Marimar Estate is a Californian winery located in Sonoma County, owned by Marimar Torres, the sister of Miguel A. Torres

Miguel A. Torres

Miguel A. Torres , the current President and Managing Director of Bodegas Torres, is a member of the fourth generation of this family business...

, President of Bodegas Torres

Bodegas Torres

Founded in 1870 by Jaime Torres, Bodegas Torres is a historical wine growing company located in Pacs, some 4 km from Vilafranca del Penedès, where the company has its head office...

.

History

In 1986 Marimar Torres embarked on a project to plant a 60 acres (242,811.6 m²) vineyard on the western hills of DO Russian River Valley, in Green Valley AVA, sub-appellation of Sonoma County, very close to the Pacific: with a cold microclimate that is suitable for Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

 and Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...

. The vineyard is called Don Miguel, after her father, Miguel Torres Carbó, who oversaw the worldwide expansion of the Torres family business. Of the vineyards 60 acres 30 are planted with Chardonnay and the other 30 with Pinot Noir.

Vineyards

The Doña Margarita vineyard, named after Marimar’s mother, was planted in 2002 in the Freestone Valley of the Sonoma Coast AVA

Sonoma Coast AVA

The Sonoma Coast AVA is an American Viticultural Area in Sonoma County, California, USA containing more than , mostly along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean. It extends from San Pablo Bay to the border with Mendocino County. The appellation is known for its cool climate and high rainfall...

. Although the estate has 180 acre (0.7284348 km²), only 12 of these have been earmarked for vines and planted with Pinot Noir. A large area of the estate remains uncultivated with wildlife and indigenous

Indigenous (ecology)

In biogeography, a species is defined as native to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention. Every natural organism has its own natural range of distribution in which it is regarded as native...

 plant species.

At the Sonoma vineyard, the estate utilizes traditional Mediterranean viticultural practices, such as a vertical trellis for the vines, the choice of rootstocks that are more resistant to phylloxera

Phylloxera

Grape phylloxera ; originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae; commonly just called phylloxera is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America...

 and a planting density of 2 m x 1m (2,000 vines per acre). Since 2003 both vineyards have been subject to organic cultivation.

Winery

The winery, with a capacity of 15,000 cases is located at the top of a hill in the middle of the vineyard.

Further reading

• Article in the Diario El Mundo. Magazine. La española que triunfa en California (The Spanish Woman who has triumphed in California). No. 425. Sunday 18 November 2007
• Magazine Todo Vino.com. Marimar Torres: Soy la prueba más clara de que se puede sobrevivir sin Parker (I’m the living proof that you can survive without Parker), September 2007
• Magazine (ask?) Comer& Beber. Marimar Torres, seducida por California (Marimar Torres, Seduced by California), December 2006
• Mauricio Wiesenthal. Salvat Editores, 2001. ISBN 84-345-0932-6
• Article in the newspaper La Vanguardia: Torres juega fuerte en California (Torres, Playing to Win in California). Date: 1/01/2003

External links

• Marimar Estate website (in English and Spanish)