Margins "Neutral Oak Hotel" White Wine 2024

The only white blend in the Margins portfolio is refreshing and approachable. Bright minerality leads to vibrant notes of orange and orange zest along with flavors of peach and soft tropical fruits. The balance of minerality and fruit is like watching a tight rope walker at a carnival. A quirky combo that is easy to drink and enjoyable for almost everyone who likes fresh white wines. 

A blend of 65% Chenin Blanc, 23% Muscat Blanc and 12% Vermentino, the wines were fermented and aged separately, then blended together before bottling. The majority of the wine was aged in neutral oak for 4-5 months, except for just over half of the Chenin Blanc, which was aged in concrete egg. Native fermentation, no fining, no filtration, no other modifications or additions except 35 ppm of sulfur dioxide to the assembled blend the week before bottling.

Margins Wine produces low-intervention wines using grapes from underrepresented regions, vineyards, and varietals, and is part of the growing movement in California to make wines from organically farmed vineyards using little to no additives during the winemaking process, thereby showcasing the vineyards the grapes came from.

Much like people living on the ‘margins of society,’ vineyards can be outcasts too. Most consumers of wine are only familiar with a handful of grapegrowing regions and types of wine. Margins draws attention to vineyards and varietals throughout northern and central California that find themselves on the margins without the recognition they deserve.

Margins Wine is a small winemaking project of Megan Bell, a winemaker living and working in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Prior to settling on the central coast of California, Megan received her BS in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis and apprenticed in wineries and vineyards in Napa, the Livermore Valley, the Willamette Valley, Central Otago (NZ), and the Loire Valley (France).