2024 Margins Rugged Heart Red

Region: Santa Cruz Mountains < California

Grapes: 47% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petite Sirah, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Certified organic farming with loads of biodiversity + regenerative practices at the Makjavich vineyard (co-farmed by Larry Makjavich and Megan); Destemmed, fermented on skins for five days then aged in neutral oak for eight months. Native fermentation, no fining, no filtration, no other modifications or additions except 10 ppm of sulfur dioxide when the wine went to barrel and 30 ppm the week before bottling; 12.2% ABV; 44 cases

• Woman winemaker & owner: Megan Bell!
• Pristine Santa Cruz Mountains vineyard - it's the 8th certified organic farm in the USA, has never seen a chemical
• Fun fact: Megan stumbled upon the Makjavich Vineyard while on her way to a square dance
• Natural, fresh take on a Bordeaux blend - she's chillable!
• Juicy raspberries, bright red currants and spiced cranberries
• Like a warm hug on a crisp fall day

More about Margins
Margins Wine is a small personal project of an idealistic twenty-something called Megan Bell, launched in 2016 with a Kickstarter campaign. Having earned her BS from UC Davis and worked in vineyards from Napa and the Willamette Valley to New Zealand and the Loire, Megan settled in the Santa Cruz Mountains for a job – assistant winemaker at Beauregard Vineyards – but set her sights on making her own wine using grapes from as many underrepresented vineyards, regions, and varietals as possible. We love her philosophy: “we are part of the growing movement in California to make wines from sustainably farmed vineyards with little to no additives, showcasing the vineyards they 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 grape growing regions and types of wine.” She aims to change that homogeneity by making great, terroir-driven wine from these fringe grapes and getting them some much deserved attention.

Why this wine has a special place in her heart: "Larry Makjavich planted these vines himself around 2011 and farmed them with friends for eight or so years, making the wine in his basement. Starting in January 2019, I began to co-farm this vineyard with Larry, and Margins has purchased all of the fruit since then. Years ago, I was struggling with what to call this vineyard before it was time to label the wines for the first time. No one had ever made wines commercially from this site before, so there was no precedent. Larry gave me free rein to call the vineyard whatever I pleased. I discovered the phrase ‘rugged heart’ when I was browsing a late 1880s guide to Santa Cruz County. It suggested that the extreme landscape and diverse coastal and mountain microclimates were well suited only to travelers with ‘rugged hearts.’ In the end it didn’t feel right to name this vineyard after anything other than the person who planted and continues to farm it nearly every day, but I loved the phrase and chose to use it for this wine."