Dear Friends and Club Members old and new,
I’m so excited to share news of something I have been deeply working on for the past eight months: Martha Stoumen Wines is now part of a new business called The Overshine Collective.
The Overshine Collective is a collective of six founder-led, California wine brands, aimed at building a new, sustainable way forward in the wine business. It’s the brainchild of founding partner David Drummond. The other founders of the brands—Sam Bilbro, myself, and Kelly & Noah Dorrance—will lead the company alongside David. The six brands are Idlewild Wines, Martha Stoumen, Reeve, BloodRoot, Overshine Wine Co, and Comunità.
While all of us partners will be working together to build the foundation of the collective, my team and I will be running Martha Stoumen Wines as before, along with a few positive additions. Everyone on my team was offered positions under the new collective. I’ll continue as winemaker and my long-time grape growers remain unchanged. In fact, my goal is to shed some of the tasks I held before (accounting anyone?) and double-down on my role as winemaker, as well as find more space to be a mentor for new faces coming up in the business. I’ll be moving winemaking to the Overshine Winery in Healdsburg, which is housed in two 70’s era geodesic domes (stay tuned for pics!).
Not to bury the lead, but the other extremely exciting news I have is 🥁…we are opening a tasting room in downtown Healdsburg! After eleven years, we will finally have a home to host you in, and we can’t wait. We’re currently in the build-out phase (Alyssa Julian is deep in design mode right now, and our newest hire, Mike Richardson—who will manage the tasting room—is quite literally on a ladder plastering walls as I type this). Wish us luck with all things permitting, prepping, upholstering, and plastering so we can properly pamper you sooner than later! You’ll be first to know when we set an opening date sometime this fall. I am so grateful for all of you.
I created this business to prove that there is a gentler way to farm grapes and make wines—an approach that creates wines that are exciting and worthy of accompanying you along your life. I am over-the-moon to continue this work, now with more support, and the thought partnership of an incredibly talented group of founders.
The team and I are looking forward to sharing more details and introducing you to new faces as this all comes together, so stay tuned!
With gratitude,
Martha
