Marston Family Vineyard – 161
Sunday, September 18th, 2005
There are so many ultra-small boutique wineries who only produce a single label and who are not open to the public. It is those wineries that are the most difficult for me to write about except for the wonderful people at Copia who occasionally throw special events that enable me to meet the proprietors of these wineries. As an aside, my biggest problem is that there are too many of these vendors at these tastings for me to have adequate time with them to get their stories… But I’m chipping away at my humongous list of wineries one label at a time.
Marston Family Vineyards is one of the more prestigious so I was quite thrilled for the opportunity to taste their wine. Located high on Spring Mountain, the Marston name has been well-known in the industry as vineyard owners for almost forty years having acquired this piece of property that already had a 100+ year history as grape growing vineyards. As vineyard owners, the Marstons supplied grapes to numerous award-winning winemakers including Andre Tchelistcheff and Sean Thackery.
Elizabeth Marston was representing the family at the day’s tasting event and is part of the lineage carrying on the history of quality as Director of Public Relations. Now producing wine under their own name, continuing in the tradition of exceptional winemakers using their grapes, the Marstons have none other than Phillipe Melka at the helm. The wine, limited to 500 cases is unlikely to be available for very long.
2002 Cabernet Sauvignon – Purple-hued and intensely dark, tons of dark cherry, plum, and a tease of mint appear in the nose. Chewy and complicated, heightened tannins present up front in this newly-opened bottle, but show well-developed flavors of dark blueberry, chocolate, minerals, and balanced acids. The finish is supple and engaging. The price is $240.00 for three 750ml bottles.
Marston Family Vineyard ~ P.O. Box 668 ~ St. Helena ~ CA ~ 94574 ~ 707-963-8490