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but in a nod to Marimar’s Spanish roots, a Tempranillo and an Albarino have recently been added to the portfolio.

Don Miguel Vineyard

This vineyard is named after her father, the patriarch of the Torres wine. Their other vineyard, located in Sonoma Coast, is named Dona Margarita after her mother.

This sustainable vineyard is located in the Green Valley sub-appellation of the Russian River Valley. Located only 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean, this is one of the coolest, foggiest parts of the Russian River.

The Tempranillo vines are head trained (vaso in Spanish or gobelet in French), which is the classic vine training system used for the best Tempranillos grown in Spain; the fruit zone is circular around the head of the vine and the canopy creates an ‘umbrella’ shape over the fruit that results in dappled light.

Cool Microclimate

The 81 acre vineyard has a cool microclimate and is planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Tempranillo, and Albarino. The soils here are a combination of sandy loam (Goldridge series) with volcanic and marine sediment origins.

Marimar Estate Tempranillo Winemaking

• Harvest: 100% Tempranillo grapes were harvested on October 17-18.
• Sorting: Grapes were hand-sorted.
• Destemming: Grapes were destemmed.
• Fermentation: Fermented in small stainless steel tanks using indigenous yeast.
• Aging: Aged in premium French oak barrels (32% new) from Magreñán (Vosges forest) and Marchive (Bertranges).
• Aging Duration: 18 months in barrels to soften tannins.
• Bottling: Bottled in April 2020, unfined and unfiltered.
• Production:  Only 740 9L cases produced.

Marimar Estate wines are available to buy now at Fareham Wine Cellar.