Meet Margot Mazur: Wine Grower, Wine Maker, and Wine Writer
This interview was published in the April 19, 2023 issue of Merobebe.
Margot Mazur
My name is Margot Mazur. My pronouns are they/them. I am a wine grower and winemaker out of Maine.
Merobebe
So first question to start things off: what is your favorite non-wine beverage?
Margot Mazur
That's an easy one. I drink so much kombucha. About 7 months ago, I had a really bad stomach ulcer and I had to go to the hospital – it was a whole thing. They were like, “Hey, how much alcohol do you drink?”
And I'm a wine writer, also. I write for Wine Enthusiast and VinePair and things like that. So I was like, I don't drink a lot, but I definitely drink every single day. Drinking wine is my actual job. And they're like, “Yeah, you can't drink every day. That's not going to work, even if it's like a little every day.”
And I was like, Shit. It's crazy because I always thought, Oh, a glass of wine a day with your dinner, it should be fine.
They put me on this wild diet, and “no alcohol” was part of the diet. So I ended up trying to find drinks that make you happy throughout the day that aren't alcohol based. I started drinking a lot of kombucha and there are so many different types of varieties and so many different types of styles. I found some really, really amazing ones that I love. I definitely have some favorites. Yesfolk is an amazing brand. They have some incredible kombucha that is super light, fresh, tart, and bright. And Urban Farm Fermentory here in Maine makes some great kombucha that I really love. I could go on and on with a bunch of recommendations.
It's been interesting to see, How can these beverages not replace wine for me, but how can they add to my drinking world when I’m pairing or when I'm having dinner, when I'm doing aperitifs or whatever it is? There's a lot more to our drinking world than wine.
Merobebe
What is your favorite food and wine pairing?
Margot Mazur
Excuse me for sounding so boring, but I think it has to be potato chips and champagne. It's such a classic pairing and a classic for a reason. Just the fat from the chips with the yeasty like toastiness, sparkly-ness of the champagne. It's just the most beautiful pairing. You don't have to wait for a special occasion. Just pop it, you know? It's a joy. I love it.
Merobebe
There you go! Okay, so I'm really curious to learn more about the winemaking area of Maine.
Margot Mazur
Maine is a very new wine region. Maine is not known for growing vinifera [wine grapes], right? Our vinifera is not going to survive so far in Maine, although folks have done some really interesting experiments with vinifera out here.
Mostly we are a hybrid region and grow a lot of hybrids. All of these hybrids do really well here because American hybrids are hardy. They're going to be more amicable to the cold, snowy conditions that we have. You don't have to rake them over, you can just plant them normally, which is really great. We have a lot of jealousy from folks in the Finger Lakes that have to dig over their rieslings, dig over their cab francs. We don't have to do that out here because hybrids are very hardy and tough. They are more resistant to fungus and disease, so we don't have to use many chemical sprays.
We have a really great natural wine community starting up here. A lot of us don't use any pesticides or chemical fertilizers or anything like that. We grow organically or biodynamically here, which with hybrids is a lot easier to do. But with climate change, we are experiencing some significant pressures. We're warming up quite a bit every year. It's very, very clear that with that warmth we're experiencing more fungus, we're experiencing more pests coming up from the south. We're about to get bit by the Lanternfly for sure.
We're all nervous about it. So in order to fend against that, we have to be more vigilant and more experimental in what we choose to add to the vineyard. A lot of us are experimenting with whey, with clay to fend off things like Japanese beetles or lantern fires, things that settle on the leaves and eat the foliage.
But with that, climate change is a blessing and a curse…It's mainly a curse. But there are parts of it that are interesting to us, right? Because with that warmth, we're starting to think about – is it possible to grow vinifera up here? Is it possible to plant some chardonnay? And in a few years, in ten years, who knows? We might be getting chardonnay grapes up here, you never know. So it's an interesting region. We're growing, but we're very small. We're a very tight knit community.
It's fascinating and interesting because we [winemakers] all have to adapt and we all have to be curious and be risk takers and figure out what the next step is. Because the climate that we are used to and that our winemaking forefathers, or whatever, are used to is gone and it's not coming back. We all have to be really thoughtful about it.
I really respect a lot of California and Oregon winemakers who have started to figure out, for example, do we harvest earlier outside of the season? Do we start making rosés and move forward from red wines - which is wild? Do we start doing distillates? Do we start doing vermouths? Do we start doing aromatised (note: a type of fortified wine)? How can we save our industry in a place where it's a new world right now?
Merobebe
What first interested you in wine and more specifically, natural wine?
Margot Mazur
I am Jewish, my family's Jewish, and so growing up we drank a lot of really horrible wine. Just terrible wine. And I was like, Oh, I must hate wine. Wine is bad, right? And then I ended up moving to Oregon and tried some incredible wines, and I was like, Wait, what is the difference between what I had growing up and what I'm having here?
And that started ticking. And that was also the time back in the day when Wikipedia got really big. I was like, I’m going to Wikipedia every single thing about this! I just started learning and learning about it, and it became more and more interesting because wine is so much more than a beverage.
It's the culture, the history, the environment, the climate, the soil, everything. There's so much to learn and it is constantly changing. I think there's a point where you see yourself only reading books related to wine, only doing things related to wine and you're like….This is it. I started being really interested in working with it and it kind of went from there.
In terms of natural wine – I'm a person who is really sensitive about what goes in my body. My body is very sensitive to the foods that I eat, my skin is sensitive. I'm just like a sensitive, physical person. Natural wine piqued my interest because when you're visiting wineries and you're working in wineries, you're seeing all of the different compounds that can go into wine and you start to think like, Hey, these additives, can we do without them?
