Castor Membership June 2024: Wine Is Good Living
Winemaker Doug Margerum in his cellar.
“Wine is Good Living”
Margerum Wine Company White Blend “M5”
Los Olivos District AVA, Santa Barbara County California 2022
Margerum Wine Company Red Blend “M5”
Santa Barbara County, California 2022
The slogan “Wine is Good Living” appears on every case of Doug Margerum’s Santa Barbara-based bottlings. After 40 years on the Southern California scene, I have no illusions that Doug himself is lugging every crate of grapes into his cellar come harvest time, but one of the things that sets both he and his wines apart is their feeling of effortlessness-the glass and the guy both seem to exude that mantra with ease. Whatever the vocation, I have always admired those who could fly in the face of our grade-school mathematics instruction to “show your work”. Indeed, it is more difficult and more rewarding to operate under the adage “hide your work”. When you see a show, watch a sport, or take a sip from someone who is completely in their element and in control, it is a true pleasure.
Necessity is indeed the mother of invention, and this April I and one of my favorite distributor partners, Chris Campbell of locally-based Metro Cellars, found ourselves in a conundrum: a wine dinner that we had planned for Doug Margerum’s impending visit to the market had fallen through at the 11th hour, and as jovial as Doug is on the surface, he is also the consummate businessperson and if he’s going to be traveling 3,000 miles to the East Coast, he wants to “move some cases”. In short, we needed an alternative event idea, and we needed it in a hurry. Prospective venues came and went in the discussion, with the idea of a short-notice wine dinner understandably unappealing. Then, Chris said to me, “David, you do home tastings.” “Yes Chris, I do.” “Well, here’s what’s going to happen: I’m going to hire you to come and do a home tasting at my house with Doug.” And so, an evening of good living was on.
Doug, Metro Cellars’ Chris Campbell, and I preaching the gospel of Southern California.
Luckily for me, I have stellar clients that I don’t always deserve, and they made their way to Falls Church that evening in April-most of them shared a common bond of getting to the bottom of their latest bottle from Napa and Sonoma and finding it wanting, and so they were there to experience something new to them: an intro to the wines, and vibe, of Southern California. And who better to hear that from than Doug, a native Santa Barbaran who has done pretty much everything one can do in the wine business. Award-winning restaurateur and wine director…check. Successful salesperson and broker…double check. Groundbreaking Winemaker and walking exponent of “Wine is Good Living”…but of course.
For nearly 40 years, Doug has been at the forefront of the Santa Barbara food and wine scene; as a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Doug together with his family opened the Wine Spectator Grand Award-winning restaurant Wine Cask, which for 26 years served to elevate the national exposure of Santa Barbara Wine Country. Margerum next joined forces with fellow SoCO wine luminaries Bod Lindquist of Qupe and Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat to create VITA NOVA winery, which operated from 1986 to 1998. His winemaking experience also included a multi-year stay in the south of France, which still influences his choices in the vineyard and cellar. In 2001, Doug founded his eponymous Margerum Wine Company in a tiny 240 square foot space-his mission statement was to return wine from an industrialized entity to something handcrafted and personal-even today, cuvees that would be bloated and blatantly commercial in the hands of other wineries remain small-quantity releases, giving every bottle of Margerum from careful to collectible price points a feeling of exclusivity.
While difficult to recount all of the knowledge gleaned from Doug’s explanations and anecdotes (he is certainly in his element as a presenter, and I think even he would agree that he possesses a veteran winemaker’s…well, we’ll call it confidence), some of the biggest takeaways were that Doug has an intimate understanding of Santa Barbara County, both as a whole and within the subzones, and is refreshingly realistic about which grapes work where. The second and more important observation is that, philosophically speaking, Doug endeavors to make approachable wines that are at home on a wine critic’s scoring table, a newbie’s backyard bbq, and everywhere in between. What is so fun about drinking Margerum wines is precisely their ability to satisfy a seasoned palate while also being pleasurable-a bottle of Margerum is the epitome of quality without the academic exercise that is “assessing” a wine in the glass-he and his team “hide their work” with aplomb, and this is most evident on his flagship red and white cuvees that take their label from the first letter of Doug’s last name and the number of grape varietals used in each: M5.
