Family owned and operated Marbeso Wine

This week we spoke with Colin and Hannah McNany, who shared how their winemaking journey has brought them all the way down the central coast and back up again. In addition, we’re giving October a warm welcome with a bottle of red.

Interview with Marbeso Wine

In an unassuming warehouse in Buellton you’ll find the coziest, ocean-inspired tasting room belonging to Marbeso Wine. Colin and Hannah McNany were kind enough to welcome us into their space on the same day that they were receiving grapes for harvest. With two youngsters in tow and a recent move from the South Bay of LA to Los Alamos, the McNany’s are all in on their central coast wine label. With a name meaning kiss of the sea, their story and their wines are fresh and entirely sourced from coastal vineyards.

Q: Give us a bit of background on Marbeso and how the brand came to be.

A: This will be my 20th vintage and 18th year making wine. I started out studying sustainable agriculture and ecology at Santa Cruz, and then wrote my thesis on sustainable viticulture. From there I started planting vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains and ended up working at Byington which, at the time, was a collage of different winemakers working together. When I got this job in the cellar I would just taste, taste, taste. And all of a sudden, I realized I have a good palate. It made me feel like I can have a place in the wine industry. Wine makes sense to me. I also spent some time working in the Martinborough area of New Zealand, focusing on Pinot Noir and natural ferments and in the Margaret River area of Western Australia, focusing on Chardonnay. I got to surf around those areas too, which was really cool!

We started Marbeso in 2019, here in Buellton, in a garage. And we've been scaling up ever since. So now what you see is five years of growth! It's taken five years to get to the point to where we are open to the public. We were originally living in LA full time and just living up here in Buellton for the two or three months of harvest. Once we had kids, we realized you can't really be as nomadic, so we decided to move here.

The idea with Marbeso meaning “kiss of the sea” is that we source fruit in close proximity to the ocean. When I worked in Santa Cruz we were planting vineyards for the CEO’s of Silicon Valley. We had eight guys working across 150 vineyards. I’ve spent a lot of my career chasing coastal vineyards.

Coastal vineyards result in cool climate wines. It creates higher acidity and lower alcohols. These are the type of wines that we like to produce and drink ourselves. We ferment all these wines with natural, ambient yeast bacterias. We don't add anything to the wines. We don't filter. We don't fine. The idea is that our wines are very gentle and our style is feminine.

Q: What inspired you to start your own brand?

A: I think the freedom to do whatever we wanted…to have the sweat equity, have skin in the game, and be our own boss. That was the driving force and I did it for other people for so long that I was just tired of it. I wanted us to have a little more say in everything and have our personality and our soul behind it. It feels more complete.

We wanted to be responsible for sourcing the fruit, making the wine, artistically designing the labels, and getting into sales. It’s been a passion project, but it also will be for long term profitability. That's why we're here in Santa Barbara…to create our brand, have a family, and be involved in the wine industry.

Q: What made you choose to settle down in Santa Barbara for wine making?

A: We had a decision to go either north or south. Up north in Napa and Sonoma, it's just oversaturated. It's hard for young producers to be someone and make a name. Santa Barbara is a young wine growing region and it's really supportive of young, independent winemakers.

LA's market is one of the biggest in the country, and is the sixth biggest in the world. People from LA are coming up here to visit Santa Barbara wine country. It’s appealing, from a marketing perspective, having the proximity we have to LA. Plus, we grew up in LA and with our family still based down there we liked that we were still close.

I also think having kids in the wine industry and having them raised in this environment is pretty cool. We moved up here partly because life goes so fast, but you can't slow down. Santa Barbara has enabled us to slow down our lifestyle a bit.

Q: What do you feel makes Santa Barbara unique from a winemaking perspective?

A: Well, from a from a wine growing point of view, you can do whatever you want here. If you want to grow cab and be Bordeaux, you can go to Happy Canyon. If you want to be Burgundian focused you have the Sta. Rita Hills or you can be a hardcore Syrah and Grenache producer in Ballard Canyon. Santa Maria also has tons of cool stuff being grown. I mean, we have it all here. And with our proximity to the ocean, it just makes it such an awesome spot.

Q: We’ve read that you sat on the judging panel for Wine & Spirits Magazine for a period of time. What was that experience like?

A: I got to taste wines for the Wine & Spirits Magazine on their judges panel. We would taste everything blind, like 60 wines in a flight. The wines that we liked would be sent on to be featured in the magazine. You would meet all sorts of interesting people and taste all sorts of interesting wines.

The format was a roundtable. You'd sit down and anyone who sent wines to Wine & Spirits, you would taste. They're all numbered and the only thing you know is the region and price point. It was like going to the gym for the palette.

They’d give you a minute per wine and after going through a tasting you'd basically say yea or nay to each one. Then you'd have to argue for it or against it. You'd stick up for some wines, and others you wouldn't. If there was a majority, you would send the wines on to the magazine. At the end of that hour, you would get the sheet that told you everything that you've tasted. You think you know a wine, but sometimes you don't know it all.

Q: Were there any surprises or interested trends that you were exposed to while sitting on the panel?

A: You taste some pretty bad wines coming from producers that you have respect for or are from well-known names. You'd be very surprised. Or vice versa, where it'd be a wine from a subpar, big brand but you would like it and you'd be like, “Wow, they engineered that and fooled me.” It was a great exercise to taste so many wines and strengthen the palette.

Q: What’s on the horizon for Marbeso that you’re excited about?

A: We're making some fun wines this year! We are making a whole cluster Gamay from Nolan Ranch up in Alisos Canyon. We're also doing some carbonic Pinot Gris from North Canyon Vineyard, which we’re excited about.

For people who join our club, there's always something new and different coming down the pipeline. We just bottled an Italian blend from a dry farmed vineyard in the Santa Cruz mountains. Those vines are 40 years old and very interesting. We try to keep it exciting for ourselves as well as anyone who likes following us. It's not the same peanut butter and jelly every year.

Q: What’s the best way for people to support you?

A: Come visit us, taste our wines, have a chat, and get to know our vibe! Also, follow us on Instagram.

Uncorked

Perhaps The Crow Knows Red Blend

This limited production bottle is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Though this red blend isn’t available online, it might still be available in the Longoria tasting rooms. And if not, Longoria has a handful of reds we are loving at the moment! While you’re there ask the owners, Brooke and Lindsey, how their own crow encounter inspired this bottle…

Nose: violet, black currant

Palette: black cherry

Pairs well with: a Cubano sandwich

Available at: Longoria tasting room on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara

What’s happening?

• Foxen Wine Dinner: “Kick-off the Vintner’s Festival Weekend with the Foxen Boys at FOXEN’s annual wine dinner in the Pico Los Alamos Garden on Friday, October 13th. Enjoy a skillfully crafted three course dinner paired to Foxen's best offerings.” $90/ticket

• Satellite SB Barn Rave: Like wine? Like music? Like dancing? Then head to Satellite SB’s Barn Rave this Friday October 13th from 8PM - 12AM. Celebrating the opening of their new location means there will be drinks and DJs all night.

• Santa Barbara Vintner’s Festival: With nearly 100 food and wine vendors, this festival showcases all that Santa Barbara County has to offer! This is a heavy hitter in the wine event world and takes place on Saturday, October 14th for $95/ticket.

• Oktoberfest at Saints Barrel Wine Bar: Who says Oktoberfest has to be all about beer?! Saints Barrel in San Luis Obispo is celebrated with German wine and food on Saturday, October 14th from 5-9 pm.

Cheers!

Issue #19