There’s a black and white portrait in the Margerum Wine Company’s new tasting room in Los Olivos that leads some guests to assume its subject is no longer with us.
“I’m still alive,” Santa Barbara County-based vintner Doug Margerum said with a laugh, before shifting his gaze to another framed piece in the venue, among a row of landscape paintings.
“There are a couple little things that probably wouldn’t bother anyone else, but they bother me,” Margerum said about the interior of his new wine tasting space, which opened in early July in downtown Los Olivos. “That painting needs to be down an inch. That’s a huge problem for a person like me.”
If Margerum is as much of a perfectionist as he lets on, that would explain why his wine and food pairing suggestions taste as good as they sound. The intimate space is the first of its kind in the Santa Ynez Valley to pair sushi and oysters with both red and white wines on a regular basis.
Sushi bento boxes and Kumamoto oysters are supplied by Jina and Brian Bae, of BB Sushi in Santa Ynez, and are available to patrons of the new Margerum space as long as they place their order a day in advance of their visit.
Each bento box includes: fresh Dungeness crab baked with vanilla bean sauce and wrapped in soy paper; buri sashimi yellowtail with yuzu kosho, brushed with yuzu soy sauce; unagi sashimi; bulgogi grilled Korean spiced pork with sesame seeds and green onions, served with white rice; and bluefin tuna, avocado, shisho leaf, and umeboshi with creamy sesame sauce
“I think one of the greatest pairings ever is ahi or tuna with red wine,” said Margerum, who opposes the old myth that seafood pairs best with white wine,
The vintner’s stance is reflected in his recommended tasting of the 2021 Margerum M5 red Rhone blend to pair with the bluefin tuna. With the Dungeness crab, Margerum suggests a tasting of the 2019 Barden blanc de blancs—from the winery’s sister company, Barden, founded in 2014.
While the Margerum Wine Company, founded in 2001, makes its wines from grapes found in multiple AVAs, including the Los Olivos District and Happy Canyon, Barden exclusively uses grapes grown in the Santa Rita Hills AVA.
To pair with the yellowtail found in his tasting room’s bento box, Margerum recommends the 2022 Margerum Sybarite Sauvignon Blanc. With the unagi sashimi, Margerum suggests a tasting of the 2021 Margerum M5 estate white Rhone blend, and patrons are encouraged to try the Korean spiced pork and white rice with a tasting of the 2019 Barden pinot noir.
Margerum hopes his unique collaboration with BB Sushi—with as much emphasis on the food offerings as the wine—will help set his new tasting room in Los Olivos apart from similar outlets in the area.
“I came from a background of food and wine. I always think about food when I make wine,” said the vintner, who worked in server and chef positions at a handful of restaurants in Santa Barbara before becoming a business owner. “That’s the way wine should be drunk, at the table, with food.
“I’m actually convinced that people wouldn’t have as many horrible differences with one another if they spent more time that way,” added Margerum, who said he likes to conduct business meetings over a meal whenever possible. “We spend a lot of business time at the table. You tend to talk more, and compromise.”
Send something for Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood to read at the dinner table to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 6, 2023.