April 8, 2014 – Denis Hoey, owner of Odonata Wines in Santa Cruz, has purchased Marilyn Remark Winery on River Rd. in Salinas and is moving his wine production and family south to the five-acre property in the Santa Lucia Highlands.
“This is the realization of a dream. It satisfies all the itches I have as a winemaker,” he said, emphasizing that Odonata’s Santa Cruz tasting room will remain open and that he’ll still make pinot noir from vineyards he manages in the Happy Valley district of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
“We’re not leaving Santa Cruz, we’re just growing. There will be Odonata north and Odonata south and I’ll still be in Santa Cruz two or three days a week, it’s not that far away,” said Hoey.
The popular winemaker had planned to move production to a warehouse in the Harvey West neighborhood of Santa Cruz, when he saw an ad for the Salinas property. It includes a 2,400 sq ft winery with tasting room, 2 to 3 flat acres where he plans to plant a vineyard and a home where Hoey and his wife Claire can raise their two young sons, ages 2½ and 9 months.
“This is the opportunity of a lifetime. We’re diving into it head first,” he says, adding that they’ve already started remodeling the River Rd. tasting room with the help of Soquel artist and antique dealer John Crawford. “It will look a lot like the Santa Cruz tasting room with pre-1900s wood and 
heritage stuff.” The new tasting room is expected to open by early July and will operate Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 5pm.
Marilyn Remark Winery will keep its Carmel Valley tasting room open until it sells out of its Rhone-style wines. Then its proprietors, Marilyn Remark and her husband, Joel Burnstein, plan to retire.
Hoey has already made syrahs with grapes grown in the Santa Lucia Highlands and looks forward to buying more grapes from vineyards near his new winery, especially pinots.
“Pinot has so many attitudes and expressions. I’m excited to be able work with a broader palette from two of the best pinot regions of the world,” he says.
“Santa Cruz Mountains [wine] has a lot of spice and I love the purity of the fruit from the Santa Lucia Highlands. They are two very different regions, but I respect both of them and I love the fruit from both of them,” adds Hoey.
The Sacramento native graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a business degree in 2004. He learned winemaking and has until now been making his wine in space shared with Jeff Emery of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards.
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