And we can. And we have forever since the beginning of wine, so that is what really hit it home for me. We've been making wine for a thousand years and we didn't have Mega Purple back then, and we don’t have to use it now. That's why I'm focused in that area. But I also do understand, especially as a winemaker now, that it's not always possible to make a natural wine if you want to build a business.
Sometimes things happen. You have to use a little bit of sulfur, you have to use a little bit of bentonite (note: used for clarifying wine), or you have to use a little bit of yeast or whatever it is. I'm not going to be a dogmatic person about natural wine. I think that it is not a yes or a no. It's a flow that changes every year. Some people are more nothing [added] ever, ever, ever. And that's fine and I respect that. But I also understand that there is a balance and every year is different.
Merobebe
With climate change and the increase in fungi and pests, do you think it will affect the way natural wine is made, like with the use of pesticides?
Margot Mazur
It's very possible. Especially as a wine grower, you're able to see the bigger picture. If you get a huge, powdery mildew attack or something that threatens your entire vineyard and you're going to lose your one annual salary because of that, I'm not going to fault you for doing what you have to do in that situation.
I think that it is very subjective year to year, and we need to give growers a little bit of grace. Do I prefer it all being organic and biodynamic every single year, no matter what? Absolutely. But, you know, that's not reality.
Merobebe
What are some of the other challenges of making wine that is 100% natural, biodynamic?
Margot Mazur
Oh, my God, there's a million! I mean, we could talk about this forever. Anything could happen, right? Natural wine is a gift every year because anything could happen.
The natural yeast could not take. You could have a ton of volatile acidity. You could have your wine turn mousy. You could have brettanomyces [note: a type of yeast that can cause spoilage] that takes over. You could have a big fungus year, a big pest year. Anything could happen, so every year that you get natural wine that's truly zero-zero with organic biodynamic methods is a gift.
Merobebe
What do you think the wine industry can do to better address these issues of sustainability in winemaking? I know that's a big question…
Margot Mazur
It is a big question. I think that we have to work together more than we are now. I think that there are communities in the winemaking industry today that have really great collaboration, and there are communities that do not have really great collaboration. If we are to make it as an industry past this incredible challenge of climate change, we have to work together. We have to help one another out. We have to share our stories, share our successes, share our failures, share our tactics. We have to let go of some of our Legos, do you know what I mean? Let go of some of our precious ideas a little bit. And what I mean by that is – there's always the vision, right? Like with pinot noir. Let’s say you’re making a beautiful pinot noir right in the hills of California and everything is so beautiful and perfect.
We have to embrace French American hybrids across the nation. And I think that people are doing that more and more, which is incredible to see. These hybrids are more hardy, they're going to use less water. They're going to use less chemicals in general - fertilizers, pesticides. They're going to be more tough against whatever it is that this new climate brings us. They are different. They're not pinot noir. But this is still early stages in terms of hybrids, and the more people who are growing them and developing them, the more we'll get beautiful, elegant wines out of them in the future.
We need folks to look to the future of the vineyards instead of looking at, What can the vineyard give me this year? How can we create vineyards that stick around for a long time that have roots deep, deep, deep in the earth that aren't being watered, that are dry-hardy? All of that is going to be really, really important and it stems from communication. We can't do it alone. We have to work together and collaborate.
Merobebe
It’s interesting to hear you say we have to think about the future of the vineyards, not just what we can take right now. I chatted with the former part-owner of Joseph Phelps Vineyards who sold their winery to LVMH, and she mentioned how things are changing over in Napa. A lot of smaller wineries and family wineries are having to sell, and a lot of the private equity firms that buy the wineries just pump out as many cases as they can until there’s nothing left, then move onto the next one.
Margot Mazur
Yeah, I have a lot to say there... Napa Valley is gone. What Americans think of Napa Valley is not there anymore. There are a few people for sure that still have it. Like Cathy Corison, an incredible winemaker, has had her vineyards for over 50 years now. But yeah, it's crushing to see Napa being destroyed by corporations and private equity.
Merobebe
Last but definitely not least, tell us a little bit more about your newsletter, The Fizz!
Margot Mazur
The Fizz is a newsletter that highlights underrepresented groups in wine in America. Mostly women, LGBTQ folks, people of color who work in the wine industry. Not only winemakers, but farmers, folks who work in shops, folks who work in cellars, things like that.
For me, it was really important to start something like that personally because, again, that collaboration, that communication is so, so important. Having that knowledge from people in the industry who are incredibly knowledgeable but aren't heard – having that live somewhere was really important to me.
It’s been over two years of The Fizz now, which is really cool. I've learned a lot from a lot of different people and it has been really amazing to see the subscribers who are a mix of industry folks, winemakers, somms, and consumers really get a benefit from the answers that are being given – very specific stuff.
I like to ask folks very specifically, how do you make your wines? How did you meet your growers? What did you add to the soil this year? Very, very tactical questions where those answers don't really live in a lot of different places. It's hard for us to get that kind of tactical information, so it's been really great. I've had a really good time with it. I met a lot of amazing people.
Merobebe
And you also have a wine festival coming up, right?
Margot Mazur
This is my second annual Maine Wild Wine Fest. It's a wine fair held in Maine that has a big focus on American winemakers and American producers, especially those working with French American hybrids. It's going to be on May 20th. It's in this beautiful old 1800s barn right next to a state park. I'm stoked about it!
Read The Fizz here, and learn more about the Maine Wild Wine Fest here!