Highly Rated Zinfandel & Riesling from Marietta Cellars

You read that correctly...a Zinfandel and a Riesling featured in the same email! 

Now in its second generation of family ownership, Marietta Cellars made a name for themselves over the last several decades by tirelessly searching for grapes and vineyards in California, always leaning toward those with old vines, and often blending the grapes together to make the best, most drinkable wine. Their OVR (Old Vine Red) has been a staple here for many years. It is made as a non-vintage wine in order to keep it fairly consistent, with different versions notated by the Lot number. Marietta doesn't have a tasting room, and never sold wines on-site through a tasting room. They concentrate on making and marketing their wines wines and buying up vineyards that they love, always working with distributors around the country to get their wines into retail shops and restaurants. 

Today's newsletter focuses on two of the wines made at Marietta, one from their OVR series, and another from an Estate Zinfandel vineyard. 

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Marietta Riesling OVR 2020 

OVR standing in this case for Old Vine Riesling, this is a wine built for everyday enjoyment. Made from 100% Riesling and made in a dry style. A perfectly refreshing wine for these hot days of summer! 

From the Winery: This Riesling is an ideal confluence of luscious fruit, persistent acidity, and river stone minerality. It opens with aromatics of honeysuckle, apricots, and even the distinctive Riesling marker of petrol. The palate is loaded with both white peaches and white pepper, hitting every note required for a great crisp, clean, and crushable white wine. This is a perfect Riesling for drinking on its own or with a good spicy meal.

Rated 92 Points by the Wine Advocate - "The 2020 Old Vine Riesling comes from very old dry-farmed, head-pruned vines in San Benito County. It is exotic and perfumed with white peach, lilac, manuka honey and petrol scents. The palate is lushly fruited and mouth coating, which gives it a sense of sweetness, although it is technically dry. It has a spine of racy acidity and finishes long and full of flavor."

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Marietta Zinfandel Roman 2019

Part of Marietta's family series, named after people who were important to the founding of Marietta Cellars. Roman is named after Marietta's cellarmaster for over 30 years, Roman Cisneros. From Estate vineyards located in the Alexander Valley, Yorkville Highlands (Mendocino County - This AVA separates the Alexander Valley from the Anderson Valley)  and McDowell Valley (Mendocino County), this wine is made with mostly Zinfandel along with 4% Barbera and 2% Petite Sirah aged for 12 months in neutral barrels. 

From the Winery: We named this wine for Román Cisneros, our cellarmaster of more than 30 years. Currants and red raspberries play the aromatic lead in this wine, while savory spices and sweet fennel flowers provide a delicious and nuanced texture. It is delightfully ripe yet offers a seamless transition into layered complexity with the perfect pop of crunchy acidity.

Rated 95 Points by the Wine Advocate - "The 2019 Román Zinfandel (blended with 4% Barbera and 2% Petite Sirah) has a medium ruby-purple color and gregarious scents of candied peach, wild berry preserves, orange peel and tar. The palate is deeply fruited but light on its feet with bright freshness and loads of perfume on the long finish."

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Not only are these wines meticulously crafted and have excellent ratings, their prices are always among the most fair out there, as you can see next to each wine below. They are both great choices to enjoy this weekend on their own and with your BBQ. 

Cheers!

Tracy Maxon

tracy@varmax.com