After more than a decade of cultivating a fervent following for her exuberant wines through pop-ups and events, winemaker Martha Stoumen finally has a tasting room to call her own.
A darling of the natural wine space, Stoumen opened her new tasting room last fall in downtown Healdsburg. It’s an intimate location that’s open late and ready to lure in both longtime fans and new customers.
For the Sebastopol native, a tasting room was a dream that seemed out of reach, but that changed last summer when Stoumen joined The Overshine Collective, a sextet of wine brands led by founding partner and investor David Drummond.
“I’m really excited to have this huge container for creativity,” says Stoumen, who calls the work to refurbish the space, previously home to other tasting rooms, a “home-grown effort” that included input from team members Alyssa Julian, who worked on design, and hospitality manager Michael Richardson, doing much of the buildout. Stoumen’s parents pitched in, too.
When envisioning her new tasting room, Stoumen drew on her own life experience, where sensory details are at the heart of her craft.
“I thought about the experiential side of drinking wine — not the taste or smell — but the textures, the lighting, the sound of the room,” she says, noting the goal is “to make people feel sexy and relaxed.”
Stoumen, who spent years abroad working harvest, yearned to create an environment where guests feel transported — whether to a European café or a place that she calls “intangibly familiar.”
“I love spaces that feel both comfortable and familiar, even though you’ve never been there,” she says.
Ambition achieved. The tasting room is undeniably inviting, with cozy seating areas grounded by redwood trim, burlap, and cork paneling. The copper tabletops, which gleam like new pennies, will develop a patina over time, yet it’s a detail Stoumen embraces.
Unlike many tasting rooms that close before the dinner hour, Stoumen’s tasting room offers something for night owls, taking tasting reservations until 9 p.m. on weekend nights.
Wines are offered by the glass, flight, and bottle. Flights feature six tastes which might include Italian varietals such as Nero d’Avola and fan favorite Vermentino, as well as blends of both French and Italian varietals with cheeky — sometimes romantic — names like Post Flirtation Red and Honeymoon, a marriage of Colombard and Chardonnay. Stoumen makes nearly two dozen wines each year, so guests can expect something new and interesting on each visit.
Ready-to-serve food items are also available, with a menu that changes regularly.
“In the beginning, we’ll offer a little bit of ‘choose your own adventure’ to see what people gravitate towards,” says Stoumen. “We want to see what the community wants and needs. That’s most important.”
325 Center St., Healdsburg. 707-473-8266, marthastoumen.com
A longer version of this story was originally published in October of 2025 in The Press Democrat. Read the full, original article here.