Marimar Estate wins Best Pinot Noir Award at the Master Winemakers 100 2024
Cristina Torres, General Manager of Marimar Estate in Sonoma County (California) and fifth generation member of the Spanish vintners Familia Torres, was recently recognised as one of the best winemakers in the world and winner of the Best Pinot Noir award as determined by the Global Wine Masters, a series of competitions run by industry leading publication The Drinks Business. The 2024 edition of the report featuring the 100 top winemakers and individual award winners was released in February, during the Master Winemakers award ceremony at Wine Paris – Vinexpo.
Cristina Torres was named among the very best producers of the year following Marimar Estate’s success at the Global Wine Masters competition. Each contest focuses on a specific variety, style, or iconic region, ensuring a rigorous approach to identifying the best wines of the year. Entries are tasted blind by a panel of expert judges, mostly composed of Masters of Wine. Marimar Estate La Masia Pinot Noir 2019 was named Best Pinot Noir after winning a Master medal at the Pinot Noir Masters 2023 – the highest possible award in the competition. According to the rigorous judging criteria, a Master medallist must be ‘an outstanding example of its type, showing impeccable winemaking’.
Patrick Schmitt MW, editor of The Drinks Business and Chair of the Global Wine Masters, presented the awards, and was keen to highlight the hard work of the individuals responsible for making outstanding wines. "Essentially, this guide is designed to shine a light on those talented people who toil deep within the dark environs of the wine cellar," he stated, introducing the Master Winemakers 2024 report. "It is a way to raise the profile of the people behind brilliant wines – many of whom are personalities that, in our view, don’t receive enough recognition."
Cristina Torres said: “It is an honour to be featured in the 2024 edition of the Master Winemakers Top 100 and having won the Best Pinot Noir award. This is a great recognition to all our team, and especially to my mother, who was determined to pursue her dream of having a winery in California and crafting exceptional wines. The first vintage of our Pinot Noir was 1992 and this is a wine that never fails to impress us, even 30 years out”.
Marimar Estate La Masia Pinot Noir 2019 originates from Don Miguel Vineyard (named after Cristina’s grandfather), in the Green Valley, the coldest and foggiest area in Russian River Valley, less than 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The vineyard was planted in 1988 and produces extraordinary fruit that gives rise to a wine of refined elegance and complexity, boasting layers of berry and jam flavours, velvety tannins and hints of vanilla and spice.
