It’s every minor-leaguer’s dream: get called up to “the show,” lace up your spikes, and hit it out of the park your first time at bat. For Joel Burnstein and Marilyn Remark of Marilyn Remark Wines, the ballpark was actually the L. A. County Fair. More specifically, the 2003 Wines of the World competition.

Considered the country’s largest and most prestigious contest each year, Wines of the World is judged by a Who’s Who list of industry critics (Dan Berger, Narsai David, Holly Peterson Mondavi, and Rene Chazottes among them). Seven hundred wineries submit nearly 4,000 individual entries annually, vying for a wide range of awards.

Burnstein and wife/business partner Marilyn Remark weren’t exactly ready when the deadline for the 2003 competition rolled around. The pair had just begun producing wines a year or two before. In fact, says Burnstein, at that exact moment in time the couple lacked the license needed to sell their wines, and were still designing their labels and business cards. But on a whim, they sent off their 2001 Marilyn Remark Grenache to the judging panel.

“We actually shipped our wine in a bottle with a handwritten mailing label kind of stuck on the front,” recalls Burnstein, still shaking his head at the memory. “We didn’t think much more about it, assuming we wouldn’t exactly be taken seriously with that packaging.”

But a few weeks later, the phone rang. “A local wine shop here in Monterey County wanted to know how they could buy our wines,” Burnstein reports. “I asked the guy how he knew about us, and he said ‘aren’t you the people who just won Best Wine of the Competition at the L. A. County Fair?’ We had no idea that not only had we won a Gold Medal and the ‘Best Red Wine’ award for our Grenache … we’d won the whole thing! It was an incredible honor, and we were very surprised, to say the least.”
Making a Left Turn

So, how do a nice Jewish stockbroker from Chicago and his Minnesota-born, social worker wife become one of the California winemaking industry’s biggest success stories? For Burnstein, it began with a classic mid-life crisis.

The occupant of a seat on the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco, Burnstein typically traded his designer duds for biking attire on the weekends. While exploring the back roads of Napa and Sonoma, he found inspiration as well as escape, the long miles providing ample time to imagine a new, calmer career. His lunchtime stops also brought him into contact with many of the local growers and vintners, who eagerly shared their knowledge.

Eventually, Burnstein’s bike was parked at the proverbial crossroads. He could no longer ignore a calling for which he felt such passion, and in which he would be free – and encouraged – to express himself (a radical departure from his work in the financial salt-mines). Enrolling in enology studies at Fresno State University,WXPort Burnstein completed an internship at Sterling Vineyards (during which time his roommate was Mike Leven, now master winemaker at Mariposa Vineyards). After earning his degree, Burnstein swiftly rose to head winemaking slots at San Saba and Jekel (where he earned his first “Best Red” award from the Wines of the World competition).

Just as Burnstein’s professional life was becoming better defined, things were looking rosy on the personal side as well. In 1993, he found himself on the block at a charity “bachelor auction.” Marilyn Remark, seated in the audience, was too shy (or, as she now admits, “I was too cheap”) to make a bid.

One of six children raised on a farm in Minnesota’s Red River Valley, Remark holds Master’s Degrees in both Social Work and Human Resource Management. When not making wines, she oversees adoption and foster care programs in Monterey County.

Fortunately, Remark’s sister (who was volunteering at the charity event), was more than happy to engineer a date with Burnstein. The two quickly hit it off, and have been life and business partners ever since. They now make their home in Monterey’s Santa Lucia Highlands appellation with their two Golden Retrievers, Hogan and Snead (whose names reflect Burnstein’s other major passion).
The French Connection

In May of 2002, Burnstein and Remark took a vacation that was to prove pivotal in their careers. “It was a magical time,” Remark says. “The wines we sampled were amazing, like nothing we’d ever tasted. Oh, we had tried the classic Marsanne, Grenache, and Syrah varietals before … but we’d never experienced such vibrancy, and such depth of character. The wines were from small vintners who sell every bottle locally to friends and family. We knew then the type of wines we had to try to make.”

“California doesn’t need another chardonnay,” adds Burnstein. “We believed that if we could source the grapes we tasted, we’d really have something. From then on, we dedicated ourselves to winemaking in the Rhone style.”

First, there was one rather important item on the couple’s business agenda: what to call their company and their wines. “Joel Burnstein is not necessarily a great name for a wine label,” Burnstein laughs. “I have a degree in business, and I was pretty sure my name wasn’t going to be a huge draw. But Marilyn Remark … now, that name just flows. It wasn’t a tough decision to put her name on the labels.” (Their corporate entity has since been dubbed Burnstein-Remark Wines.)
Rhone-Style Methods Yield Industry Accolades

Since then, the pair has kept Burnstein’s winemaking philosophy top of mind. “Making great wine is a two-step process,” Burnstein explains. “One, get great grapes. Two, don’t screw it up!” True to his word, Burnstein says the fruit for their award-winning 2002 Grenache came from the small Wild Horse Road vineyard in southern Monterey County, where warmer temperatures are perfect for optimal ripening.

After hand harvesting, fermentation of the grapes began with traditional Rhone yeast; ten days of skin contact followed prior to pressing. Next, malo-lactic fermentation (courtesy of Vinaflora) was induced, then the lot was aged in small French oak barrels for fourteen months. Approximately 200 cases of the Grenache were produced. In addition to the honors earned at the L. A. County Fair, the Grenache landed a spot on Wine Enthusiast’s “Top 100 Wines” list.

The grapes that yielded the lush, lovely 2003 Marilyn Remark Marsanne came from the Loma Pacific vineyard in Monterey County’s Arroyo Seco appellation. Also harvested by hand, the juice from these grapes was pressed directly in similar French oak cooperage, and was 100 percent barrel fermented. After six months in the oak, 70 cases were bottled. This wine, too, proved to be a winner, earning both the Gold Medal and the Chairman’s Award at the Orange County Fair Wine Competition (not to mention an 89-point “recommended” rating from Wine Enthusiast).
Size Doesn’t Matter

Burnstein and Remark purposely keep their bottlings limited. They’ve just completed the construction of their tasting room, which sits on the property of the sprawling Salinas area home they are currently renovating. During the recent Great Monterey Wine Escape Weekend, Burnstein and Remark welcomed guests and discussed plans for their future growth. Here’s a tip: don’t expect to see thousands of cases bearing the Marilyn Remark logo anytime soon.

“For us it’s a passion, it’s something we love, and we don’t want to get so big that we lose sight of that,” says Burnstein. “At present we have no other employees. But we’re growing; we have distributors who have placed our wines at the Bellaggio and Ruth Chris in Las Vegas, and places like Boulevard and Gary Danko’s in San Francisco. So it will be exciting to see how things shake out.”

“We’re not wealthy; we can’t drink a $60 bottle of wine every night,” Remark freely admits. “But we’re proud of the consistency and quality of the wines we produce, and we always try to keep our customers’ point of view in mind. We are very passionate about what we do, and we want to enjoy life. At the end of the day, if you walk in the door and you haven’t had fun … what’s the point?”

Editor’s note: Further information about their wines made may be had by visiting www.remarkwines.com. More articles about the Monterey region and links to lodging and dining in the area can be found at the Resource Directory of www.tastecaliforniatravel.com.