2019 Marimar Estate Chardonnay La Masia Don Miguel Vineyard Russian River Valley Sonoma County 750 ml

Marimar wines are a fan favorite here at Wine Access, so it’s no wonder we’ve been licking our chops for our first ever Marimar Chardonnay: their stunning Don Miguel Vineyard bottling. 

It is no mystery why these wines are so beloved. The winemaker at Marimar is Bill Dyer, who arrived in Napa Valley in 1976, trained with legend Ric Forman, and has been consulting for the winery since the 1990s. While folks like David Ramey and Helen Turley get a lot more attention in Sonoma County, Bill is their winemaking peer.

Marimar Torres, the strong-willed, visionary woman behind this renowned estate, hails from a winemaking legacy in Spain that carries the same historical weight and reputation that Robert Mondavi does in California. Constrained by the upper-class mores of her aristocratic life in Europe, Torres made for the sunny, freer climes of California, purchasing land in the Russian River Valley in the 1980s.  

Her wines made a splash from the estate’s first vintage in 1989, stamped by the same vigor and elegance that defines the Torres wines in Spain. Don Miguel Vineyard, named for family patriarch Miguel Torres, was planted in 1986 in the Green Valley AVA: the coolest, foggiest corner of the Russian River Valley, home to luminaries like Hartford Family and Dutton-Goldfield.

Advised by her brothers to plant at the same high densities as in Europe, Torres—at great expense—installed roughly 2000 vines per acre, creating competition between vines that resulted in lower yields, but greater concentration in the fruit. Grown in well-draining Goldridge sandy loam, marine sediment, and sandstone subsoil, this gorgeous Chardonnay shows fine mineral detail that keeps unfurling after an hour in the glass.