Get To Know Martin

Highlights from Martin’s multifarious career include: becoming the first Master of Wine of Mexican descent in 2018, winning Best Paper at Vienna’s 2019 AAWE Conference for his research in consumer purchasing behavior, twice producing one of Wine & Spirits Magazine’s “US Best Cabernets” under the Peter Paul Wines aegis…  and twice being named one of Wine Business Monthly’s  Industry Leaders for co-founding Wine Unify, empowering diversity, equity, and inclusion in wine and for co-founding Napa RISE– a groundbreaking, community-driven symposium accelerating meaningful sustainability & climate action leadership in Napa County. In 2022, Martin became a Partner at WineWise.

During his spare time, Martin occasionally writes (his work has been featured in JancisRobinson.com and Napa Valley Viticultural Society’s Journal), co-hosts the James Beard-awarded FourTop podcast on the culture and future of our industry, judges for several international competitions, and attempts to become fluent in a fifth language.

 

What is your favorite wine region?

The one I have not gone to yet. Not quite answering the question, but the truth is, each one becomes my favorite after I leave it. So more favorites will come, by my odd logic. The prospect list is probably a lifetime’s worth. But on my bucket list is Madeira and Lebanon.

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What is your favorite class to teach?

WSET L3 Sparkling Class – tasty and necessary, what’s not to like?

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What's your most memorable wine experience?

Gary Figgins, hosting a scrawny retail stockboy who’d been in the wine biz for less than 2 years. There we were, in his caves, tasting through about 30 barrels over 3 hours, I’m following him around while holding a large white bucket (which got quite full towards the end). Of course, this kid had no idea who he was or how freakin ridonculous one should feel being in his presence. To me, this was just a friendly old guy who everyone kept tell me I should visit if I found myself in Washington wine country.  To him, I must have truly been a nobody, just another wine clerk acting like a wine tourist. And yet, there he was, graciously spending his afternoon with me, sharing his philosophy, sharing his story, and sharing snapshots of his future wines. Hell, I was just a newcomer, driving up from Oregon Wine Camp in 2004, having my rental car broken into and luggage stolen, pulling up to his winery with a flapping-tarp covering one window, and 3-day worn clothes – (stockboy salaries weren’t all that high back then to buy a new wardrobe on the fly). This is a moment that I will never forget. If I could go back in time, and thank him for his hospitality, grace, and generosity, I would in a heartbeat. Leonetti has a soft spot in my heart even today.

Why did you decide to become an instructor?

Teaching is always the best way to learn. And I am quite forgetful. To me, this is a way to stay up to date with the changing world of wine. I also appreciate the challenge of finding ways to distill the complexities of some regions, industries, and traditions into manageable subject matter for all of us in a class to understand at the same time.

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What's your most memorable food and wine pairing?

To this day, it’s the beauty of what happens when Banyuls is paired with super dark chocolate.

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What's the biggest challenge in your job?

The jetlag. But I found a new pillow that works on planes finally. It is amazing. Ask me and I’ll tell you about it.

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What other passions aside from wine do you have?

Music, both playing and listening, guitar, piano, singing. Rockclimbing. Cooking whenever I can. All of this is kinda common, but whatevs, I’m a one-trick pony. It seems wine takes up most of my brainspace.

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Name some recent wine discoveries that you find exciting.

The idea (shown in practice by a savvy grapegrower friend of mine who recently taught this to me) that vines truly live each day as if they are slowly breathing: inhaling and exhaling as the day progresses into night. The readings you might take at5amduring harvest are not the same as a reading at10amafter the vines have had their coffee, and yes, they get tired and grumpy around4pmjust like we do, and they might take a nap, and then relax and sleeeeeeep quietly as the dusk turns to night. Their slumber (like ours) is different when it’s a cool night vs a warm night, just like us; we may toss and torn and throw covers off, or snuggle under the brisk night air as our REM takes over; vines react their own way to each day as well. I find this absolutely, expletively fascinating.

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If you could teach anyone in the world, who would you want to teach?

My daughter. To have her grown up in the ways of wine and learn that nuance (and balance) matters. Thus, “Yes but” and “It depends” are effectively always part of any answer or lesson in life, just like they are in wine.

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What do you think is the most unappreciated wine or wine region in the world?

Portugal, for dry wines.

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