Wine of the week: Marimar Estate, 2020 Don Miguel Vineyard, Russian River Valley Albariño

Marimar Torres lives on a hillside ribbed with vineyards. Her home is a stone’s throw from where she makes wine. It’s an outcome she might not have imagined once upon a time.

“In Spain, winemaking was not meant for women,” said the vintner of Sebastopol’s Marimar Estate. “My family has been growing grapes since the 17th century and the business has been handed down from father to son since 1870.”

Torres, 75, said when she was 29 she started to dream about having a vineyard and later, about having a winery.

“I’ve always said we have dreams because we’re supposed to make them come true,” she said.

Torres created our wine of the week winner — the Marimar Estate, 2020 Don Miguel Vineyard, Russian River Valley Albariño, 13%, $34. It’s a refreshing albariño with racy acidity and gorgeous stone fruit. It has layered flavors of nectarine, white peach and mineral. While vibrant, the fruit of this albariño plays back up to its crisp acid. It’s impressive.

Other tasty exotic whites are Gloria Ferrer, 2019 Estate Carneros Pinot Blanc, 13%, $26; Gundlach-Bundschu, 2020 Sonoma Coast Gewurztraminer, 13.5%, $25; Husch Vineyards, 2020 Mendocino Chenin Blanc, 13.2%, $16; and Guillaume de Guers, NV Picpoul de Pinet, France, 14.1%, $14.

As for the winning albariño, Torres said she’s quite fond of the varietal with its Spanish heritage.

“When I visited Galicia (in northwest Spain) about 20 years ago, I thought albariño was the best white wine from Spain and decided to bring some cuttings,” she said. “It’s a great match with many types of food that are popular in our area, like raw or grilled seafood, smoked salmon, sushi and Asian cuisine. And, for sure, with tapas.”

When it reaches its potential, albariño is savory and crisp and has minerality reminiscent of wet stones, Torres said.

Torres planted her vineyard in 1986, studied at UC Davis in 1988 and built her winery in 1992.

The team at Marimar Estate already had picked the albariño grapes before the smoke from the 2020 wildfires could affect them.

“We were able to achieve the bright flavors and complex aromas we look for in our albariño,” Torres said. “While ours share some similarities with those from Spain, like minerality and good acidity, it has a note of our California sunshine.”

Albariño, Torres said, can be challenging to grow in the vineyards.

“It can be quite vigorous, so balancing the vines is very important,” Torres said. “We remove as many clusters as needed to achieve that. We split the canopy using what we call a ‘crocodile teeth’ pruning system, with alternating spurs on cordon arms.”

The bite of the crocodile teeth gives way to dappled sunlight on the grape clusters.

“Once you’ve planted the vines in the right place, picking the grapes at the right point of maturity is key,” Torres said. “I like to say, ‘listen to the grapes.’ They’ll let you know the wine they want to become.”

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com and 707-521-5310.