Stirm, Pajaromas Vineyard Vermentiño - 2025
Fast Facts:
Winemaker(s): Ryan Stirm
Region: Watsonville → Pajaro Valley → California → USA
Classification: Santa Cruz County
Varietal(s): Vermentino, Albariño, Furmint
Terroir: River floodplain soils, dry-farmed bush vines. Ocean-cooled climate.
Serving Temp: 50-55°F
Ryan Stirm went to Cal Poly to wrestle and picked the wine major as an afterthought. He thought it sounded fun, and a couple of the guys he grew up wrestling with had already signed up, so ... it stuck. He tacked on a soil science minor, worked harvests in Australia and Austria, then spent four years as the assistant winemaker at Tyler Winery in Santa Barbara County, a job he landed after meeting the owner while out rock climbing together.
He started his own label in 2013 and built it on vineyards planted decades before he showed up. In 2021 he added to the splendor and planted a vineyard himself, a small two acres behind his winery and alongside the Pajaro River. Pajaromas mashes the river together with Aromas, the little town the winery calls home. This is strawberry and lettuce country, with soil far richer than vines typically get and kept mild by the Pacific. So Ryan gave every vine ten feet in each direction, skipped the trellis, skipped the irrigation, and let each one grow into a big free-standing bush.
Ryan planted three grapes on those those two acres, and planted them completely mixed together. Vermentino from the Italian coast, Albariño from Spain's Atlantic corner, and a little Furmint, the incredible grape behind Hungary's Tokaj. "Vermentiño" is Ryan's spelling, Vermentino wearing Albariño's squiggle! Cute. Everything is picked by hand, pressed right away, and fermented in old barrels where the wine stays for most of a year. These barrels are old and long past tasting like oak, but certainly offer some width.
Why'd we pick it?
Most of what Ryan is known for comes old vines. Riesling planted in 1965, and red grapes that have been in California ground since the 1800s. He calls wine like that living history, and Pajaromas is the one bottle where he's standing at the very start of it. Some beautiful poetry in there. The first harvest made a mere 25 cases, the second made 112, and this is only the third wine these vines have ever produced. Back when they were still babies, he told a local reporter he couldn't wait to taste what they'd make, and we get to find out pretty much alongside him.
Field Notes
- Tastes like: Lemon peel and white peach with some mid palate green almond, sea salt, and a waxy round vibe on the finishing texture from all that time in barrel. Dry and bright, with a pleasantly bitter snap at the end.
- Serve it: straight from the fridge is great, but don't rush the drinking. The texture shows up as the glass warms, so swirl it around.
- Food Pairings: Shuck a dozen oysters and serve with some finely diced apple in cider vinegar, which will smack the saltiness of the wine. Bitter greens and soft cheese will love the almond snap on the finish, so bake a chard and ricotta tart if you're feeling fancy, or just load them both up on some sourdough toast. For snacking, castelvetrano olives and a wedge of pecorino.
