Self taught, couple has been making excellent wines for almost 20 years
Published in the November 13, 2013 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Therèse and Dan Martin in their Martin Ranch Winery vineyards off of Redwood Retreat Road west of Morgan Hill.
Every third weekend of the month, many South Valley wine lovers make a pilgrimage down Redwood Retreat Road deep into the Santa Cruz Mountains to reach the Martin Ranch Winery near the end of the bucolic country lane. In the boutique winery’s rustic setting, they eat a picnic lunch and sample award-winning wines under the Therèse Vineyards and J.D. Hurley labels.
Dan and Therèse Martin planted their first grapes on the property in 1993 and had a small harvest by 1996. Their original intention was to simply provide the fruit for other winemakers. But in 1997, a surplus of wine grapes nudged them to become winemakers themselves.
“We experienced a scary situation with us possibly not being able to sell all our fruit because we had a 50-ton crop,” Therèse said. “That’s when we began to talk about the necessity of possibly becoming a winery. But Dan was adamant that was not going to happen.”
Despite the reluctance, Therèse started taking winemaking courses at the University of California at Davis. A friend of Dan’s taught him how to make wine in the garage. By 2002, Martin Ranch Winery produced its first vintage of 600 cases.
“It was just going to be a very small winery,” Therèse said. “We built this four-car garage and instead of turning it into a shop, it became our winery in 2003.”
As it grew, Martin Ranch made deals with small growers in the Santa Clara Valley region that produced grapes but did not necessarily want to make wine with them. The Martins didn’t have the money to purchase the fruit outright, so they ended up making wine with it and giving back bottles of wine to the growers as payment. Before the couple knew it, their business was running out of space in the garage so they decided to expand their winery facilities.
Martin Ranch focuses on a traditional method of producing fine wines, Dan said. “The goal is to make the best possible wine from that particular variety,” he said. “I know it’s a cliché that ‘It’s all about the fruit,’ but it really is all about the fruit. The most important decision a winemaker can make is when to harvest the fruit. So we have followed a path that I would call more natural winemaking. We try to do it in a traditional manner, not using chemicals or some of the modern winemaking procedures that would be considered unnatural.”
That doesn’t mean Dan is not open to trying new technologies and techniques that will add quality to the wine, Therèse said.
“Dan’s more willing to step out of the box when it comes to blending,” she said. “I tend to be less willing to do that, although he, in a very gentle manner, forces me to because you’re never going to know if something is going to work unless you try it. More of my wines tend to be limited productions in the wine club. Dan’s tend to be more broad market and more cases in individual programs.”
The winery has no tasting room but its monthly wine-tasting weekend attracts people who purchase bottles from a stand next to the winemaking facility and enjoy it with a picnic lunch on the surrounding tables. “We try to make it fun,” Therèse said. “Dan’s here and he takes people into the barrel room and educates them. Our philosophy as a winery is to always try to educate the consumer. The more people feel comfortable about finding out about how wine is made, the more interested they’ll be in drinking it.”
Martin Ranch Winery
Location: 6675 Redwood Retreat Road, Gilroy.
Hours: Open every third weekend from noon to 4 p.m. for tasting, barrel sampling and picnicking with vineyard views. Also open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mon-Fri for wine club pick up and purchases.
Contact: (408) 842.9197 or www.martinranchwinery.com.
