Martha Stoumen "Post Flirtation" Red 2023

"You would be hard-pressed to find a more delicious wine than this red blend. Aside from leasing and farming her own plots, Martha Stoumen works with conscientious growers and makes wines that she believes express the character of Northern California. This red is gently made to minimize tannins and is bright and lovely, spicy, easygoing and fresh. It’s another red that would be best lightly chilled." - Eric Asimov, NY Times, August 8, 2026

This kitchen chameleon and California crowd-pleasers is concentrated like pomegranate juice and juicy like hibiscus agua fresca with notes of orange peel. Aromas of Himalayan black salt and wild sage radiate from the glass. Carignan brings savory flavors while juicy Zinfandel brings sweet spices like clove and cinnamon. Year after year, excellent sourcing and careful blending yield a heart-warming wine that’s bursting with juicy red fruit. Bring this joyous bottle into any bustling hearth and share amongst friends old and new. Stouwman says she's not re-inventing the wheel with this classic old vine Zin/Carignan blend, just lightening things up a bit.

A blend of 62% Zinfandel (100% destemmed) and 38% Carignan (95% whole cluster, 5% destemmed) hand-harvested and fermented separately. A mixture of punchdowns and pumpovers were used to gently extract tannin and each lot was pressed prior to dryness. Aged in a combination of stainless steel and neutral oak barrique for six months before blending with a small percentage of reserve Carignan from 2021, which aged in neutral oak barrique for 28 months. Unfined. Unfiltered.

Few people have been more impactful on the modern natural wine movement in America than Martha Stoumen, a first generation winemaker who blazed a trail for natural wine in California in the early 2000s. After graduating from UCLA, she spent eight years apprenticing around the world, including a formative experience at COS in Sicily (hence her love for Nero D’Avola), all while wrapping up a masters degree at UC Davis. In 2014 she joined the team at Broc Cellars as assistant winemaker by day and launched Martha Stoumen Wines by night. She now has 23 harvests under her belt across six countries. The last decade has turned Martha from a pioneer to legend in the California wine scene and a mentor to many (See Rosalind Reynolds of Emme Wines).

Why the name? Early in Martha and her husband's courtship she invited him to join her at the winery, and when labeling tanks he misspelled "Post Filtration" as "Post Flirtation." The name stuck.