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Wine & Food Fest: Mike Martini
Third-generation California winemaker Mike Martini plays lead guitar in a rock band called Private Reserve.
There’s no way that detail’s going to slide by after an Austin lunch meeting with the burly, effusive grandson of the Italian immigrant who started the Louis M. Martini Winery. When you’re in Austin, you talk about music, even if you won’t have time to hit the clubs.
Martini will be a busy man during the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival, which began Thursday and runs through Sunday. He’ll be pouring his famed cabernets at Friday’s “Red, White and New” tasting at the Driskill, the “Stars Across Texas Grand Tasting” at the Long Center on Friday night, Saturday’s sold-out “Big Dog Reds” event at III Forks and the “Sunday Fair” in Driftwood.
He’ll be the guy with forearms like oak barrels and the mid-length gray hair and mustache to match who looks like he’d be right at home grinding out classic rock in a bar band (a bar with a really tight wine list, heavy on the California reds).
At lunch, we tried four of Martini’s cabernets. Here are a few impressions of each:
• 2006 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon ($17): A blackberry fruit bomb, an entry-level cab that Martini joked “ages in the car on the way home.” Come on, big man. Show a little more respect for the most playful of your kids. Fun and drinkable.
• 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($25): We’re not even halfway along in the tasting, and already things are getting complex. I pick up some cedary, cigar-box notes. The fruit is more subtle here.
• 2006 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($35): The oak makes itself known. Talk stops at the table while this one sinks in. The winery’s representative, Melanie Dougherty, calls it “velvety,” and we launch into comparing Mike Martini’s winemaking style to that of his father (Louis P.) and his grandfather (Louis M.). Put in the simplest terms, grandfather Martini made big, rustic wines in the Old World sty;e, father Martini’s style was silky, and Mike Martini has found a way to bridge the two styles. This wine expresses that balance. Rustic smoothness. Right, velvet.
• 2005 Sonoma Valley Monte Rosso Cabernet Sauvignon ($85): The “Red Mountain” of the Martini vineyards makes a wine that’s got more of everything: more oak, more tannins, more alcohol. Despite all the “more,” there’s some finesse: a ruby color that doesn’t go all black-purple like a big zinfandel but lets light come through like a dusky jewel, a density in the mouth that leaves room for bright spice notes. We all get just a little more animated talking about this one. Mike Martini is reaching into the air, his big hands drawing in the words as if he wants to gather them into one big word that says it all. No worries there: the wine speaks for itself.
Look for coverage of the Wine & Food Festival all weekend from Addie Broyles, Patrick Beach and me on austin360.com/food.
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
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