I called the Martin Ranch Winery last week and spoke with
administrative assistant Jackie Starkovich. I wanted to come out to
pay the winery a visit and hopefully speak to the owners, Ther
èse and Dan Martin.
I called the Martin Ranch Winery last week and spoke with administrative assistant Jackie Starkovich. I wanted to come out to pay the winery a visit and hopefully speak to the owners, Therèse and Dan Martin.
“Dan and Therèse are very pressed for time,” Jackie said, perhaps with pun intended. “Our crush just started.”
The “crush” is the term the wine industry uses to indicate the time spent harvesting the fruit off the vines and all the work involved getting the grapes ready for fermentation, barrel-aging and bottling. For the wineries in the local vicinity, this time period is usually between mid-September and mid-November each year.
Being persistent, I was able to schedule an appointment. As I winded my way down Redwood Retreat Road, I thought to myself, “How busy can they really be? They are the owners. They probably are delegating all the hard work and only have the tough job of drinking all the wine, right?”
When I arrived, Jackie greeted me and told me Dan was right outside, waiting to give me a tour of the vineyard. Once outside, the only person I saw was a man feverishly moving bins of grapes with a forklift. He had on jeans and a flannel shirt, and his long hair was pulled back in a braided ponytail. I thought, “Maybe my long-haired brethren will know where the owner can be found.”
As he throttled down the engine, I yelled, “I am looking for Dan Martin. Do you know where I can find him?” The long-haired worker jumped down, stuck out his grape-stained hand and said, “You just found him. I am Dan Martin.”
That’s the beauty about hands. You can always tell so much about people by their hands.
When I met Therèse Martin for the first time a few minutes later, she also shook my hand with one that was crimson in color, a testament to the hard work that occupies her and her husband’s daily lives.
The Martin Ranch Winery lies in the extreme southeast corner of the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation. After looking at a map, I was surprised to see how vast the appellation is, stretching from Aptos near the coast, all the way north to Half Moon Bay and as far east as Los Gatos. More than 60 wineries and vineyards, mostly family-run, exist in this appellation. With its numerous microclimates, slopes and changes in soil composition, the grapes that are grown and the wine that is produced can vary, literally, from hillside to hillside.
The tour of the vineyard started right away. Dan led me down a row of cabernet sauvignon grapes and started explaining a lot of things about the vines and the field itself. “We use a quadrilateral trellis system in our vineyard. The standard in California is the bilateral trellis system,” he said.
He explained how the young vine must be trained to grow upward first, and then the shoots, called cordons, are trained to grow to the sides – imagine the letter “H” placed horizontally on a pole.
Dan spoke earnestly about the divided canopy that is created and how the vineyard is pruned to leave an optimum number of leaves on each fruit-producing branch. Although the Martin’s irrigate their vines, Dan mentioned that they only provide about 80 percent of what the plant needs. “Grape vines, ones that develop strength and vigor for soil nutrients, ones that have the proper balance of air circulation and sunlight, will produce fruit that has tough skins, great color and flavor,” he explained.
With beautiful vines and well-cared for grapes, I asked Dan about the indigenous flora that seems to grow and thrive in between the rows of vines. “We allow our fields to have natural ground cover,” he replied. “The ground cover helps with drainage and erosion. It also provides a home for predators that feast on vineyard pests. There is no such thing as a bad spider.”
The experience of being a good farmer came to Dan from his Uncle Jack, a man who worked until he was 95 and lived to be 107. After two years of study in agricultural education, Dan spent the next 22 years of his life in the produce distribution and grocery business. It was during this time that he met Therèse, the love of his life and partner in Martin Ranch Winery.
Two things that Therèse and Dan discovered together was their love of wine and food. After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 put an unceremonious end to one business venture together, the couple decided to pursue the idea of becoming grape farmers. They purchased 17 acres and started the vineyard in 1992.
Next week, we’ll finish the story of Martin Ranch Winery and explore their wines in more detail. We’ll also throw in some food stuff for fun. Stay tuned.
Cheers!
David Cox is a wine enthusiast and executive director of St. Joseph’s Family Center in Gilroy. He can be reached at wi**********@***oo.com.
