When you think of visiting a winery, you might not picture a spot nestled between warehouses in Acton, but Marzae Winery is a hidden gem in an industrial area worth discovering. Eliot Martin and his wife, Kate Lucai, both 29, opened the winery last spring. It was the pandemic that sparked the idea. “I had already gone through my sourdough phase; winemaking was next,” he jokes. He had worked as a buyer for large food companies after graduating from Tufts’ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. To learn more, he traveled across Europe and the United States, learning from seasoned winemakers. In North London, he helped manage a vineyard for a year.
Now, Martin is crafting natural wines — those made without tinkering with the process, adding sulfites, artificial colorings, or sugar — in a room brimming with wood barrels, stainless steel and egg-shaped concrete tanks, and terracotta vessels. The ingredients all come from the Northeast: grapes from New York’s Finger Lakes, Vermont, and Southeastern Massachusetts, and local fruits. “We’re trying to be the ones to demonstrate that natural wines can be made in Massachusetts,” he says. A small counter doubles as a slip of a wine bar. Enthusiastic and friendly, Martin will guide you through a tasting. Be sure to try the S.nigra, fragrant and fruity with a crisp, dry finish, and the V. trilobum, a fun spritzy pink wine with notes of cranberry. The M. struthiopteris, a cider base vinified with Chardonnay skins, has flavors of tropical fruits. Each wine, with its lovely label, stands out, telling a story of its unique origin ($7.50-$8.50 for a 2-ounce taste; $13-$14.50 for 5 ounces). To visit or buy online, click on marzaewine.com. 55 Knox Trail, Ste. 407, Acton. Available also at Wine & Cheese Cask, 407 Washington St., Somerville, 617-623-8656; Formaggio Kitchen, 94 Hampshire St., Cambridge, 617-714-5758; and Volante Farms, 292 Forest St., Needham, 781-444-2351.
ANN TRIEGER KURLAND
Ann Trieger Kurland can be reached at anntrieger@gmail.com.