02 Oct Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Martha Stoumen Benchlands 2022, Mendocino County

When you see a wine with the dominant blend of Petit Sirah, Zinfandel, and Nero d’Avola, you might assume it will be a big, opaque, fruit-forward juicy wine. But when you see that the wine is made by Martha Stoumen, you have to remove that assumption. A winemaker who produces beautifully balanced low intervention wines, her style is not big and juicy. And neither was the Benchlands 2022 which is why it is the Please The Palate wine of the week.

About

Martha Stoumen describes her winemaking style as a winemaking culture of patience. With the desire to recapture a farming and winemaking culture that has all but faded away, Martha makes wines from lesser-known varieties, including many Italian grapes. She works with fruit from the inland of Mendocino where she sources fruit from vineyards with low-input organic farming and makes with minimal intervention. The Benchland Blend is a wine that pays homage to the uplifted benchland of inland Mendocino. This is a somewhat forgotten yet historical area planted by Italian immigrants. All of the vineyards included in this blend are dry-farmed.

The blend is made up of six heritage grapes co-fermented. The grapes in the blend are Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Nero d’Avola, Valdiguié, Colombard, and Carignan all from Mendocino. The Petit Sirah comes from the 16-year old head-trained, organically farmed vineyard Bricarelli Ranch in Ukiah. Additional Petite Sirah, as well as Nero d’Avola and Zinfandel come from the organic Ling-Chiarito Vineyard in Talmage. And the Carignan, Colombard, and Valdiguié come from the Ricetti Vineyard in Redwood Valley, a certified organic vineyard planted in 1948.

Tasting Notes

The blend of Benchlands is 40% Petite Sirah, 30% Zinfandel, 20% Nero d’Avola, 4% Valdiguié, 4% Colombard, and 2% Carignan. The Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, and Nero d’Avola were each fermented separately in small batches. The Carignan, Valdiguié, and Colombard (a white grape) were harvested and co-fermented as one. The components were kept separate after pressing and aged in neutral oak barrique. The wine was then racked, blended, and bottled, unfiltered and unfined, after 6 months.

The color of the wine is a light red wine. It was not transparent but had a lightness to it. On the nose, the wine has a lovely freshness of black cherry, raspberry fruit aromas and a floral lift. The freshness and lightness of the wine hits the palate. Chill the wine for a smooth and super drinkable wine.

Food Pairing

As drinkable as the wine is on its own, it is a fun wine to pair with food. With the end of summer heat still here, I put a chill on the wine and opened it at a casual family dinner of roasted rack of lamb with salad and asparagus. The wine was a perfect pairing as it had enough body to match the lamb without being weighted or heavy.

Where To Purchase

The Benchland 2022 retails $34 and can be purchased directed on the Martha Stoumen website.

Meet The Winemaker

Meet Martha Stoumen and get to know her in 30 questions on the Wine Soundtrack USA podcast.

Read about Martha and other California winemakers with a passion for Italian grapes in a story I wrote for Monarch.wine.