Winemaker Notes
#54 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 of 2018
Slight straw and golden hues with a viscosity that clings to the glass as it is swirled. Apricots, white floral, sweet honey, hints of brioche toast, sweet pea flowers and pineapple. Full, round and pleasing with ample acidity to balance the richness that will continue to evolve with time in bottle. Flavors of apple, wet stone and a touch of peach nectar engage with a lovely long persistent finish that lingers.
The taste and aromatics of Rhône white blends are ideal for our Santa Barbara lifestyle. They pair well with the alfresco meals we eat and the cuisine typical of this area: grilled seafood, papaya salsa, meadow picnics, the beach, seafood skewers and general fun. These wines are great while young and develop to an entirely other experience with bottle age.
Blend: 54% Grenache Blanc, 21% Viognier, 14% Marsanne, 8% Roussanne, 3% Vermentino
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The just-bottled, 2017 White M5, Margerum's white Rhone blend, is bright, nuanced and wonderfully focused, with the energy of Grenache driving the wine's personality. Citrus, orchard fruit and floral notes are nicely delineated in this attractive, inviting white.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a compelling and delicious blend of 54% Grenache Blanc, 21% Viognier, 14% Marsanne, 8% Roussanne and 3% Vermentino from Doug Margerum's new estate property. Crisp Asian pear, apple blossom and stargazer lily aromas lead into a very grippy, tense and chalky palate full of nectarine sorbet, lime rind and tangerine flesh flavors. Editors' Choice
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Wine & Spirits
Doug Margerum blends this from five Rhône varieties he grows at his estate vineyard—mostly grenache blanc (54 percent, lending a pale orange richness), with viognier (giving that lily-like perfume), marsanne, rousanne and vermentino. It’s peppery and cool, the grape-skin tannins providing an intriguing structure, the wine tightly built yet juicy and robust enough for a veal stew.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
Today it is an integral part of the greater Santa Barbara County wine region, but at one time the village, Los Olivos, was a stop on the Wells Fargo stagecoach line.