March 25, 2025 – In my three years in Santa Cruz, I’ve done my best to explore the local wine scene. One such exploration led me to the Margins Wine Cubby in the Swift Street Courtyard. Since first stepping into the 120-square-foot tasting space over a year ago, I’ve enjoyed sampling many of the wines that Margins owner/winemaker Megan Bell crafts.
Recently, I had a chance to go to the Margins production facility in Watsonville during the spring line bottling. Having never experienced winemaking, I was mesmerized. The fact that this was Margins’ biggest release of the year added to the excitement and to the task at hand: eight varieties sitting in enormous tanks waiting to be bottled.
As the process commenced, empty bottles vibrated and clanked on the conveyor belt before being whisked down the line, rising to receive the precious liquid before being corked, labeled, boxed and stacked onto pallets. Many hours and pallets later, Bell surveyed the scene. A bottling well done, and a spring release to be proud of.
True to Bell’s style, the new wines were all made with low-intervention methods and grapes from underrepresented regions and varietals. The results are delightfully balanced with compelling flavors across a repertoire of unique whites, reds, and a standout rosé/red hybrid.
After bottling day, Bell and I reconvened at the Cubby to talk about winemaking and her favorites from the spring lineup.
What is the story of Margins Wine?
I studied wine chemistry in college and then worked internships around the world all over California, Oregon, New Zealand and France. I moved back to California and to Santa Cruz 10 years ago and worked as an assistant winemaker for a few years before starting Margins as a label not a vineyard.
I made eight barrels the first year in 2016. Starting out I had like six part-time jobs—a busser, private investigator, house-sitting, tutoring, GIS mapping, anything I could do to buy food and pay rent and keep putting all the money from the wine sales into the company.
The year Covid started, James Jelks from Florèz Wines and I decided to move into our own production facility. That was a huge milestone for the growth of the business; we were able to double if not triple production.
Tell me more about your style of low-intervention winemaking.
The most important part of what we do is work with organic vineyards. The first year I couldn’t access organic Chenin grapes, but I made a mission in my head to make the vineyard [Wilson Vineyard in Clarksburg] organic…the vineyard manager, David Ogilvie, just didn’t know it at the time. Luckily, he became a great partner and friend, and he was willing to convert the five-acre block to organic.
For awhile, we would find non-organic vineyards and encourage them to switch. There were so many other people doing this at the time, I think collectively we made a big difference and probably changed hundreds of acres in California all together. And I’m glad that we were a tiny part of it.
How did the Cubby come about?
It’s always meant something to me to have a community space. I scouted this building for years waiting to see a suite open. It’s really cool to have finished a project and be like that’s exactly what I was trying to do.
Since opening in December 2023, the community’s response has been amazing. But the reason this is so successful is Melissa Russi, our direct sales manager. She has done an amazing job partnering with all kinds of local artists and creating a community space.
Let’s talk about the spring releases. What is a notable wine in the lineup?
When I first started, we only released in the spring so I think of the spring releases as the core wines of the company.
The Chenin Blanc, which is made with Chenin grapes from Clarksburg, is the only wine we’ve made every year and it’s what we’re known for. People like fresh acidic white wines. The Chenin is not too polarizing, which is why it’s a crowd pleaser. It’s not super heavy or aromatic, it’s just in the middle.
Are there any newer wines gaining popularity?
The Rosy Wake is a favorite and it’s something I’m particularly proud of. People stopped buying rosé in the wholesale market in 2022/2023. It didn’t mean people stopped liking rosé, but restaurants and wine shops stopped buying it. I made all of this rosé in vintage 2023 and my distributors weren’t buying it. But it was so good.
So I decided to change the nomenclature on the label from rosé to table wine and also blend red wine in so it could either be a light red or a dark rosé, depending on the buyer. It worked amazingly, and that product has moved very quickly wholesale and in the tasting room. And this is only its second year. Also, I love rosé so I’m glad we’re not ditching the whole concept entirely.
What’s the unsung hero of the lineup?
Our unsung hero is the Paicines Grenache. It’s hard to sell Grenache—they’re often watery because the grapes are grown in really hot climates in California and are often over-irrigated.
But this vineyard, Paicines Ranch, is farmed so meticulously. They’re the only vineyard in California to be able to run sheep year-round in their vines because they’ve trellised the vines up to about six feet tall. They practice something called high-density rotational grazing, which is one of the most important things you can do for soil health and build-up in regenerative farming.
So this is the unsung hero because there’s so much behind how these grapes are farmed. And I think the wine itself is just fantastic. It’s very concentrated in flavor, and not the least bit watery. It’s beautiful.
Margins Wine can be found at the Margins Wine Cubby, 402 Ingalls St. Suite 18 in Santa Cruz. For more information: marginswine.com
About the author
Ashley Drew Owen is a writer and Massachusetts transplant. Her passion for learning about local food is only overshadowed by her passion for writing about or eating it. Safe to say, she is a lover of food and words, and also driving very fast in the left lane.