The rolling hills of Los Olivos District, the Santa Barbara County subzone where Doug Margerum’s home and winery are located.
The “M5” project is heavily influenced by the years Doug spent in Southern France building on his craft, and by his subsequent travels spent revisiting the places that he found a kinship with as a winemaker. As he says in his own comments on the M5 Red, it is a blend “that is an amalgamation of memories”, an attempt at recreating cuvees that he has tried and loved for decades. With the red wine, blends both varietals and terroirs: the 5 grapes (Grenache leading the way, followed by Syrah, Mourvedre, Counoise, and Cinsault) come from all over Santa Barbara County, with the slow-ripening, long hang time that is characteristic of the Santa Ynez Valley leading the way, along with the low-lying subzone that is his home turf, the Los Olivos District (a relative newcomer that gained its AVA in 2016), the coastal environs of San Luis Obispo, the cool-climate and elevated vineyards in Santa Rita Hills, and finally the hot, arid terroir of Happy Canyon, the county’s easternmost sub appellation. In all, 16 different vineyards go into the fruit for the M5 Red, but the various grape varietals won’t meet until the final stages: Margerum ferments them separately, presses after fermentation, and matures the separate grapes in a combination of puncheon casks and used French oak barrels prior to bringing them together for bottling-this single racking is also emblematic of Doug’s commitment to avoiding oxidation during the vinifying process.
The “M5” white wine is the more recent fulfillment of Doug’s dream to make a White Rhone style blend; for the first 15 years of his company’s existence, Margerum didn’t feel he had the terroir to perfect a Grenache Blanc-based wine. It was not until 2016, when he and his team planted their estate vineyard in the newly-minted sub-AVA of Santa Ynez Valley, Los Olivos. Sandwiched between Ballard Canyon and Happy Canyon AVAs, cooler springs and slightly milder summer temperatures that extend the growing season but maintain the acidity of the grapes (crucial with lower-acid, texturally juicier grapes like Marsanne and Viognier), are distinguishing characteristics. Margerum makes a commitment to this single vineyard expression, certainly, but (perhaps refreshingly) is forthright with his choices in the cellar as well: for the “M5” White, these include once again keeping the grapes separate until a final blend, aging in used oak, puncheon casks, and stainless steel, and most crucially to my palate, only allowing a small portion of the juice to undergo malolactic fermentation, which keeps the rounder, voluptuous grape types in question (Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier, and Picpoul) from becoming flabby and fatiguing on the palate.
For all of his desire to move cases, Doug Margerum isn’t greedy: these two wines are his flagship white and red, and the total case productions are 2,071 and 3,474, respectively. With the effort and toil used to create these effortless and invigorating wines so expertly hidden, it would be easy to go the grocery store route and push these numbers to industrial-level heights, but that’s not “good living”-Margerum has an innate understanding of the power of easy enjoyment and the proprietary goodwill earned when your wines still feel like a little secret, the vinous equivalent of “I know a guy”. His work hidden well, he is content with the idea of a collectible-level wine (the 2021 vintage of “M5” Red was the #17 pick on Wine Spectator’s 2023 Top 100 list) with an everyday feel. “Wine is Good Living”-an apt phrase for Doug and his wines, and part and parcel to my belief that great wines made correctly can indeed be part of a well-lived, full life-D.
Margerum Wine Company White Blend “M5” Los Olivos District AVA
Santa Barbara County, California 2022
Country of Origin: USA.
Places and People: Margerum Wine Company is the brainchild of Doug Margerum, whose history in Santa Barbara County encompasses the last 4 decades of the area’s evolution into a premier winegrowing region. Doug’s career arc includes being the sommelier and owner of a Wine Spectator Grand Award-winning restaurant in Santa Barbara called Wine Cask (1981-2007) and working in retail sales, as a consultant to other wineries, and the winemaker of his own Margerum and Barden labels. The fruit for the “M5” is sourced from one single vineyard in Margerum’s home district of Los Olivos, a subzone of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA in northern Santa Barbara County.
Soil: Moderate to well-drained clay and sandy loams
Grape Varieties: 47% Grenache Blanc, 23% Marsanne, 17% Roussanne, 9% Viognier, and 4% Picpoul.
Winemaking: The “M5” White grapes are fermented separately by varietal, and crucially only a small amount of the overall juice is put through malolactic fermentation; Margerum’s own tasting notes count this as a positive to add roundness and structure to the wine, but for me the positive is keeping most of the final blend away from this secondary fermentation that adds creamy textural notes, as these grape varietals in question aren’t known for their crackling acidity.
Aging: The separated varietals spend 8 months aging on their fine lees in neutral French oak, large puncheon casks, and stainless-steel tanks. The final production level of the 2021 vintage was just 2,071 cases, and even that is considered an increased yield for Margerum’s holdings.
Flavors and Foods: The “M5” White serves up little hints of each of the five grapes used: the saline/mineral element of Grenache Blanc is present on the nose along with the big, wide tropicality of Viognier (mango, fresh lilies). The palate evokes Marsanne’s starfruit and soft, sweet grain cereals, the Chardonnay-esque pineapple/melon of Roussanne, and the juicy key lime of the Picpoul grape. None of these varietals would be classified as “high acid” on a sommelier’s exam, and yet Doug and team manage to imbue the M5 with a moderate 13.2% abv and a slight touch of spritz texturally; the acid is surprisingly vivid and makes you salivate and search around for the next bite of halibut with a fruit-based sauce/glaze, or lemon-marinated chicken breasts dusted with fresh thyme, rosemary, and parsley. The sweetness of the tropical fruit in this wine would also make a great foil to battered/fried fish, and I never thought I would write this about a white Rhone varietal blend, but with the 2022 “M5”’ acidity, goat cheeses, particularly aged ones with bloomy rinds, would be stellar.
Service and Cellar: The “M5” White should be served at the upper end of the white wine cellar temperature spectrum (50-52 degrees F), allowing the white floral notes and spices to be enjoyed. This wine, despite its value-driven pricepoint, is made for the long haul, and the 2022 vintage could easily see out the 2020s decade before dropping off.
Margerum Wine Company Red Blend “M5”, Santa Barbara County, California 2022
Country of Origin: USA.
Soil: Given that it hails from sixteen vineyards across five Santa Barbara appellations, the soil for the 2022 “M5” is an amalgamation of different terroirs: loam in Santa Ynez and Los Olivos, clay and even volcanic deposits in San Luis Obispo, and serpentine and gravel in the eastern AVA of Happy Canyon.
Grape Varieties: 39% Grenache, 32% Syrah, 15% Mourvedre, 7% Counoise, and 7% Cinsault.
Winemaking: The “M5” Red’s grape varieties are fermented separately and don’t meet each other until the final blending prior to bottling. After fermentation, the juice is given another pressing before maturation begins.
Aging: 10 months in seasoned and neutral French oak barrels and large puncheon casks, after which there occurs a single racking (the only exposure to oxygen any of the juice sees during the entire process) where the grapes are combined to blend prior to bottling.
Flavors and Foods: Summer barbeque lovers, look no further: the 2022 “M5” Red is the wine that you may not have known you needed, but one sniff of its perfumed nose (clove, allspice, cardamom all sit behind the ripe red and black cherries and currants) and just one sip of its incredibly friendly palate (the same black and red cherries/currants, along with fresh fig, smoked meat, hoisin sauce, fresh garlic, and herbal notes of fresh sage and eucalyptus) and you’ll be reaching for a plate of ribs (sauced or dry-rubbed), smoked pork shoulder, or Korean-style short ribs. Stir-fry with the aforementioned hoisin, black bean/garlic, soy, or fish sauces would also work wonders-finally, the “M5” is a great alternative to a bottle of Italian red on pizza night (especially if the pie is topped with spicy pepperoni, black olives, roasted red peppers, garlic, or artichokes).
Service and Cellar: The “M5” Red is best enjoyed on the cooler end of the red wine cellar temperature range (56-60 degrees F). The beautifully fresh fruit is kept just so with this slight chill, and the wine becomes dangerously drinkable. Margerum’s non-reductive winemaking style will often see the M5 with a slight bit of trapped gas when first opened, so a short while with the bottle opened to aerate is optimal. Enjoy now through 2030.